Work has been busy, and the wind has been blowing, so Tania and I haven’t been fishing much. When I am not able to go fishing, I always reminisce about past fishing trips with Tania. This memory from March 14, 2021, came to mind today. I hope you all enjoy my fish tale!

Today was the first time in 4 weeks Tania and I made it out fishing on the boat. We haven’t had a chance to make it out between work and the weather. We woke up to a beautiful morning. The winds were calm, and it was nice and cool. The only downside to this morning was no one had any live shrimp, so we had to start with frozen. We reached the dock at about 7:25 am, loaded the boat, and headed out.

We started drifting the incoming tide at South Causeway Bridge. I used my new GLoomis GXL with a Daiwa Saltist Back Bay 3000. We were jigging with banana jigs tipped with shrimp. On my first cast, I caught a nice-sized ladyfish. We did two more drifts and only caught a catfish. At this point, we went to one of our sheepshead holes; however, someone was already fishing it, so we tried fishing another channel marker for a bit. After 20 minutes without a single bite, we headed to the inlet. While heading to the inlet, Tania checked the webcam and said let’s try to fish the beach. It was pretty flat heading out of the inlet, but the swells were about 4ft, and Tania did not like it, so we headed right back in and fished a channel maker. We ended up catching several fish here. We caught nine sheepsheads, a short mutton snapper, and an oyster cracker within an hour. One sheepshead had a bite taken out of it while I was reeling it in. I am just glad I did not lose my supper. At this point, we ran out of bait but were not ready to head in. I called Little Jims, and they had shrimp, so we ran to get some bait and food. We got three dozen shrimp and two hotdogs and chips for lunch.

 After lunch, we decided to head to a dock we used to catch lots of fish. The water cleared up a bit while heading under South Causeway Bridge, so we tried one more attempt at drifting. About 10 minutes into the drift, I hooked up with a nice-sized sheepshead. I was hopeful we would catch a few more while drifting. Unfortunately, we did not get another bite. Our next spot was not hot either, but Tania did catch a short sheepshead. After 30 minutes with only a few bites and the short sheepshead, Tania and I moved to one of our friend’s secret spots. It was so secret even the fish didn’t know where it was. We spent 30 minutes here without a bite.

Tania was ready to go in; however, we were near Thumb Point, so I asked if I could do a drift to try for trout. Tania agreed, but she was done fishing herself. I started throwing a 5in Slam Shady Bomber, and about halfway through the drift, I hooked up with a decent-sized trout. Catching the trout reinvigorated Tania to fish, so I handed her my rod as I tied a jig head on her rod. I put a 3-in slam shady on Tania’s rod, so we weren’t both throwing the same bait. We finished the drift with a few more hits but did not catch anything else. Tania told me we could do one more drift, hoping for another trout to take home. We started the drift off, and Tania got a nice hit on the first cast, which cut her slam shady off right behind the hook. I put on another slam shady, and we continued to work the shoreline. Once again, we both had a few bites, but nothing committed.

It was nearly 2:00 p.m., so we called it a day and returned to the dock. While walking over to the cleaning table, we saw about 15 small tarpons and a decent-sized cuda hanging under one dock. Tania always loved seeing everything in nature and was happy to be able to take pictures of the tarpon and barracuda.

All in all, today was a hard day of fishing. We had to work for the fish we got on the boat, but we did come home with some dinner. Tania and I send our best wishes to all fellow anglers, hoping your fishing adventures are safe, blessed, and full of tight lines and good times! Until next time, keep casting and chasing those dreams on the water.

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, 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!