Christmas Crowds - Not Back to the Grind

Big miscalculation on that as I had forgotten schools are out for the holidays but, I still went fishing yesterday at Honeymoon Island where the crowds seemed to build throughout the day.  I decided to walk out to the pet beach and fish there though the wind was blowing right in my face out of the south.  I thought the cove there might provide some good fishing and as soon as my deep line hit the water there seemed to be some bites which was encouraging.

However, as the winds persisted and my shallow line kept being blown back toward me and onto the shallow sands near my feet, I began to look right and left and walked both directions to check for a spot to relocate.  The point to my right across the cove was already taken by more than a few anglers so, I opted to move around the cove about halfway to the point where the wind should be at my back.  As I began the move with my poles and bucket of thawed Mullet, lots of dog owners began to show up and the beach got more rowdy with the animals taking control of the beach -- good time to move.

I moved past the last dog owner near the corner of the cove and gave myself some safe distance between us in case their black lab should decide to go splashing in the waters.  This new spot had more of a drop-off from the sandbar (which makes the point) and looked more promising so, I baited my lines and cast them out and planted them in my pole supports (which I wriggled into the sand).  Then, I headed back around the cove to gather the rest of my things from the beach where I had started the day.

Casting with the wind was so much better and the action on both lines had me busy even though I just seemed to be feeding the fish more and more of my Mullet -- catching nothing but, l did catch lots of rays of sunshine and some pretty, shapely women in pink bikinis showed up on some wave runners.  No complaints about that.  After more than three hours of fishing, I started to have thoughts of packing up my things and heading back.  However, around 2:19 p.m., I was holding my surfcasting rod in my hands in an attempt to catch one of those bait stealers when I had a big hit and hooked into a really nice fish that immediately started jumping out of the water out in the middle of the cove.  It then dove to the left and splashed out of the water again and again.  It continued left towards the corner of the cove and peeled off some line as I struggled to move in the same direction and keep out of the water.

I had to take my large pole over the top of my smaller pole as I went to my left hoping to avoid getting tangled in the line floating with a red and green bobber on it.  Then the fish must have realized it had not been heading for deeper water and started turning back towards me as I reeled in the line it gave back.  When it got within eight or ten feet of the shore I could see it pointing away from the beach and it looked to be a Barracuda some 3 feet or more in length.  Then it started to get tangled in my other line and it must have felt the sand under its tail and it then bit through the fifty pound leader in two places and shot back out into the cove.  WOW!  What an exciting time and oh soo close to getting that one onto the beach.

I reeled in the other line with the red and green bobber and found my sinker and the bottom hook of the double drop rig tangled in it.  My surfcasting rod had the swivel still attached to the 50 pound braided line but, only an inch or less of the mono leader below that.  I cut off the swivel and attached the sinker with the one hook and continued to fish until a little after 3:00 p.m. -- hoping to hook that fish again or his brother.  Another boat came into the cove and over the spot I had been fishing and slid onto the beach to my left so, I decided that was a good time to leave.  Time to get back to the RV and have a few brews while thinking about that fish.

When I was leaving the beach, a man came down the path onto the beach and said he had just seen the biggest rattlesnake he had ever seen crossing the path.  I took off my sunglasses and focused on staying in the middle of the path all the way back to the Jeep -- cautioned a few folks as they came the other way heading to the beach.  Didn't want to end the day by really getting snake bitten -- though, I think the term might still apply.