The last cast is the lucky cast

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

Let's hope we've seen the last of the cold weather.

Now if we can just get the wind to lie down, we'd have some pretty good fishing conditions. Even though the conditions have not been favorable as of late, the fishing has been improving. In the past two weeks, my anglers have caught bluefish, ladyfish, jacks, trout, redfish, grouper, flounder and snook. All fish were caught with either live shrimp or plugs.

The grouper ate a live shrimp, and the 16-inch fish gave quite a tussle before being brought to the boat and released. Not being that familiar with the different kinds of grouper, I later discussed the catch with a friend who suggested it was probably a gag grouper. It sounded good to me.

On each of the three trips last week, a snook was brought to the boat. All three fish ate live shrimp. All three were around 16 inches. This is good to see because last year at this time, the snook I was catching were in the 6- to 8-inch range. And in the fall, they were averaging around 12 inches. I know there are bigger ones around, but they might not get active until the water warms up a few more degrees.

On the water

Two Saturday's ago, Patrick McNeece, from West Palm Beach, fished on my boat. McNeece told me he only wanted to fish with artificial bait, so I handed him a rod that was rigged with a 17MR Mirrolure. I told him that if I could only fish one lure for the rest of my life, that's what I would choose. He soon found out why. He caught numerous trout on it that day, but his biggest fish came on his last cast of the day.

McNeece had a big swirl on his plug at one point, but the fish didn't eat. I moved on but came back to that spot on the way back to the boat ramp. I told him this would be the last cast of the day. He looked at me and said he had a good feeling.

He placed the lure between some pilings and a dock. He twitched the lure twice, and the big fish exploded on the lure. The fish started taking line, and McNeece started to panic that he was going to lose the fish. I jumped up and cranked down the drag, and he was able to pull it away from the pilings. He was lucky to land the fish because as I netted it, the plug pulled out of the fish’s lip. The trout was the biggest he had ever caught: 24 inches long, 6 pounds.

I got an email from McNeece a few days later telling me he went out and bought several 17MRs in assorted colors and had caught three snook down in West Palm Beach.