Saturday, May 31, 2008

Snookish Serendipities.....

While awaiting the arrival of the open bay summer tarpon, I've been grinding away at the snook.
My last outing by boat verified that the linesiders were hitting live shrimp 10 to 1 compared to artificials.

So I'd contacted a local tackle shop as to availability. When I was told there were lots of the camarones, I arranged for a pickup later. While I historically should have been mindful that the operator was subject to inaccuracy, I ignored my usual OCD approach and arrived to a "we've run out" situation.

Rather than miss my tide by driving to South Miami for shrimp, I endeavored to use my most effective artificials on the fish, but the sad reality is that compared to Charlotte Harbor, our snook population and habitat is tiny and the fish are pounded to death. In short, artificials for snook in Miami does not produce decent numbers of fish.


Somewhere between that moment and arriving at my boat, I discovered about 100 live pilchards for sale strictly on the basis of having done things differently than had I obtained the shrimp. Getting underway on a snook trip with this kind of bait in my livewell left me with a buoyant optimism- which proved well-founded three hours later with the release for four big snook, two barracuda, and loads of big jacks.

Jan

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