It's Tuesday, the 11th of June 2002 at 6:00 in the evening.
The forecast called for cloudy skies and a 60% chance of rain in
the late evening. Tide was outgoing and ripping from an extreme high
tide.
Winds were out of the SSW 5-10mph.
It's been awhile since I have updated the Night Blasts Reports and I
wanted wait until I could put out a high quality report. Here it is and
try not to get to excited. We were literally shaking when we finally
landed these fish!!!
To start out the trip we had a few bait left over from the grouper trip
I took earlier in the day. However, I knew it wouldn't be enough, so we
went to the 3rd span of the Causway to get all baited up with the 10
foot BaitBuster castnet. Bait was all around but we had trouble
corraling it. The tide was flying out of the sound and I don't know if
a 30lb. lead weight would have made it straight to the bottom, much
less a 10ft castnet. Eventually we were able to get 3 good catches in.
The last cast netted about 150 threads which enabled us to fill all
three livewells. Time to go catch some fish.
In a matter of minutes we were anchoring up on our favorite grouper
hole. Unfortunately, the anchor did not want to hold up to its name
"anchor" I have to get a new one. It is just to frustrating having to
reanchor 4 and 5 times. Finally, we managed to get anchored and the
anticipation was thick enough to cut with a knife. An hour later and no
bites whatsoever the anticipation was gone. The tide was ripping so
fast, I am not sure the fish could even see our baits scream by them.
We decide to move on to the harbor. Cory did not want to leave, he kept
seeing Tarpon roll at the grouper spot and wanted to hook one really
bad. I convinced him it was time to give those Mogan snook a shot.
As we pulled up to the harbor, Cory baited his rod with a fresh thread
and dropped the trolling motor. Lenny and I baited up while Cory
trolled us up to the first hole. I tossed my bait up into the snooks lair, Cory
picked a spot further to the right, and Lenny threw a little to the
left. Slam!!! Fish On!!! Cory is hooked up with the first Mogan of the
night. Cory pumped as hard as he could in order to get that fish away
from those pilings, his drag was locked down, and he was going punch
for punch with that snook. About 3 minutes later we managed to get a
boga grip on him. He was one huge Racing Mullet, the Boga Grip had him
weighing 13 pounds. If you take a hard look at this pic, you will
probaly think he weighed much more than 13 pounds. Maybe my Boga Grip
needs some lubrication or something.
You wanna know something, I didn't think it was fair for Cory to get
that huge snook. He didn't even want to go there in the first place. I
guess when you got it, you got it, and he has been on a hot streak
there for a while. We had several hits over the next 30 minutes with
all of them ending up as breakoffs or hookpulls. Now it is my turn to
get one of those bad boys out. Thump!!!Snook On!!! He hit me and I hit
him back. He came skying out of the water and back down again for a
little tractor pulling. I would pump him out and he would head for the
pilings. Once I had his head turned he made a mad dash right for the
boat and the next thing I knew I was fighting him under the
BackCountry. I soon had him to the side of the boat and boga gripped.
That Mogan went ??? See if you can guess the weight on him.
After 6 or 7 more breakoffs we decided to hit one last spot before the
ride home. It was 10:45p.m. and the tide was nearing a stand still. I
actually like to fish this spot the most when there is a very slow
moving tide or no tide at all, because I like to use the trolling motor
to fish it. Cory had the first bait loaded and ready. He tossed it into
the corner and Bam!!!Racing Mullet On!!! The snook made a mad dash
towards the pilings and Cory pumped feverishly to keep him out of them.
Guess what? Cory won the battle and in 3 minutes total we had him boga
gripped and posing for this picture. My boga said he weighed 11 pounds,
but he fought like a 20 pounder. Again, I am going to have to check
that thing out.
To conclude, we had a great time. All of us were going home tired from
fighting multiple fish and the best thing about it, we managed all this
action in a very short time. Nights like these are what makes Night
Blasts Trips so great. If you ever get a chance book one the experience
will live with you forever.
Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and drag
screaming action!!!!
