Some inconsiderate person blocked the path down to the water, assuming no one else would need to get down there. I inspected the gap on the left side of this vehicle and thought I just might be able to squeeze by it with my kayak loaded on its two-wheeled cart. Fortunately, I made it.
Once out on the water I saw that it was really a remarkable day. Almost no wind at all, cloudless sky, low humidity. Couldn't ask for better weather conditions.
I began by trolling a Mirrodine lure behind my kayak up to where Blind Creek begins to narrow. I made sure to work over a mangrove point from which a snook darted out last week to snatch that very same lure. Well, that fish wasn't in residence yesterday.
I continued on down Blind Creek out to its mouth and then beyond into the main Indian River. I had no action whatsoever for the first couple hours and was beginning to think this might be another skunk of a day. But then while casting a deceiver fly in some stained water I hooked up with my old friend Jack (Crevalle). He was only a pound or two but I was glad to see him.
The wind picked up just a bit and so I switched back to the Mirrodine, which would be easier to toss beneath the mangrove branches. I was casting from only about 15 feet out from these mangroves and tried hard to "knock wood" - actually hit the bowed mangrove roots with the lure. I saw a fish flash but I thought it might have only been a mullet. I threw the lure in that same spot a second time and something came out and swallowed it. I figured it was a snook, given that it had darted out from heavy cover and snook are known as ambush predators. It tried to scoot back into the mangrove roots but I tightened down the drag on my reel and managed to pull the fish away from shoreline out into open water. Fortunately, my knot and 12 lb. test line held and after a struggle I was able to bring the fish up alongside the kayak. No snook but a redfish!
With that encouragement, I kept knocking wood for the next hour or so with my Mirrodine. I flashed another fish at one point but he didn't actually strike.
Later in the afternoon I caught a nice sheepshead in the 2-3 pound range. By then, the tide was in and there was very little room to slide a lure between the water surface and the overhanging mangrove branches. Throughout the afternoon I saw lots of surface action and tried to entice a strike with a popper fly. But unlike last week, no ladyfish rose to smack it.
I fished until around 4:30. Whoever had blocked the path to the water with his vehicle had left for the day, so I had no trouble getting back up the path to my car.
Here's some video I shot yesterday: http://youtu.be/_nrNIJ3JNGE
No comments:
Post a Comment