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David with a 26" redfish caught in the Mosquito Lagoon |
March 25, 2008
by David Abbott
Relaxing is not about sitting around or sleeping in. Going to bed early the night before is the first step to a relaxing day. Step two is getting up at least one hour before dawn. The precise time is usually calculated by the travel time needed to reach a location before sunrise. Saturday morning turned out to include enough time to fry a couple sausage links and eggs while putting together a modest supply of jerky, pumpkin seeds and Gatorade. With the kayak and other fishing gear loaded, it was time to head toward the sunrise and the Mosquito Lagoon - an area of shallow saltwater peppered with islands and narrow canals. The first attempt at finding large fish ended in a battle against very swift current in a narrow saltwater creek. After netting nearly a dozen finger-sized mullet for bait, it became apparent that the tide was too low to get very far without dragging the kayak through the mud - hence the up current paddling to get back to the main channel. The next venture was through a wider cut between islands and across a mile of open water. Seeing birds diving and porpoises feeding is always a good sign. Four boats forming a semi-circle toward an island with plenty of vigorous casting into the open space also provided a clue that I was now headed in the right direction. After observing little results from all the casting I moved on to the south in water scarcely a foot deep. It was then that I spotted a large school of redfish "tailing." Their dark blue tails with a prominent black spot were sticking out of the water. Redfish are extremely skittish - so I spent the next hour and a half gliding in too close and scaring a school or misjudging the direction the fish were taking while my bait sat in vacant water. A couple times a redfish grabbed my bait - but because I had hooked the mullet through the tail, it got the bait without getting hooked. It was when I remembered that redfish eat fish head first that I finally got the results I was looking for. My relaxation for the morning was complete. Check out our prayer requests >> |
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