"Spooled" at Ft. Pickens

Yesterday morning with temps expected to be in the mid 70s, I decided to make the 28 mile one way trip to Fort Pickens at the western end of Santa Rosa Island and hoped to get some better fishing action near the inlet there.  It was about an hour drive as the speed limits are right at 35 or 30 most of the way even though it is mostly uninhabited between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach where another bridge crosses the sound.  If I should ever come back through this area, I would definitely stay at the Pensacola end of the island or the Destin end to the east -- both areas have inlets to the sound and the fishing is therefore way better for that reason.  There are also many more bars and restaurants to choose from at either location as compared to Navarre Beach.

It seemed like driving through the snowy plains with drifts piled on both sides of the highway and a couple pull-outs completely covered in sand.  Two or three of the pull-outs had heavy equipment parked in them (bulldozers, road graders and front-end loaders) ready to remove sand from the highway, parking areas and the bike lanes.  Sometimes the piles of sand along the highway were as high as most cars and seemed ready to drift when the next significant wind blows from the south or southwest.

 

I drove around the museum area and passed the little fishing pier on the sound side there looking for some short walk to the beach on the Gulf side of the farthest point -- did a couple exploratory walks without fishing gear before dragging out my rods, tackle, bucket and chair.  I had looked at a satellite image of the point at the park and headed there after about a 1/4 mile walk through the sand, over a fort wall and around a pond near the beach.  I saw the farthest point but, the wind was blowing out of the north and so I stayed away, opting for the second point or sand bar with the hope of casting past the sand bar into the deeper, inviting waters.

There was no one else around and I planted my two pole supports by about 9:30 in the morning.  After baiting the hooks with some nice east coast Mullet, I waded into the shallow waters of the sand bar and cast my big rig as far as I could beyond the sand bar and the smaller rod just to the edge of the sand bar -- planted them in the pole supports and waited.

After about an hour or an hour and a half, I noticed something just starting to pull on my large pole and steadily bending the rod over toward the water so, I grabbed the rod and pulled hard but, only felt I had hooked into a mountain or giant snag.  But, whatever it was, kept moving slowly toward the deeper water to the south and I reeled and pulled in hopes of turning the fish -- my biggest rod was nearly doubled over and line kept going out so I tried tightening the drag.  Then, the line broke and half of the line (20 pound test) disappeared with the fish.

I tied on another steel leader with a 3 ounce weight and a single hook also with a steel leader, baited up and cast again to that deep area beyond the sand bar.  Fifteen minutes later, I saw three quick taps on the same pole again and since I had only half a spool of line left on the reel, I had decided while waiting for the possible bite that I would be heading onto the sandbar and into the water with hopes of turning the next fish.  So, there I went into the water with the rod doubled over again and the fish taking the rest of my line until it all had been stripped off the spool and broke it off again.

Since I hadn't thought to bring any extra 20 pound line from the Jeep, I decided to switch reels from the smaller rod to the bigger rod and try again -- maybe the third time would be a charm.

By 1:30 or 2:00 no more action came so, I decided to pack it in and head back along the road to Navarre Beach -- for a few Yuenglings.