A bone and a beer

Having tinkered with my gear a bit and got my eye in as to where the fish are or might be I had a break this morning.

I made my way along the beach stopping briefly to put a few casts into the shadows next to the lit areas looking for the elusive Snook. I had a little Snapper at one of these spots but didn’t really hang around too long. I then got to the spot where the Tarpon and Ladyfish have been in the last week. I thought I was a little early but after a dozen cranks of the reel handle I felt a slight tap and then the tip slammed over, game on.

Not a great picture with the blood etc, only so much you can of someone putting their towel on the beach this early.

I’ve caught Ladyfish before in Florida but they were smaller than this, cracking scrap being hooked at distance it made several leaps before it was on the beach.

I lost another one before I made a dash down the beach after spotting a pair of Tarpon cruising. I threw the lure ahead of them twice before they disappeared. I spotted them again 20 mins later and had another shot but they weren’t interested.

 

I was thinking about heading back along the beach, it was 7am and things seem to go quite about this time. I fanned a few casts around and then got a solid hit which turned into a screaming run. I kept the rod low expecting a leap but this fish felt different and I started to think it was a decent Jack Crevalle.  The runs the fish made were mental, I started to think Bonefish. The best scrap I’ve had from the shore was a 20 pound plus Jack in Mexico,  pound for pound this was well on par with that. I think I’ve caught it all on my GOPRO which was set up on a Gorillapod on the beach so I can check how long it took; it felt like a long time….

What a bonus, my first Bone and pretty big one at that. I didn’t waste any time in getting it back in the water but it took a while to recover before it swam off. I’ve been told they fight well and I’ve seen them caught on TV but I can now confirm, they’re something else. Time for breakfast.

 

I don’t normally drink beer for breakfast but this was a special morning for me.