I finally "hooked up" with Jim Bohrer, President of the Stuart Rod and Reel Club. He took me out in his boat, Thursday, April 30-- he wasn't planning on going but I contacted him Wednesday afternoon and he was ready to go out on the water.
Being a novice fisherman in the Lagoon, it certainly was a great learning experience for me-- Jim has been fishing the Lagoon for 17 years and I've been fishing it for 4 months. Jim is "The Trout Man" and he truly knows where to go and how to catch them.
Jim Bohrer, with a 25" trout he caught (Click to enlarge)
Fishing report, 4-30-15, Round Island (between Fort Pierce and Vero) East side. (I'm not going to reveal any of Jim's spots but I will generally describe them). We left before 7:00 AM but had to wait on a train (which stopped on the tracks and went backwards at one point!!!) so I'd say we went out about 8 am and started fishing around 8:15 on incoming tide, 15-20 mph wind out of the NW.
We went south and started drifting across a shallow flat off a point with weeds. It was dark, windy, wavy and overcast and it rained lightly off and on some of the day. Jim was fishing a swim-bait and literally caught a trout (speckled- sea trout) on the first cast. I started fishing left handed with my bait-caster but he suggested I switch to my spinning rod. While I fumbled around he caught three more trout, then I hooked one and it came off.
I think he had caught 5 trout in 10 minutes before he asked to look at my rod and reel. He tried casting it- then he told me what I needed to do- get better equipment. My old worn out reel was shot from the salt water- I knew it. This is what I learned 1) my tackle was too heavy 2) my reel was worn out, and 3) my rod was too short. So he let me use one of his rod and reel outfits --it was considerably different.
At this point Jim had caught about 8 trout and I finally got one to the boat. We release all of our fish and he has a fish dehooker that looks like a robotic arm-- in seconds the fish is off without having to touch the fish or pull him over the boat.
We caught around a dozen trout before Jim caught the biggest on the day, a 25" trout that was skinny but long (see pic above). There were bigger trout there and Jim saw a 28"er follow his swim bait near the shore and-- a whopping 30"er struck while he was pulling up a small trout!!! Jim has caught dozens of big trout, many over 10 pounds and his biggest a monster at 12 lbs 2 oz. Woah. This dwarfs all my trout and my biggest is a 5 pounder caught at Walton in January.
After catching nearly 20 trout and one jack and one bluefish we headed for a different spot. We went further south and fished teh other side of the point, then motored around to a shallow ledge along some mangroves to try and catch a redfish. Suddenly Jim had a big fish on, he said it felt like a redfish and it was fighting. I pulled up because the fish was circling the boat. At fist it went to the deeper side then around the drift sock and back under the boat. Jim put his rod all the way under the water to keep the fish out of the engine. After a 5 minute fight he finally pulled it up- it was a big Jack, around 7 pounds. It fought for 30 seconds more before he unhooked it and off it swam.
The wind was really howling and it was starting to rain. We went back to the honey hole, the tide which was high slack had started to go out. The fish were still there. I hooked 3 or 4 pound ladyfish that leaped out of the water several times before I brought it to the boat. Jim was busy, running the boat, fishing, unhooking fish and complaining about the wind. I was just happy to be fishing.
I was getting the hang of his rod and reel and the light jig on light 8 lb test line. I was starting to keep up with him when he got tied of fighting the wind - so we stooped around 12:30, fishing about 4 hours and 20 minutes.
He keeps track of the trout we caught and the number was 28, we lost quite a few, I lost the first three I had on!!! I'm not sure of the count but Jim caught around 20 trout and I guess I caught eight. We also caught 4 jack and two ladyfish. We never hooked a big trout but the 25"er was a dandy!!
I went home and went to Bass Pro Shops where got a 7 1/2 foot rod and reel combo, some 10 lb braided line and 20 leaders. I also got some 1/8 oz. jigheads and a few new swimbaits. I was eager to try out my new tackle (see next post for what happened on my next fishing trip.
TY Jim, you da man!!!
Richie
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