My first break off

Today I found myself downtown with an hour to kill, so I drove over to the Pier, paid $3 to park, and pulled my two-piece out of my trunk. It already had a Yo-zuri Crystal Minnow tied on (black back, silver sides).

I fished it around the south end of the basin, slowly working my way up to the neck. About halfway up the seawall, I saw a small fish come up and tap the lure, but no bites otherwise. I reached the neck and was trying to cast across it to deeper water, but the wind was whipping east to west and I couldn't cast more than 15 feet. I put in about five casts and then started working my way back to calmer water.

At that point, the wind suddenly died down, and I took the chance to fire a long cast across the neck. As I worked the Yo-zuri back into sight, I saw two large fish race up to it, the one on the right taking the lure and diving to the depths with it.

I lifted up and set the hook, and the fish came to the surface and tail walked a good three feet before going underneath and immediately coming to the surface again with a jump and a furious thrashing of its head which made the rattle inside my lure sound like a maraca.

As the fish hit the water, my line went slack and I reeled it in. The Yo-zuri was gone, and the line had a clean break it it. In the few seconds I saw the fish, I thought it was either a large ladyfish or an below-slot snook, and judging by the clean break in my line, I am going to assume it was a snook that used its razor-sharp gill plate to sever the line. I'm guessing the snook would have run somewhere between 20 and 24 inches.

It was a tough break. I had really been wanting to catch a snook for some time, and the break-off had come at a time that I didn't have my tackle box with me, so there was no other lure to continue fishing with. I dejectedly packed up my rod, set it in my trunk, and drove off for home. I'm hoping to get up tomorrow morning for a quick fish of the same spot.