It's Saturday the 9th of February 2002 at 7:30 a.m.. The forecast called for an approaching mild cold front which is forcasted to pass through by midnight. Mean low tide at 12 noon and winds out of the NW 10-15 mph.
Saturday's trip actually began on Friday night. We had to catch some white bait from the yacht club pier in order to have some livies for the Peace River. We threw about 30 casts on an incoming tide and managed about 45 nice fat white bait. The boat and bait are loaded and we are headed to the peace river by truck. The ramp is about 35 miles from the house and I was anxious to get there. We arrived around 8:30 and were fishing one of my favorite spots in the area by 8:45. The tide was moving well but it was not as favorable as a strong incoming would have been. We fished the area for about 20 minutes before any real action. I got a trout about 13' on one of the white baits. Next we got several bites in the area but nothing seemed to hold on to the bait. The fish were probaly small and couldn't eat the whole bait which caused the missed hook sets. Not long after the trout, Brandon the rookie of the trip got the largest fish of the day on. However, it took him a while to realize he had a nice 26 or 27 inch snook and when he put pressure on the fish to keep him out of the pilings the line broke. I told Brandon I would mention him in the report and he knew why. He said: "is it because I was to lazy to rig my rod with a leader?" Of course it was and we all have to learn from our mistakes and I think Brandon did.
Next we left that area and went to my second favorite spot in the river. I love the way the banks and the current are at that spot. If I could find a spot in the Everglades similar to that area, we could hook some of the biggest snook, jewfish, and grouper in all of florida inshore waters. Enough dreaming, after fishing for 30 minutes the spot only managed one 22' snook. Off we went to the power lines to soak some white bait there for a bit. About 5 minutes after we pulled up a big snook slammed a bait that we chummed with. All three of us tossed a frisky whitey in the area. Nelson managed to get the bite and with the bite came a 23' snook. 15 minutes later all we had seen was a couple of large garfish and off we went to the next spot.
I decided to give the 75 bridge a shot. The tide would not stop going out and it was getting close to 12 o'clock and we were running out of time. The bridge had some current moving through it but no action. After 30 minutes of dragging our baits in around and through the bridge pilings we decided to leave and head to the Shell Creek area. We found one huge snook in a residential canal that we went in to get us out of the wind. The fishe literally jumped us and then it tried to eat Nelson's zoom while it was only halfway in the water. And then!!! nothing!!! We spooked him and he was gone.
Finally, we took into consideration the extremly low tide and the prognosis for the amount of time it would take the river to fill back up with a strong NE wind and we decided it would be better off to call it a day at the Peace River and go back to the Caloosahatchee to relaunch the boat. In order to catch some bait for a little Night Blasts action. [Any of you who read these reports are probaly saying: you drove 70 miles round trip and instead of going home and getting some rest you relaunched the boat and went right back out?] Well yeah that is who I am. I enjoy fishing greatly and to learn and do well is my goal, I always will attempt to achieve as prosperous of a fishing day as I possible can. Anyhow, back to the report, we arrived at the yacht club ramp around 3:00p.m. and off we went to catch some bait for the late evening and night. Go to the Night Blasts Reports page and click on the first report if you would like to find out what happens next.
Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and drag screaming action!!!!
