2/22/17 Port Orange Snook After Dark Part 2 (in The Rain)

Checked the weather report and it said rain and some intermittent wind gusts all day...LET'S GO FISHING??? I haven't fished in the rain for quite a while but I know that it can turn on the bite at times so I gave it a go...

Decided to give some of the areas I had been targeting lately a break to let the fish settle, I think rotating spots is good for the fish and fisherman! I set out for some old familiar stomping grounds looking for Tarpon primarily, I've been reading that the rain can really fire them up. Launched around 5:45pm, tide/water was high-ish...can't really say where in the tide I caught it exactly because I didn't check my tide charts before leaving the house but I'll guess that it was the end of the incoming. I didn't get a single bite for hours, well into sundown. The rain was unrelenting, the air temps in the low 60s and no rain gear...shiver me timbers I was cold! Brrrrr "Well, I didn't come all this way to get wet and go home skunked" I thought to myself.

Finally, I found some fish that would cooperate! The mullet pods started to push through after sundown and I even saw a few little 5lb tarpon breaching through the bait pods...not takers today though. To be continued I suppose.

I don't know if I posted this already here on the forum but I have a love/hate relationship with the DOA Baitbuster. I've always LOVED THE way they look in the water but I've never been able to get bit by anything but a few small trout and a very tiny snook or two in the past. I had it in my mind that I was going to throw this dang lure all night if I had to in order to build some confidence in it...I know a lot of guys swear by these things for big snook and tarpon, so I forced myself to give the bait a real chance. (Most of my experience in the past was with the Shallow Running model, I picked up some 5/8oz Deep Runner models to try this outing)

Well, these things do not seem to catch everything that swims like the DOA Shrimp or 3" CAL does but I feel like the bigger fish will absolutely hammer this thing! What a great feeling after hours of ZERO ACTIVITY to suddenly feel that jarring THUMP...the second she ate I could tell that it was a big snook, so I set the hook firmly but went really light on the drag to wear her out slowly on my ultralight tackle...20lb braid/20lb mono leader on an ML Ugly Stick! She did a lot of bulldogging but not a lot of jumps...maybe only one or two. She finally gave up the battle and I was able to land her despite my leader being frayed to bits. Finally got my camera mount on my yak but haven't quite got the angles right...really hard to do in the pouring rain too!



She measured about 31.5-32", safely revived and released. Caught on a Silver Glitter/Black Baitbuster reeled slowly with no jigging.

A few casts layer, I get this unbelievable wind knot/rod tip birds nest from hell, probably couldn't replicate it if I tried (oh the joys of braid)...instead of cutting the line and re-tying I just grabbed my backup identical spinning rig that had a Gold Sparkle/Black Baitbuster on it. A few more casts later I feel a wrist jarring slam so I set the hook hard...the fish breaches and I'm thinking, "Alright, a tarpon!" The mystery fish in the dark then jumps 5 or 6 more times all the while stripping drag like crazy, the fish was really going bananas! I was intensely focused on keeping what I believed was my PB tarpon hooked up because I've lost so many in the past month. Then the fish makes a lightning fast run across the bow of my kayak and I see a dark black stripe for the briefest of moments...another big snook?! She proceeded to bulldog me for a few more minutes until I wore her down...CAUGHT! My first ever outing with TWO slot snook landed!



She could have been the first fish's twin...31.5-32" upper slot snook. This fish really gave me all she had so I took several minutes reviving her...she clamped onto my thumb for several minutes but didn't kick off right away. I really took the extra time to get her revived and she finally swam off on her own. It's so cool how each fish has their own unique personality when hooked, the first fish fought appropriately for its size but the second one definitely fought above its class.


I devised a nice way to keep the fish in the water while I prep the camera for pics...I used my Hobie fish grips tethered to a stringer that I tie to one of my cleats on my kayak...the fish can stay in the water so I'm not suffocating it while I'm fumbling around in the dark with my camera.


So in the end, silver and gold both paid off well!


Overall a very slow, cold, and wet night but the bites were of the quality I was looking for. Gotta be willing to stick it out, make a zillion casts, and brave the cold...that's wintertime fishing for ya. Most of the time is boredom and covering a ton of water beating the water to a froth looking for a fish that will eat, nothing like the Summer/Fall pattern where everything is fattening up for the spawn and the winter. The Tarpon hunt & Baitbuster saga will continue but I'll take the nice snook as a concession prize in the meantime!

 

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