Fishing with Billy

Every Saturday morning I get up at 6:30am, sneak out the door, hop in my car, and go fishing. Later, after Shawn and Reilly have woken up, they meet me at Hooker Tea for breakfast.

I've been bugging my dad to join me on one of these excursions, and this morning, he finally gave in.

To start, we tried a new spot on a dock off of a residential condo complex. The water was very still, but looked fishy. The fishyness was confirmed a few minutes later when a pod of ladyfish went through the channel. Some seagulls joined them to feed on the leftovers, and I tried to will them to come over our way. Alas, it was not to be.

We were fishing with Gulp shrimp in the nuclear chicken color, red 1/8oz jigheads. On my dad's second or third cast, he let out a whoop! and I turned my head to see his rod bent over to the snapping point. A large, silver fish came to the surface, thrashed and rolled, and ping! broke off the line.

We weren't sure how to identify the fish, as everything happened so fast, but it was likely a snook.

We had a few more pinfish bites at that location, then decided to motor over to the secret spot.

The secret spot is rarely active in the morning, and this morning was on par with the past--a few bites, no catches, and off we went to the next location.

Dad and I switched over to Yo-zuri's and tried my usual ladyfish spot over by the bridge to Snell Isle. I was really looking forward to watching my dad take on a two foot ladyfish, but the ladyfish were not around. A dozen or so casts later, we packed up again and drove over to the Vinoy.

At the Vinoy we switched back over to Gulp shrimp and got to work. The bite was very good, as always. I pulled in a small ladyfish, and my dad missed a few nice trout bites.

Overall, it was a ball to get out with my dad, but I was disappointed to have such a slow catching day. I think part of the problem was a slack high tide, and the other was that we were coming off three big days in a row on the solunar table, so the fish were probably not as inclined to feed after three days of pigging out.

Still, it was a great day on the water with my dad, and it was awesome to have someone along with me on one of my Saturday morning excursions.