About 170 years ago, the catchphrase (+-) was "Go West Young man" to capitalize on the new found mineral abundance, hopefully, discovered in California. Well, although not a young man by birthdate, nor located in California, I did choose to come to Florida's West coast to accustom myself to Florida's way of things.
I have been relaying info on my fortunate opportunities in the Ozello region, but decided it was time to "head South old man", Homosassa to be specific. Some basic similarities but the offshore mangrove islands make this a great opportunity to hopefully show some skills.
My first, considerably inshore, cooler spot was assigned to a beautifully colored stout 21" Speckled trout taken on a Chartreuse 'lil John.Attachment 304386
Offshore spot checks yielded trout and a bone jarring, unyielding opponent dressed in 6 lb. Jack Crevalle attire=fire up the smoker, baby.Attachment 304394Attachment 304395
After doing an offshore spot assessment with modest success, I chose the numerous red mangrove islands as my gold-sifting venue. My 1st, you gotta be kidding me lazer cast, produced an immediate strike which was an undersized, out of season Snook.Attachment 304387Attachment 304388 Three casts later produced another wrist-breaking strike that made the drag sing but unfortunately the behemoth was headed for "quiet time alone" = inside the entangled red mangrove root system. Nothing I could do but refresh myself with the "fish prayer" and cross my fingers on my non-rod hand! I could see this substantial UFO(unidentified frying object,lol) thrashing significantly up inside the root maze. I carefully motored up in the 6 inch shallows and noticed that my 15 lb/8 yellow braid had sunk into the limestone encrusted bottom, key strategy here is to release all rod pressure, keeping fingers tightly crossed, still praying. All is good, a 26" out of season Snook, laying patiently confused with my hand lip-landing and subsequent glamour shots before being properly released.Attachment 304389Attachment 304390
A little later, same bait, yielded a beautifully proportioned, orange hued Redfish that easily made mid 20" range, but after a substantial battle the piscatorial combatant won out as I discovered his net allergy. Sorry, no pic.
Later on my palm-sized pinfish below a float alarm went off to yield another cooler invitee...delicious black-tip shark.Attachment 304391
On the way back to the barn, I "sifted" another inland spot to yield a healthy 15" flattie destined for table-fare after cool down time in my REI 45L.Attachment 304392
Actually caught and released 3 Snook in their more preferred warm water temp(83).
All in all, another blessed Florida water park "GOLDen" opportunity reward.
u2s
