Here goes...
After many long hard nights of shrimping followed by sleepy days of checking our blue crab traps and sitting in our favorite crab honey hole throwing out bait on string lines for catching even more blue crabs, Capt Hook (Real name Terry, my best friend, my husband, my partner in crime) was ready for some real fishing! Apparently a man can only take so much crabbing and shrimping before he feels the need to go stalking some reds via push pole or teasing some trout with a popping cork. So one morning he got up early to make coffee and after he stepped outside for a moment he came back in all worked up and told me to get out of bed fast because we were going fishing! I was groggy and not moving so fast but he was not relenting so I gave in and got up. His excitement was the result of finally witnessing a calm morning after too many consecutive windy mornings, windy afternoons, and windy evenings. Lately it had been rare that the wind would lay down as much as it had that morning and he was itching to get out there and spot some reds in the glass like water. We had to get out there before the winds showed up again and whipped the waves into a frenzy and made it impossible to spot them.
So we got ready in record time and took the shrimping gear off the boat from the night before, grabbed the fishing poles and our other fishing buddy (Princess) and headed out. We crossed the channel and made our way around to a shallow lagoon on the back side of a nearby island where we had heard reds had been spotted on several recent occasions. Before we got too close Terry shut down the motor and we poled the rest of the way with our homemade pvc push poles that Terry rigged up for us. With the motor trimmed up and trolling motor out of the water the boat easily drafted in about 8-10 inches of water. Way cool! So just a few moments after we arrived and started poling around the shallows we saw the tell tale sign of a fish tail bobbing in and out of the water. Just one tail but it was enough to get both ofour hearts racing. We were finally sneaking up on a red! We are newbies to this kind of fishing and this was the first time we had actually seen a red since the time last May when we went out with a fishing guide. Terry has wade fished for years and caught reds wade fishing or off the boat, but this sight fishing was new to us. It really is hunting, stalking, and stealth on water and it had our adrenaline going.
We were still out of casting range so we slowly, quietly poled a little closer. We didn’t dare talk in a normal voice or make any noise that would scare our prize so we whispered quietly to each other, barely moved, and hardly breathed. We were careful not to splash when we poled or make any unnecessary noises as we got closer and closer. It was right in front of us tempting us like a carrot dangling in front of a horse. We got as close as we dared then Terry grabbed a pole and put a shrimp on the hook. Now for the cast. We knew it had to land several feet in front of the red, but not too close to spook it and not behind it. The water we were in was maybe 10-12 inches deep and crystal clear with still not even a ripple to be seen. Terry cast the line and it landed in perfect position. Nice! Now we just needed to say a few little fishy prayers and hope the red would find our bait. I'm not sure what that red was eating on, but whatever it was it must have been really good because he didn't move towards our bait at all! He stayed in the same spot, tail bobbing up and down mocking us and it seemed to be saying “Here I am but you can’t get me”. So Terry grabbed another pole and cast another shrimp. But this time the shrimp flung itself off the hook. Terry tried to reel that line in to re-bait it but there was a heavy weight on it and in the process the red got spooked and took off like lightening. The water was so shallow the wake the fish left behind looked like a torpedo slicing through the water. It was the coolest thing ever! We could no longer see the fish but we could see the torpedo trail for a long ways as it sped out of the lagoon. We didn’t catch it but the thrill of the chase was awesome and although the fish wasn’t hooked, we were and we were on the prowl!
So we grabbed our push poles and headed towards the other side of the lagoon where we had seen some signs of activity. As we got closer we realized there was an entire school of reds tailing there. Not one, not two, but probably at least 8-10 reds in what appeared to be a feeding frenzy and finger mullet were jumping like crazy. There were also several birds dive bombing the shallows to eat. All good signs. The water was a little deeper there but still shallow enough we could see the tell tale tails. We poled within casting range and the school didn’t even flinch, just continued tailing. We cast 1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines in perfect position. With shrimp, shrimp and crab on our lines, we laid out a delectable red smorgasbord waiting to be eaten. Now it was up to the reds but we needed a little patience too. My mind was silently repeating "Here fishy fishy! Come to mama!" as I willed them to take our bait. Well try as we might, and we tried mightily, those reds would not take our bait. We didn’t spook them and we had the three lines in various places which in theory should have been perfect spots. Two were on the edges of the school and one in the middle. But after about 10-15 minutes of waiting the reds finally disappeared into the deeper water and swam off. SO CLOSE! But I guess the saying is close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. We didn’t get any reds that morning but we had one of the most exhilarating mornings on the water since we first found the crappie forum in the fall of 2011 and got advice from the Professor (Jamin696) on how to troll for specks. Finding this forum and all the nice people on it resulted in us learning how to properly troll the old creek bed on Lake Manatee last winter and we caught gaggles of crappie almost every time we went out after that. This thrill chasing reds was like that thrill learning to troll only minus the fish… lol. I guess it's a good thing we have plenty of shrimp and crabs to eat. The fish will come eventually as we learn more about our prey.
Now you may be disappointed with the ending after all the buildup but don’t be because more than half of the fun of catching is the chase. And the chase that morning was incredible! The fish didn’t get hooked but we did and we can’t wait to get back out there on another perfectly calm morning and give it another try.
Happy weekend to everyone and FISH ON!
Ginny
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