(mis)Adventures in Fishing

I can’t move on from our time at Pelican Bay without going into my (mis)adventures in fishing. I mean…cruisers are supposed to be able to put dinner on the table night after night with just a few casts of the rod right? Not just cruisers either. As a man in general, aren’t I supposed to know exactly how to rig a pole, which lures to use in which situations, which knots to tie, what order to put the leaders, swivels, etc on, when to use weight, where to cast, and different methods to retrieve the lure to make the fish come to papa? Certainly, by the age of 39, no man would ever have to ask someone else even the simplest of those questions. That would just be embarrassing, especially for a guy that had planned to live on the water his whole life. Not knowing any of that stuff certainly would make a guy feel highly uncomfortable when in a bait and tackle store and approached by an employee that could easily answer the simple questions if asked whilst looking at the 10 million choices of things to put on the end of the line. That guy, instead of embarrassing himself would probably just say something like “just browsing” and wait for the employee to leave the area before high tailing it from the store. You know…hypothetically speaking…obviously about some other dude. Anyways, I started off spending long amounts of time casting a variety of lures from the deck of Holiday in about 8 feet of water in Pelican Bay.

Then looonger amounts day after day.

I tried with weight and without. I had a metal leader (pictured below) tied to the braided fishing line with a clasp thingy on it so I could change lures without having to cut and retie to mono filament leader. Not sure if that was right? I didn’t get skunked, but let’s just say anything I caught looked like some mutant variety that you barely wanted to touch, much less eat.

After that, I decided to try fishing from the kayak. A kayak fishing trip starts with me gracefully entering the kayak loaded with my gear.

I’ve spent hours casting towards the mangroves over sand and grassy areas in less than a foot to 4 feet of water. Nada.

I also tried using mono filament leader too, tying directly to the braid and directly to the lure. I seem to get the most bites on jig heads, but also seems to attract mutant fish and large pin fish. The DOA shrimp seems to also get bites. Not a single bite on the Rapala top water minnow, spoon, or plug (all pictured below). Here’s a picture of me returning, Lindy anxiously awaiting to see what might be in the bucket (hoping the big goofy grin distracts her).

Well, I did catch one flounder, but he was tiny. Wanting to make sure Lindy wouldn’t notice that I haven’t caught any fish to cook, I did see a blue crab from the kayak that I grabbed with a net and turned into some seriously delicious soup.

So…here’s the thing. Let’s just say that hypothetical guy I described in the beginning is this other cruiser I met the other day. He really knows NOTHING about fishing. So, if you have any tips, please send me a note here, by email (zmdunc @ gmail.com), or Facebook, and I will pass them along. Maybe like, your top 5 artificial lures. Also, describe in detail (like your talking to a dummy) starting from the braided line to the lure what goes in what order for this type of fishing (leader, knot, weight, swivel, knot, lure, etc) or if there are a couple of options there depending on the situation. Pretend that my picture below is this guy’s tackle and let me know what he might be missing. Casting and retrieving tips probably wouldn’t hurt. Anyways, if anyone can give me any ideas that I can pass along, Lindy…I mean he would much appreciate it.