Fish With Hope On Your Side

When you bait your hook with your heart the fish always bite.

John Burroughs penned that line around 1870 in an essay on trout fishing in the Catskill Mountains. Burroughs was a famous naturalist and friend of Theodore Roosevelt.

Fish deliberately, Burroughs tells us. Understand the moods of your quarry. Fish with hope. There's a spot on my boat for a guy like that any day.

Take last Saturday.

I'd all but given up on the dolphin bite. I was trying for seabass but fighting off sharpnose sharks. I was also daydreaming. And I was alone.

None of which bodes well for when a pair of 20-pound dolphin swims up to investigate yet another shark you're reeling in. I should've had a juicy chunk bait ready to throw. But I didn't. Instead, I hastily grabbed a fly rod and flopped a streamer at one of the fish. He ate it. I failed to set the hook. Twice. They swam off. (Yes, Purist: If I'd had my act together, the fly would've been a good choice. If.)

Veteran outdoors writer Willie Howard, in this month's issue, offers a bunch of great insights into catching spring mahi.



My own best advice–which admittedly I sometimes fail to heed—is this: Expect dolphin. Be ready!

You can assemble all sorts of teaser rigs and elaborate livebait spreads, but ultimately it doesn't take much to attract these inquisitive, wide-ranging fish. A 20-foot boat bobbing on the waves, a thrashing shark or some other critter in the water: Stuff like that will serve to get their attention. If you're in their environment—clear blue water, surface temp somewhere north of 75 degrees F, bait in the area—they'll come. Eventually they will.

For the most part, you just have to be ready for them.

Speaking of baits: Turn the page and lift your spirits in Sopchoppy, where they practice the quirky, enchanting “sport” of worm gruntin'.

Here's to wild and wonderful Florida. May our fish always bite! FS

Florida Sportsman Magazine April 2019