Armed with six dozen live shrimp and a well full of threadfins, Matt and I fished the mouth of the inlet at first light. A few juvenile tarpon were rolling and the occasional shark sky-rocketing along the current breaks of both jetties promised a great start to the day. The first few live baits were greedily eaten by tarpon looking to be in the under thirty pound class. A jump or two was all Matt got before the hook was thrown.
It took me a minute or two to settle Matt down and ensure him he was doing nothing wrong and tossed hooks are a normal part of tarpon fishing! It took more explaining how the next several live baits which were devoured and resulted in screaming drags, more pulled hooks and bitten through leaders was also normal! All in all the thirteen bites he experienced in our first hour plus netted him no landed fish and I could feel his frustration.
We spent the next hour working our way west through the inlet as the incoming tide finally started to subside. We had no more activity until we reached a favorite seawall and dock. I rigged a live shrimp on a light jighead and tossed it out to the end of the dock; handed him the rod and asked him to reel slowly and just try to keep up with the slack line as the shrimp drifted back towards the boat. Only a few turns of the handle were necessary before Matt set the hook and the drag started complaining. His first snook of the day eventually came to net and was quickly photographed and released; now Matt was smiling!
As the tide slowed to a crawl Matt caught fish after fish, including three species of grouper, two different species of snapper, sheepshead and others. Once the tide turned the water got dirty and action stopped.
Eventually the debris in the water cleared and I setup on another favorite spot. Even though the bite started slow I decided to stay here and it paid off in spades. A half hour of casting without a bite turned into thirty minutes of mayhem as Matt connected on three more snook. The last snook ate our last live bait and proved to be in the slot, a bonus to an already great adventure for Matt!
Until Next Time!
Capt. Mark Wright
