Saturday, May 10, 2008

Explorations in the Unfolding Heat of Summer....

As I write this, the heat of the afternoon sun is an outdoor microwave basting from our boldly molten lemon-colored bully in the sky- El Sol.

But yesterday, the dawn skies were cloudy and accompanied by strong southerly winds that gusted to 20 m.p.h. It seemed a very poor choice to me to go bonefishing in South Bay, but the low tide and wind direction made the North Bay options limited.

Since my fishing muse had reached a kick-in-my-pants level of insistence, I headed out for new areas. This is a practice I'm ambivalent about, since there's a good deal I could learn-especially on a low tide-but I might also go fishless.

Bu the time I'd scouted and fished about two miles of mangrove and urban shoreline of flats, holes, and artificial reefs, I'd released a moderate-sized mutton snapper, three dog or cubera snapper (not mangroves or schoolmasters), two barracuda, a huge lookdown, and a small snook.
I also discovered a massive concentration of glass minnows that were probably gobbled on the midnight high tide that would mark the transition from yesterday to today.

I'm pleased at the prospect of dining on sauteed snook a la putanesca with rice tonight, but I'll be dreaming of distant shores where living under the same sun and moon may feel different- Bonaire, Belize, Roatan, The Carib Coast of Mexico, and Trinidad would all seem very fine to me.


Jan Maizler

http://www.flatsfishingonline.com/
http://www.fishingfloridasflats.com/
http://flatsfishingonline.blogspot.com/

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