May 01, 2012
By Mark Naumovitz
There are not many chances to sight-fish when the wind is howling and the waves are tumbling, especially from a kayak. But if you can find a secluded area, with clear water, you still have a chance. On a recent blustery day, it seemed like I could see everything.
Searching the shorelines and mangroves I came across a snook that was in less than 6 inches of water, far back under the mangroves. It was just chillin' next to some mullet that were in a small pod.
Maybe he was snoozing or wasn't hungry for mullet, but I'm pretty sure my topwater plug woke him up.
As you will see in the video (below), when the lure landed, it spooked the mullet and lured out the snook. In a unique scenario like this, when I had to get the the lure cast out quickly, of course the line tangles around the hook during the throw.
Still, the snook followed it to the edge of the mangroves. During the second retrieve, you will see the linesider turn on it and
lunch it !
So freaking cool! He put up a great fight. I was lucky to have my anchor deployed to give some muscle during the fight.
After taking some pictures and release, only a few quiet paddle strokes later revealed two redfish sitting with a stingray. It's one of the few times I've spotted redfish trailing a ray. There were a lot of big mullet and other baitfish around that day, but I knew instantly that these were no mullet.
The thrill and adrenaline of sight fishing the snook still had me pumped. When I saw the redfish, they were no farther than 15 feet away from me, so I tried to be super quiet. This time I got out of my kayak to make the casts.
By the time I got out and setup the camera, they had slowly made their way out of my sight. But I knew the general direction they went. After a couple blow-ups on each cast, one finally committed to eating the Zara Spook topwater plug. This gal gave me some nice surprising runs, which wasn't a surprise after I picked her up and looked at the size of her tail. I feel like it was disproportionately larger than the rest of her body. With no further a due, check out my first official fishing video. (Click on full screen, then click a higher resolution for better action and sound!)
http://youtu.be/rChk1xykTdU
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