I love Florida

[lizardsrule]

Well it was a interesting day on the water today. My normal fishing buddy had to work until 12pm, so I was all on my own for the first part of the day. After discussing a close place to where he was working, we decided on Tomoka River. I hit the water a 6:15am, and decided to work on some Snook, and Redfish for the am, since it's about a 45 minute boat ride in my boat, to where he was meeting me, which is way up the river, where there is more fresh water. Hooked into a small mangrove snapper shortly after launching, and then was working a secluded cove, where houses and boat houses were abundant. Have you ever made one of those casts, that hits on top of someones Metal Boat house roof, rotflmao. Not only did I but they were out on the deck and I heard them start moving towards the boat house. You see I was quite aways away, and was not in sight yet. Needless to say I felt STEWPID, and started casting the other way, but kept coming. No sooner did the guy get in view, then BAM, a nice 26" snook decided to take my offering. Needless to say he watched me land it and never said a word to me. I was hoping for dinner, but for those of you who don't know it's 27" minimum Well I then starting working my way up the river with no other fish. He arrived on time, and I decided since we were in my boat, then we were gonna go way, way , way up the river, in some serious skinny water, since we always are in his 19' Champion. Well when I say skinny water, it remained pretty much 3' deep all the way, but I was bobbing and weaveing in and out of laydowns, overhangs, shallows etc... You needed something like my boat or a kayak to get into this place. Well within about 1.5 hours of fishing this creek, because it was not a river anymore, we had caught approx 12 bass, and 1 mudfish, the biggest bass being approx 6.5lbs. It was super skinny, otherwise would've been around 7.5lbs. And yes I caught that one. Well on our way back through the jungle, the thunder was heard in the distance. We fished for a little while longer, then I dropped him off where I picked him up, because I had a 45 minute boat ride back to the ramp, and I really didn't want to be running it in a lighting storm. So flying back to the launch, the storm seemed to follow me and slowly keep gaining on my speedy return I was probaly about 10 minutes from the launch when sprinkles hit, and lightining was visible. I happen to be right at a major bridge, so instead of keep running, I decided to sit under the bridge, and hope it passed quickly. Well it never hit, and the sun came out So on to more fishing. I then went on to catch a Jack Cravelle, and then hooked into a monster snook, it may have been too big. Well it jumped once and my jaw hit the deck, then it jumped agian, and broke off my 50lb powerpro braid, and swam off with my plug. Well I kept fishing, caught another small snook, 2 lady fish(not sure of the real name), and a gar. I caught seven different species of fish today, a really nice bass, and had a nice snook, and lost a monster snook Man I love Florida, just think I can fish all year here too I was hoping to hook into a Redfish, but not today Loaded the boat at 7pm.

Lizards

[Christopherkeene9]

Hey mon be careful with the snook. They're closed until September 1st and then they new regs are 28" -32" slot with a bag of one. Along with needing a $2 stamp. But I'm sure you knew all this already

Nice day though and yes it is called a lady fish (looks like a mix between a mullet and a tarpon).


Christopher

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by Christopherkeene9

Hey mon be careful with the snook. They're closed until September 1st and then they new regs are 28" -32" slot with a bag of one. Along with needing a $2 stamp. But I'm sure you knew all this already

Nice day though and yes it is called a lady fish (looks like a mix between a mullet and a tarpon).


Christopher

Nope I didn't know the snook was closed, heck it just opened up Glad it wasn't big enough now. Thanks for the info, I would not want to be "BREAKING THE LAW" I guess I better go the the Florida regs, and reread them again, thanks Chris that could've been very bad.

Lizards

[islandflyfisher]

Sounds like an awesome day!!!

That is a very nice Snook. What where you fishing with?

One more question... How does anyfish break 50 lb test?

[Grudzilla]

One more question... How does anyfish break 50 lb test?

Either at the knot or another weak spot in the line. Any line will break if its been sitting in the sun or has sat a while with a sharp bend in it. However, my guess is with the snook the line got hung up on a gill plate, those things are sharrrrp.

Remember, 50 pound test means it can support 50 pounds of force, not neccesarily weight. That force can be exceeded easily with a tight drag and a few head shakes. Plus there are many weak spots such as knots or frays that dont support quite what the line is rated for.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by islandflyfisher

Sounds like an awesome day!!!

That is a very nice Snook. What where you fishing with?

One more question... How does anyfish break 50 lb test?

The lure was a Floating Twitch Bait, made by Mirror Lures. It's a basically a jerkbait without a lip. As for how it broke the line, probably my mistake for not retying. The bait gets wrapped up in the hooks alot, so it was probably nicked. I have broken off 50 lb test before on fish, lots of reasons it can happen, but doesn't happen all that often. Almost never in fresh water, but a lot more often in salt water. There has been 4 times now a "BIG" fish has broken me off in the last year. Also remember there are barnacles, oysters, bridge pilings and other sharp obejects they can use to cut the line.

Lizards

[Christopherkeene9]

That's awful if it breaks 50lb. PP since it doesn't break until over 100lb.

I would say a fray in the line.