Debut of the glow lure

I didn't get out of the house until 6:00pm, which was a good 15 minutes past sunset. I wanted to take advantage of what natural light was left, so I drove to my nearest fishing spot: Coffee Pot Bayou.

To counter the low-light conditions, I tied on a Yo-zuri Arc Minnow that my brother-in-law had given me for Christmas. The lure has a special compartment for a small glow stick, which I charged up with my my mini-Mag lite. I don't usually go for glow-in-the-dark type gimmicks, but since it was a gift, and since I didn't have anything but the street lamps to fish by, I thought I'd give the lure a try.

I fished from the mangroves at 23rd Avenue down to the two docks with fish lamps, and didn't catch a thing. I tried every retrieve speed and style in the book and couldn't entice a single bite. The tide was slack and the water was calm, and though I had some moonlight, the only fish I saw around were some jumping mullet.

As I walked the seawall, I noticed a lot of oysters, seaweed, and other sea detritus around the sidewalk--evidence that the cast netters had been working the area hard earlier in the day. I'm not sure how the increased cast netting has affected the availability of sport fish in the Bayou. Part of me wants to blame them for scaring off the snook, but then again, I just caught two last week in the Bayou. (More on that later.)

After an hour, I hoofed it back to the car and drove home. I didn't lose a lure and the night was beautiful, so I've got to call it a successful fishing trip.