I yesterday was hit and miss, today was more of the same- mostly miss. At least finding the fish was tricky. I only found fish in one area and I met a new fishing buddy, Al, who has been fishing the lagoon for many years. The only unusual event-- there was a small school of manatees swimming off the last pier. They were just hanging out there. I've included a fishing report from my fishing buddy, Bob Murray at the bottom of the page.
Fishing Report 7-24-15, Walton proper; 6:10am Tide was almost high outgoing, almost no wind, then wind from West. Throwing 1/8 Cal jig with paddletail.
I went out just before sunrise and started casting in shallow water. I hooked a nice slot trout around 17" after 5 minutes and pulled him over, took a pic but the pic missed the fish!!! At that point I took a pic of the sunrise:
Today was like yesterday, nothing was biting and I had to find the fish. I looked to the South and I saw another guy wading-- right where I was catching fish yesterday!! As far as I could tell he wasn't catching anything. He started wading South past the last pier where a small school of manatees were swimming around. I headed South behind him to see if there were any fish there today.
The guy wading went out from the last pier and I went over to talk to him. His name was Al (for Allen) and he was fishing a DOA shrimp. Al said he didn't catch much yesterday so I showed him what I was catching them on. He changed to a jig and was fishing deep and I went shallow to see if the fish were still around the last pier. The manatees had moved out from the pier and were swimming around in circles. At end and both sides of the last pier there's a shallow flat with some weeds - that's where trout have been the last three trips.
I cast shallow and on the second cast hooked a wild, jumping lady fish. After three or four jumps she came over and flipped off near me. I went down and fished around the pier for snook- nothing. I cast back to the shallow flat and wham!! trout on!!! I wheeled the small trout around to me and it flipped off. Next cast, trout on!!! I pulled him to me and unhooked him- my 3rd trout, small about 12". I called to Al who turned and started fishing the shallow flat- he immediately caught a small trout South of the last pier.
I found a spot North of the pier in shallow where their were multiple fish. We both hooked and released several trout in that spot. I took a pic of a small trout that went South in front of the last pier:
We caught a few more trout and headed out to try a few deeper spots. There was nothing in my favorite spot and I went deep looking for trout but found none. I caught my 10th trout as we waded back north and lost my piers trying to get it unhooked. I sat around talking to Al until after 9:00. He caught a nice Lane Snapper (they're small in the Lagoon, this was around 10") which he kept for lunch.
I headed off the water, I had to go to Orlando.
My totals: 10 trout (one nice slot, the rest small) and 1 ladyfish. Al caught some trout and a nice snapper. A slow fishing day on the water.
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Bonus Fishing Report from Bob Murray: 7-24-15 Fort Pierce- Surf
I went to Fort Pierce Inlet last Friday morning at first light to fish the beach with my 9 wt. rod, stripping basket and Clear Intermediate Sink Tip Line. As I was casting along the beach, suddenly there was a big commotion followed by a big splash only 15 feet in front of me. Fortunately, I had just stripped in my line and was ready to cast. I quickly lobbed the baitfish fly to where the splash was and stripped it twice. BAM!! When I set the hook, the fish took off for the Bahamas like a torpedo and in about 2 seconds I was watching my backing disappear off my reel. This is the biggest/strongest/fastest fish I've ever fought on a fly rod. According to my fish identification book it's a Little Tunny. The book says this fish can swim up to 40 mph. I believe it. It was a 15 minute Battle Royal that I didn't think I was going to win for a while. I was just getting ready to break it off so it wouldn't spool me and take my line and backing, when it finally stopped and I was able to start gaining line. It made three more runs before I finally got my fly line back on the reel. I didn't know what it was until I beached it. I thought it might have been a Shark, big Snook or Redfish. I never would have guessed a Little Tunny (also known as a False Albacore and referred to locally as a Bonita). I'm definitely going to go back to the jetty soon. This fish was the real deal!
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