Quick shot at the Secret Spot

I ran by the Secret Spot for a few casts this afternoon. I wouldn't normally choose the Secret Spot these days, but it right along my drive to pick up my daughter, so I figured, what the hell.

I fished the space between each dock for two casts, working back the lure in my soon to be patented pop, pop, reel, pop. Nothing doing.

As I was fishing today, I was thinking of two things, both related.

1) On my favorite fishing blog, the author, Brian, catches tons of fish by simply trolling a Yo-zuri Crystal minnow off the back of his kayak.

2) My friend Steve, a master angler in his own right, and the one who recommended Yo-zuri's to me in the first place, said that he likes Yo-zuri's because you can simply retrieve them and catch fish.

Last weekend, we took a little vacation to Flagler Beach, and while there, I had the opportunity to try out some kayak fishing. I don't want to get into the skunking I took on that trip, but it was a good learning opportunity. It also got this bug in my mind about changing my retrieve from the pop, pop, reel, pop to a more straight retrieve.

With about five minutes left to spare, I cast out between two docks and reeled in the Yo-zuri on a slow, steady retrieve, right along the dock pilings. About ten feet from me, a big fish appeared out of nowhere and nailed my bait. As fast as it hit the bait, it pulled free, but in that second, it totally changed my perception of fishing a Crystal Minnow.

I tried several other straight retrieves at different speeds, but found a moderately slow retrieve created the most wobble, and, as it turns out, the most interest. On one of my last casts, three small mangrove snapper surfaced to attack my lure all at the same time. Again, no hook up, but after not catching anything for so many weeks, a couple solid hits can really make a guy's day.