Mosquito Gold...
Plan A: go with Marcio to Mosquito Lagoon and chase reds with an outboard.
Plan B: After working getting into the water and finding outboard broken, we opted for my trolling motor. This took us for miles before running out of juice.
Plan C: Split a kayak paddle in half so we each have a paddle and cover the miles of open water back to the ramp.
He kept telling me only one more mile, but by the time we made it back to shore, we were two broken men. I slept 10 hours straight that night. Would I do it again? Of course, it is the kind of tired that clears the mind, and is broken up by possibilities, the beauty of nature and a tight line. We were exhausted, but it was well earned, and it pays into a man's bank of mental health. I feel very much at home here, and it was cool to share the day with a good friend.
We launched out of Haulover Canal, and it was packed with Manatees and their pups. I tried finding the lure bite and looking for some trout, but we got a bit of late start and the sun was up pretty high, so we shot across the Lagoon to chase some reds. I always look for schools of mullet and or those tell tale V's and tails. It has been a while since I have come up on tailing reds though, but we did find the mullet. I still couldn't figure out the the lure bite, so I grabbed my cast net and picked up a couple of pins off one of the spoil islands. We moved down to another group of mullet and noticed some go skyward. I tossed lures again thinking I was in the middle of a feeding school, but no luck. Marcio told me to pitch the pin fish so put it on my Cajun rig and it disappeared about 3 seconds after it hit the water. Fish on, the first red of the day and he was keeper. We lost the only other pin we had so we went looking for more bait.
We caught killifish, sand perch and some really small (founder candy) size finger mullet. I also caught baby snook on two different cast. Good to see the little guys are here. In years when there is more rain, it's not uncommon to find large snook and juvenile Tarpon in these areas.
Not a bad day though, event with a tough start, we both caught fish and watched some kids catch several Black Drum from the shore. Watching them wade and soak crabs and shrimp from the point, brought them memories flowing back. I needed to clear my head and this was the ticket.
