See “What Happens”

Kim shows-off the first of several trout we caught near a mangrove shoreline!

Guides often get charter requests where the client doesn’t care what we target. I find it refreshing and always enjoy these trips. It’s not unusual for me to start with a simple jig or spoon and see “what happens” and it gives me a few minutes to assess the clients casting abilities. If the jacks, ladyfish and trout are active, we might stay with this routine. If the constant casting is bothersome for the clients we’ll change up and grab the live shrimp rods and go “old school”, in essence, feeding the fish.

Dave kept a handful of sheepshead, then left them biting as we switched gear to try for tripletail!

Recently, I received a request to target sheepshead. Not my first request for these tasty striped critters, but the first in a long time. I replied to Dave that his request was perfectly timed and ensured him we’d be able to catch a few and maybe more than a few. Though the bite started slowly as we waited on the tide to get moving, it only took a very short time to catch enough fish for a couple of great meals. I was surprised at Dave’s request to stop catching convict fish and try for tripletail instead.

Off we went, leaving the sheepshead biting hard, to inspect every crab trap buoy and channel marker in our immediate area. We failed a boating any trips, but Dave did get bit a couple of times and he even saw the flash of one of the TTs that bit his live shrimp.

So, in one half day charter, my client learned a whole bunch about targeting two completely different species of excellent table-fare fish. I hope I didn’t teach him too much, I’m really looking forward to fishing with Dave again!

Kim and I scouted the backwater jungles of North Fort Pierce recently. The snook we were hoping for were hiding way back in the mangroves as is typical during high water periods. We did manage several spotted seatrout that were stacked up along one particular mangrove shoreline. They eagerly ate our
Zman four inch Diezel Minnowz in a variety of colors!