THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

main road across the water just above Palm Bay and made his decision during the sail up to where
Merritt Island splits the two water bodies, in this case taking the right hand entrance into the Banana
River based on a combination of recent catches and jungle telegraph news.
For our part, we weren't bothered either way. As long as we could have a crack at some red drum we
were happy. So having called in at a string of pots for blue crabs to use as bait, we were off headed up
the lagoon, a journey which seemingly went on and on forever and ever.
Every so often the engine revs would drop a little, or we might take a bit of a detour, and all the time
our guide was scanning the water every which way looking for who knows what. Time appeared to be
getting eaten away. Expensive time at that, and nothing to show for it.
In well over an hour we hadn't even picked up a rod. Though nothing was said, doubt was starting to
creep in with Dave Devine and Paul Bennett too. Then suddenly our man spotted something and took
a sharp turn to the left to investigate further. We couldn't see anything, but obviously he could, as he
cut the revs back and started to creep towards one particular spot.
Still unable to see what had grabbed his attention, we waited for instructions. Then he pointed, and we
could just about see the tiniest bit of surface activity which he had picked up on from hundreds of yards
away.
The water here is very shallow, so when the fish get their heads down to grub about in the bottom
sediments, their tails were breaking surface, and it was this that he had spotted like dots on the horizon.
Having established that we had located a shoal of feeding red drum, he slowly backed the power off,
keeping an eye on the fish all the time. Each of us was given a tiny wand of a rod with a small Penn
fixed spool reel and a short heavy monofilament trace of maybe a yard in length with a hook probably
in order of size 6/0.
Blue Crab for bait
fast as it could. Very powerful fish too and on such light tackle.
When we had edged closer to within
comfortable casting range, the hooks
were impaled into half a crab, and the
boat slowly edged forward with the
instruction to wait for his command,
then gently lob the bait free-lined
ahead of the lead fish and hang on for
dear life, which is exactly what we did,
and what subsequently happened.
It was instant success. Not all of us at
the same time mind. But it took mere
seconds to hook up and the huge fish
was off. And when I say off, I mean
exactly that. The water being so
shallow in these lagoons, there was
only one way for it to go – away as
Typically ranging between twenty five and thirty five pounds apiece, each one took ages to overcome,
then it was back up to the shoal for another shot, until eventually, due to the chaos and the time spent
drifting away from them while dealing with the latest hook up, we lost them never to be found again,
eventually using up the rest of the day fishing for other things such as ladyfish and speckled trout.
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