I took an old friend from Tampa Bay Area yesterday and here’s his report. We had a great time but he’s a much better writer than I.
The Grand " RUBBER HOOK " Slam !!! ( or ) Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight !!
Well Insiders, today I fished with an old friend who recently moved back to Florida after being gone for apprx. 6 years, Insider Shannon McNally was kind enough to have me on the bow of his recently acquired Waterman. I haven’t fished the Banana river in at least 12 years & Shannon wanted to check out some areas he used to fish. Here’s the tally for today; 1 Slot Snook, 1 Slot Redfish, 1 Slot Trout, 2 Juvie Tarpon. That my friends was the RUBBER HOOK GRAND SLAM of the day. The Snook hit, made a run, jumped, ran for the Mangroves & ptooie, popped the 20# leader. The Red hit, made several attempts to get away to no avail UNTIL Shannon says, " I’ve got the net ! " that’s when Ol’ Red hears him, turns it’s head & swims away with nothing but his freedom. Shannon says’ Throw into that little space, there could a Tarpon in there. " One cast, BOOM, Juvie #1 smashs the bait, takes one jump & ptooie, spits it back. Tarpon #2, whacks the lure, spits it out , saying " not today !! "We round a point & doink, I get a head shaker Trout & actually get it to the boat & land it. Going to an area that looked really promising, here comes Flipper & instead of pestering us in the boat, it heads straight to the spot & blows the whole area, nailing a Redfish & that was it for the day. Now here’s the DON’T bring a knife to a gunfight tutorial, I grabbed two rods at the house thinking I had a 20# braid/4000 Fuego for fishing Mangroves & docks & a 6# braid/ 2500 Fuego for Trout. Well, Mr. Magoo here picked up the 8#/ 2500 Fuego by mistake & therefore, had two knives & NO gun. We had a lot of laughs, great fellowship AND…
we see a boat a short distance away & I see a distinct pattern on one of the fisherman’s shirts, it was Insider @Phil Roe. We shared a little fish talk & off we go. We see a Pontoon boat in the distance in an area Shannon wanted to fish but, went to another spot. the pontoon had moved a bit so we proceed to go around it & lo & behold, it’s Insider Tony DiLella putting the hurt on some fish. Three boats in the whole wide expanse of river & all three had Salt Strong Insiders on them. It’s a FAMILY thing as they say !!!
