Laurel, Florida

10 species day while in Florida for cousin’s wedding! Picked up some shrimp from a local baitshop. Used the rental minivan to haul a clunky kayak from the Airbnb to a nearby launch point. The shrimp resulted in few species and a bunch of fish right out of the gate. Around 10 crevalle jacks, a couple pinfish, a few mangrove snapper, and a few little gag grouper. As much as I enjoyed the fast action of the shrimp, I was kind of relieved when the last of them was eaten and I switched to earning bites with artificials. I focused on working the docks and shore structure with a 3” paddle tail. About 10 minutes into working the jig, I flipped it under a dock and BAM! The fish I was looking for! My PB snook. Since I was C&R only today, I quickly released it after a picture. I then pulled out my tape measure and laid it where the snook was across my lap a moment earlier. It had to be at least 27”, so I’ll call it that. Slot here is 28-33”, so it might have even been low-end slot. Nothing major as far as snook go, but I’m stoked with the PB. You can see the look on a passing fishing boat captain’s face behind me in the photo. As the afternoon wore on, I picked up a couple more jacks, another grouper, and a redfish (species #6). Toward sunset I worked the south jetty (which is apparently closed to foot traffic), as the north jetty had at least 100 anglers on it. I picked up another nice snook; I’m guessing 25 inches. Casting accuracy and lure finesse were rewarded, as the fish were not in the main channels during the day. It required enough guts to cast under the docks of $15 million houses, and alongside the half million dollar boats parked at them. Speaking of six-figure fishing boats, there were a lot of them out there, yet I didn’t see another angler working the inner shoreline like I was… until another fishing boat drove past as I was landing my second snook. Suddenly I had some competition on that shoreline, LOL. I met my family for pizza on the beach. As I was walking over to meet them, I noticed a school of pilchard that had been beached by a wave. I scooped up a few handfuls and tossed them in the pocket of my swim trunks. (No I didn’t count them among the 10 species for the day). After dinner, I paddled back out with a headlamp to try the evening bite in the bay. I put the pilchard on a google-eye jighead, and that proved to be a winning combo. The ladyfish (species #7) were especially feisty, and are probably the most difficult fish to handle in the dark, LOL. I caught several and struggled to even get one decent photo. I caught a speckled trout (species #8) to make it a “Florida inshore big three” day (speck, red, snook. But no tarpon to make it a grand slam). The hardest-fighting fish of the day was probably the aggressive sail cat (species #9), which may come as no surprise to south-coast anglers. I’ve even seen them slam topwater poppers. I followed that up with a hardhead cat (species #10). I finished the night with a decent redfish, a bit bigger than the one I caught earlier. I thought I got a pic of it, but alas — my slime-covered hands (thanks ladyfish and sail cat!) apparently botched it. As a Colorado trout fisherman, I relish the opportunity to catch anything in saltwater, and this day was a big success by that measure. With happy exhaustion I drained the water out of the kayak’s hull (I’m lucky the leaky vessel didn’t sink), hauled it back to the Airbnb and cleaned it up real good for the next guest. And yeah, I reported the leak to the manager. I used my new Kapstan Elite 3000, which was perfect for this day. On other days, I fished a couple of gulf-side beach sessions (spin casting) without much luck other than ladyfish. I lost multiple lures to sharks, which would have been fun to catch. If I get to fish there again in the future, I’ll bring some heavier gear and wire leaders!

3 snook in one day😄

Hungry snapper

What species is this really?

Lady fish caught by a lady fish-ing #fiesty