Hi,
Twas early in the month of May, when all the flowers were budding,
Sweet William on his death-bed lay, for the love of Barb'ry Allen.
Yes- it's the month of May, maybe not so early,
And all the snook are back, it seems they're shallow surely.
So what goes 'round, comes 'round and it looks like the snook are back from the inlet (spawning?) after disappearing since the middle of March. My neighbor and I headed to Walton to try our luck. It would be hard to beat yesterday and that 25 lb. snook but you never know what may happen.
Fishing Report Walton Road, 5-16-15 11:30am, Walton Road. High tide outgoing, wind 12-15 mph out of the east. Water cloudy, some waves and breakers. Fished 1/8 call jig, two colors of paddle tails.
We cast our way to the sand bar and fished the deeper water. It was windy, with the wind blowing in our faces for the 4th day in a row. The call was for an occasional shower, but it never rained. We fished 15 minutes- nothing not even a strike. Had the deep trout bite disappeared? My neighbor fished shallow after about 20 minutes. Finally almost 30 minutes after getting on the water I hooked a trout. The fish was fairly deep and came up and shook. I had it well hooked and before log it was swimming over to me. This wasn't big, maybe 16", but it was bigger than the trout I'd caught the last two days.
We both fished over to the 3rd weed-bed in front of the first pier. My neighbor would cast deep, then shallow too. When we got to the first pier, I decided I'd go try it. I hadn't caught anything off that pier for a month, but I was primarily fishing deep and had only fished it twice that month. My first cast wasn't good, I missed the pier pilings by 6 feet, but it didn't matter- fish on.
It was a good fish but I had no idea what it was, it didn't jump-- but it did swim back under the pier. Fortunately I was ready for that and horsed her back out and she never really wrapped a piling- lucky. After I got her out from the pier, she swam and ran a couple times. I puller her up- a nice snook- not big and she let me scoop her up and unhook her. She was about 3 1/2 lbs and lip hooked. I showed her to my neighbor and quickly released her.
I went back and finished fishing the pier- nothing. Now we were both fishing shallow. we skipped the short pier and headed for the long 3rd pier. I fished shallow and my buddy fished deep. He hooked a snook off the end of the pier, it jumped and threw his bait. The fish wasn't big- maybe 3 lbs.
"Two piers, two fish," I called to him. We headed for the fourth pier, he was fishing out toward the sandbar and lagged behind. I went shallow again leaving him the deep end of the pier. The fourth pier is wooden, has a boat lift and a couple lines hanging into the water. I'd lost a big fish there before when I got my line busted off. I had also lost a big fish that came unhooked. From around and under the pier I'd caught one trout and two snook, one a slot limit.
I threw some good casts under the back-side of the pier- nothing. I stayed put casing the back side until he finally got close to the pier. about my 12 cast I got a strike and when I set the hook the fish took off just flying- but went away for the pier. I put some pressure on and waded away from the pier toward open water. It was very shallow maybe 3 ft. deep and weedy. Then the fish jumped completely out of the water, a big one- at least 12 lbs. it ran north for 60 yards pulling drag and then went shallow. The grass was piling on my line from both those runs. I pulled her close then she ran out but was tired out some and I reeled her down. Before I reached my hand down to grab her I pulled some weeds off my line - she was four feet away turned on her side- my line broke. She didn't break it was just worn out from catching so many fish- I should have retied before I started. This was my 2nd biggest snook she was a catch with a net so I'm not sure whether I can count her or not. at any rate she was gone and I had to retie.
We were both stoked that the snook were shallow and we headed for the spot within a spot in front of a clump of mangrove trees. There was still 3 1/2 feet of water where we stood. 'This is the place we caught those snook before," my neighbor commented. I said "Yes, that was when they were shallow in March." Suddenly my neighbor had a fish on- and it was a good snook. I jumped and headed away from the shore. He turned it quickly and then it headed straight for us. I missed his feet by inches and turned before she ran straight into me. he did a complete 180 turned and the fish was back where he hooked her. A splash and a half-jump later he puller her in, this was a nice slot fish probably over 30" and maybe 6 lbs max.
He said he wanted to catch a trout so we went back deep. We fished the deep area past the third weed bed. On my third cast I hooked a little trout and it popped off before I could unhook. We made it back to the third weed bed. I hooked a nice trout about 18" and he had to unhook it with his pliers because the lure was completely in its mouth. A few casts later he missed a fish and then I got a strong bite. After I set the hook the fish pulled drag twice and then came off. What was that!!?? I wondered. Anything that could pull drag that far out was a good fish.
A few casts later I had a bite and set the hook- fish on. It didn't come up like a trout but I thought it was a nice trout. When I lifted it up it was a 2 lb catfish!!! Worse than that- I couldn't get it unhooked. I brought it over to my neighbor who had needle nose pliers and he got it off. "Disgusting!!" he said.
We started fishing our way back and then the wind blew- it really blew and it was almost impossible to fish. I caught my fourth trout and thought it was small but it was a good 16"er. My neighbor still hadn't caught a trout- "I'm troutless," he said. We fish a couple more minutes in the 20mph wind and got out. We had fished for 3 hours! Our total: 4 snook, 4 trout, and 1 catfish.
Until next time,
Richard
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