My Memorial Day fishing trip

[Rik]

I couldn't find anyone to go off the beach for tarpon so I'd made plans to go for a long walk in the woods. When I woke up and looked outside, my mind was changed when I realized I'd have to unload the boat in order to go for a walk. The easy route was to fish instead of walk. I fished.

Barnacle and I left the driveway with one place in mind but somehow my truck turned left instead of right. Okay, we'll go to place B. After my truck turne the wrong direction a couple times, I ended up at Buttonwood Harbor hoping I wouldn't run into the dreaded dolphin round up folks that Manning encountered.

I only took one picture the whole morning and, as DaveR might attest, it is entirely too juvenile to post on this highly esteemed forum so you'll just have to take my word for it when I tell you it was an absolutely beautiful day - one that makes you proud to live in the best damn country in universe - made that way, in large part, by some damn fine men and women in our armed services who stand up and protect our right to have a lazy day fishing without any fear and plenty of cold beer.

So, off we paddle to my favorite super secret spot that no one knows about.......except the 3 guys who are in it. Okay, at least they're in kayaks. Off to super secret spot #2 with the same result. Hmmmmm, someone has been giving out my super secret spots. If there are people in super secret spot #3, I might just have to start sending out nasty text messages. My buddies were saved a digital onslaught when spot #3 was vacant. No fishermen and no fish.

Normally by now my arms would have been so tired of pulling in fish from my 3 super secret spots that I'd be considering calling it a day but without a single tug on my line, I went searching. It wasn't long before I found trout. And more trout. And then some more trout after that. All of them in the 16-18 inch bracket but fun none the less.

As I set myself up on a long wind drift - the direction of the wind and the flat combined for a wonderful 1 mile drift across patchy grass and sand with varied depths as I crossed channels - I notice a popping cork off in the distance. I figure I'll grab it once I get down that way but first let me reel in the fish that just hit my lure. Thinking I had one of the larger trout that have been making a showing lately, I played it gentle hoping to not rip its lips apart so it could come home for dinner. Turns out to be an upper 20's snook. Now that was a surprise out on this flat.

The next surprise was the popping cork that defied the 10-15 mph breeze and was somehow drifting up wind. Having seen this once or twice before, I got my rod with a spoon on it and started casting. On the third cast I snagged the line just below the cork and reeled in a sailcat. After I released that catfish, I think I heard him say thank you.

For the next hour or so I continued to drift and found 4 reds and fed jerk bait tails to the hordes of pinfish that came back with every cast. We've been having a hard time finding pinfish off the beach but now I know where they all are. BTW, everything I caught yesterday was on the Riptide 5" Flats Chub in Firefly on a 1/16 oz. Mustad Power Lock weedless hook. I tried spoons, topwater and a couple other colors of shad tails but the Flats Chub was the only thing that caught fish. Went through a bag and a half of them due to the other things out there turning them into 3.5 " baits.

As I made the turn to start working back to the launch, I found myself in the lee of an island and was stand paddling my Ultimate when I saw THE SNOOK. That snook was huge. I think it saw 40" on its birthday 2 years ago. One of those "is that a tarpon?" snook. I made a cast and in a 'heart skip a beat' moment, it made a turn on my lure. This is when you start thinking about the 20 pound leader, the line to leader knot that has already had 1,000 casts, the little frayed part in your main line and the reel that has been acting a little funny. She didn't pursue but it did catch her interest briefly. I manage to get another cast off at her and again she turns but doesn't attack. By now I can't really see her so I cast where I think she is and I was exactly right. I landed the lure on her head which resulted in a super sonic blast across the flat leaving a wake that would rock a boat. Sadly my line wasn't going with her.

I used the islands for a windbreak to make the paddle back easier and managed a couple snooklets on the points of the islands along the way. Met a couple kayakers along the way and we exchanged fish stories. Also found a Momma manatee with her 3 foot long youngster. When the youngster showed interest in us, Momma gently used her girth to redirect the baby away from us. Good to see the Mother teaching her youngster well.

I ended the day back at the launch happy, exercised and very grateful that the men and women of our armed services - past, present and future - would do what they do to give me the freedom to have days like yesterday. Our freedom is a wonderful gift. We should thank those that provide it and do everything we can to make it grow.

[Tide1on]

Excellent post

"Thank you!" to all the men and women who have served and currently serving for our freedom.

[Heywood]

Did Barney "go for a swim"?

[Rik]

Did Barney "go for a swim"?

Twice.

[Manning]

Great post. I don't think this post will do anything to reduce the traffic up there, but knowing where to launch and knowing where to fish are two different things.

[DaveR]

A lovely picture it was. I'd share it but it somehow was deleted from my phone. No need to resend it Rik. The memory of it is burned into my brain.
On another note I heard the bacterial count in Buttonwood Hbr. is a bit high. Might want to wait a few days for this unexplainable spike to work it's way out.

[YakHead]

Great report! Thanks for sharing

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