That won't happen again!

I set out this morning for a nice paddle out on Lemon Bay. I got out right around sun up and was delighted to find one dock light still on upon my arrival. I promptly caught a small snook to get the skunk out of the boat. My focus today was to target a new shoreline I found on accident a few weeks ago. It was holding some snook the first time I fished it, and I figured it might be a good spot to add to my Lemon Bay arsenal. Today, it was holding some fish, but not as many as I was hoping. I caught a few small snook using DOA shrimp as well as topwater lures. My first 6 fish of the day were snook. Unfortunately I didn't catch any more snook after that and none of the ones I did catch were larger than 20". I decided to move along and let the wind push me alongside a mangrove island with some deeper water. I continued casting the topwater as I was getting hits on almost every cast. Most of the action was provided by ladyfish. I like to let them run when I do hook them, as they are very good at throwing the hook and put on an impressive aerial display. As a result, I can often hook and lose multiple fish on one cast. Today, however I had an interesting scenario play out: I hooked a ladyfish, fought it for a few moments, it spit the hook on a jump, and almost immediately upon the lure landing back on the surface of the water a bluefish inhaled it. These fish are a fun surprise every now and then in Lemon bay and the surrounding waters. They fight hard and are very willing to take fast moving lures.

After a few more ladyfish, I let the wind push me on over to one of my most consistent spots I have in  Lemon Bay. This spot has provided me with some of my biggest trout, my largest pompano to date, a few decent snook, and my two largest redfish. It seems to always provide me with at least something, and today it was full of surprises. After a few casts, I had one of the most exciting topwater strikes ever as a redfish breached the surface to hit the top side of my spook. I lost that fish unfortunately, but it did alert me to a successful pattern. That fish responded to a consistent retrieve with a short pause, and hit on first movement after the pause. I used the same tactic on my next cast and caught that redfish's little brother.

It wasn't a huge fish by any means but did manage to take quite a bit of drag off of my 4000 size Shimano Spheros. It had a lot of energy and I wound up almost 25 yards down the shoreline before I managed to land it. He measured in the upper end of the slot at 24". Excited about the pattern I had just found, I paddled back to make another drift. I immediately began to have very odd strikes on my topwater. The wake from whatever was hitting it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was nervous it was a cormorant and I would be in for an unfortunate struggle with the pesty aquatic bird. However, a few casts later, one of those wakes turned into a ferocious hit and a very interesting battle. Much to my surprise, on the other end of my line, was a sheepshead. Until today, I had never caught a sheepshead on an artificial lure, and absolutely never expected I would ever catch one on a topwater lure. Sheepshead have a diet that consists primarily of crustaceans, and are generally extremely selective with what they eat. While easy to target with a live sand flea, fiddler crab, or a piece of fresh shrimp, they are incredibly difficult to trick with artificials. 

I wound up catching two of these bruisers and losing another. The larger (on the left) was over 20 inches and is now the largest sheepshead I have ever caught. The smaller (bottom right) was a respectable 16". After some closer observation, I realized the sheepshead were nipping at pass crabs that were floating out with the tide, and they must have mistook my lure for a floating crab. That would also explain why the two I caught hit as the lure was drifting freely when I paused my retrieve as opposed to hitting it while I was "walking the dog" or otherwise imparting action on the lure. I was absolutely shocked to catch these fish and highly doubt I will ever catch another on a topwater lure!

After the sheepshead bite subsided, I found steady trout action and was able to catch about 10 fish to 16 inches on DOA shrimp and topwater lures. The rain pushed me off the water early and I was home and cleaned up to watch some afternoon baseball games at 12:30.

Tomorrow I will be trying to dodge the rain while targeting bluegill, and Friday I hope to try a new area in saltwater. Until next time, keep those rods bent!