Fishing this morning

This morning Fitz and I had planned pre-work jaunt. What it turned into was nothing short of a full 8-hour day on the water, and we had a great time.
We started early, in hopes of arriving at our spot just in time for sunrise. However, our attempted acquisition of pinfish (for snapper capture after tarpon fishing) put us behind on the clock; we had to return to the dock to buy shrimp. Apparently, we have a lot to learn about catching pinfish.
With the shrimp safely stowed in the livewell, we set out to find some tarpon. No surprise that Fitz found them in short order; it wasn’t long before we were surrounded. I jumped one and had another track the fly in a matter of a half hour. We kept fishing but the school(s) we had been fishing to began to get sensitive and we didn’t want to push our luck. We made a move and had a few hours of chasing some distant rollers that never seemed to get in range, and finally went to our last stop before calling the fly fishing part of our day finished. I hopped up on the platform and watched for fish; the fact that Fitz put us in a location by which they would surely pass came, again, as no surprise. It wasn’t long before he had a shot, then another, and another. He got a grab from a pair of fish that required three casts, and came tight but didn’t stay connected. After that came a few shots at fishing moving erratically and alone in the slack-tide, until we made the move to catch some snapper for dinner.
Here’s what I learned about snapper fishing: Lesson 1: Listen to Fitz. Lesson 2: Ask Fitz. After taking some much-needed direction, I finally was able to catch up with Mr. Coker, and we split our limit evenly. It’s worth noting that Fitz, on his first cast, caught a grey that would easily top 3 pounds, and did so in typical style.
After the run home I was off to work, and I am heading out to dinner tonight with Paul Dixon and Andy Mill. At the moment I am late for said dinner. I’m gone.

post-script: The fly we used today has officially been named the Coker Skoker.

ncl