October 2, 2011

Location: Ft. Desoto – Mullet Key

Tide: Outgoing

I hit the Rally at 6:15am for coffee and a doughnut, and then drove out to Ft. Desoto. For the second trip in a row, the primary deciding factor for my location for the day was WIND. After a week of nary a breeze, it was blowing 10-20mph as a cold front pushed through.

Though it’s a bit early in the season for 4^th street, I was temped to load up on some shrimp, find a calm spot, and fish the mangroves. The wind app on my phone showed the wind trending below 10mph, so I decided to head out to Mullet Key at the

Fort. I paddled out right at sunrise.

The waves were nil at the outset, but as I got into deeper water, they picked up. I finally anchored near the channel marker and the seas were about a foot—just at the edge of my comfort zone. I started throwing topwater and really chugging it hard through the waves, and right away jumped a ladyfish, and on the ensuing cast, another.

A few casts later, a larger fish came out of the water and really whacked my spook. I thought it might be a snook. My next cast to the same spot picked up an instant and aggressive strike. The fish stayed down and had a few headshakes, and I thought it was a big trout. I was a little surprised to see a big Spanish mackerel instead.

Knowing I was into the macks and ladyfish, I tied on a 1/2oz gotcha lure and started to fan out some casts. I quickly brought two ladyfish to the yak and another, smaller mack, as pictured here.

The bite died down after that as the wind picked up, and I decided to paddle back in to the north side of the key and try my luck. I threw a couple of topwaters around Conception Key (that’s what Google earth calls it) and then worked my way around the mangroves to a series of large potholes that I didn’t previously know were there. A couple of guys throwing shrimp under popping corks were lighting up the small trout, but I had nothing to show. I did get a lot of follows, but the fish weren’t committing to the bite.

After an hour the wind died down and I paddled back over to the channel to try my luck again at the marker. I trolled my Yo-Zuri crystal minnow on the way out and caught a ladyfish and perhaps a world record lizard fish, but nothing else.

By then the flat was nearly out of water so I paddled in fifty yards, anchored up my yak and hopped out to stalk the flats. Right away I saw a large fish working a sandy patch, so I started creeping my way over into casting distance. Then I saw a big grey dorsal fin pop out, and reversed my course. I don’t mess around with sharks.

I threw a weedless shad tail for a bit and had a legion of pinfish and needlefish chasing it around, but nothing big enough to get my attention.

By then it was 11:00am and I decided to throw in the towel. The flat was totally devoid of water at that point, so I tied my anchor rope around the front of my yak and walked it back a few hundred yards through the grass.

Overall, not an ideal trip, the wind and tide played the primary factor in my catch to cast ratio, but I had a lot of fun and got some good scouting in.