On September 4, 2020, I went fishing with my buddies Ed and Gil. We took a bay boat to explore new areas, seeking Snook, Redfish, and Trout. The first area we went to looked very promising. There was bait everywhere; however, the trolling motor was not working, and we had a hard time working the area with no wind.

At one point, I saw we spooked three redfish when I started the motor to push us forward. We caught a croaker and a mangrove snapper in this area on shrimp. Between the three of us, we had live shrimp, a paddle tail (slam shady), and a topwater (Heddon Super Spook Jr. Bone); however, only the shrimp produced a bite.

When we got to the end of the canal, we saw quite a few small tarpon popping the top of the water. When I say small, I am talking 10 to 20lb range. I think we spooked them since we had to use the motor to push us into the canal.

With the trolling motor not working, we shifted gears and moved out to the spoil islands where we could drift with the current. We started our drift when we got to the east side of the islands. We saw bait everywhere, and occasionally, we saw larger flashes within the bait. It was a bright and sunny morning, so I decided to throw a slam-shady 2.0 paddle tail. I believe Ed was throwing the original slam shady, and Gil had a DOA paddle tail, but I’m unsure about the color. We also had live shrimp floating behind the boat on a cork popper.

My first cast produced a Jack. I was happy with the catch, as it was my first fish for the day. Not long after, Gil hooked up with a nice Mangrove snapper. Another 10 minutes passed before Gil hooked up with a trout. Unfortunately, it jumped and threw the hook. We continued the drift for another 30 minutes without another hit.

We were disappointed as the pelicans were diving down on the bait as it was blowing up from something chasing them. Is it possible to have too much bait in the water? At this point, we decided to move over to Harbor branch. We started our drift and threw everything we had. Gil had a mullet swim bait, Ed and I were throwing paddle tails, and we had a live shrimp floating behind the boat.

About 10 minutes into the drift, Gil hooked up with something large. When it came up, we verified it was a nice snook. Gil fought the snook for a few minutes before he could get it to the boat. We measured it, and sure enough, it was a slot snook, so it went into the cooler. We were all excited that we had a fish coming home with us.

Ed changed to the same swim bait and started casting in the mangroves. Just a few casts in, he landed a nice trout. By the time we finished the drift, we ended up in the west corner at Harbor Branch. We were all overheating, so we beached the boat and got into the water to cool off; however, the water was 87°, so it was more like bath water and not as refreshing as we had hoped.

After cooling off some, we headed up further north to Round Island. We did one drift at Round Island but did not get a bite. Gil had a large snook and a trout chase his swim bait to the boat, but neither committed to taking his bait.

At one point, I had a bunch of mangrove snapper chase my swim bait, so we decided to use up the rest of the live shrimp catching mangrove snapper. It was a fun way to finish the day. After we ran out of bait, we headed back to the dock. We arrived at the dock around 230 pm. Overall, it was a great day hanging out with some great friends!

I hope you all enjoyed my memory as much as I enjoyed reliving it while writing about it. Tania and I pray all who made it out this week had blessed and safe trips. May those heading out this weekend have tight lines and good times.

The Treasure Coast Chapter of Salt Strong now holds monthly meetings in Fort Pierce on the 4th Thursday of each month. These meetings are exclusive to inside members, who receive various perks, including 20% off tackle and access to Smart Fishing spots, and insider information on local trends. Monthly tournaments and guest speakers are also set to feature. To become an inside member, click the link below to receive a FREE pack of Slam Shady or a 10-Day Test-Drive of The Smart Fishing Spots App and The Salt Strong Insider Club. They ship you $35 worth of FREE Lures, an “Inshore Fishing Manifesto” Book (Physical copy), and decals – Yours to Keep Even If You Cancel!