It's been rainy and gloomy around here for the past week and we're
definitely starting to get cabin fever so we decided to go fishing
Wednesday night.
Our plan was to catch some bait and then try catching a red fish
or possibly a trout or two.
We put the boat in the water and the Island King aims for the head
of Joe's Bayou. We get to a spot where a finger of the bayou meets
the road and even though it's seriously dark, he proclaims this the
spot to catch bait.
Wait. What? Why aren't we under – or even near - a dock light?
He tells me this story about baby fish, the water still isn't
warm, blah, blah, blah.
In my experience, I've always fished under a light, especially for
bait but who knows, maybe we'll catch a whole mess of pin fish up
here in the dark.
We didn't.
As we drifted slowly back out into the bayou I did catch a really
nice sized boat.
Thankfully, I was fishing with a tiny hook and weight so I didn't
do any damage.
The Youngest caught a really small redfish which got thrown back
but other than that – not even a nibble.
After about an hour of fishing in the dark, the Island King
decided we'd do better out in the Bay in front of the Army Rec
Center.
Great, there are lights there so we might actually catch some
bait.
Except, when we got there, he didn't want to go near the dock
lights, he anchored off to the side of the little channel leading
into their marina. In the dark.
The Youngest caught a catfish and the Island King caught a grunt
but neither were what we were looking for so they both went back into
the water.
We were there for about an hour when we decided to call it a
night.
As we were cruising back to the boat ramp I mentioned that maybe
next time we should try to fish under some of the dock lights instead
of in the dark.
He took that as a challenge and declared that we'd go back the
next night and I could determine where to fish.
That sounded like a great plan to me so Thursday night we headed
out again.
Our first destination was a light just around the bend from the
boat ramp that I'd spotted the night before.
We put some cut up squid on our hooks and the Youngest and I cast
while the Island King kept the boat in the right spot.
Boom. Within moments of putting our hooks in the water I had a
redfish and the Youngest had a pinfish.
The red was too small to keep so we snapped a quick picture and
then let it go.
The pinfish, on the other hand, went straight into the bait well.
A second cast and moments later we each brought in another pin.
The Youngest looked at me and said “I'm gonna go with your bait
theory instead of Dad's”
Smart boy.
We were obviously in a good spot but I wanted to prove my point by
fishing under a couple of other lights as well.
We spotted an underwater green light and decided to try there
next.
I wish these had been around when I was a kid. It would have been
so cool to have one of these at the end of our dock.
I've never fished around one so I wasn't sure but decided to give
it a try.
A few nibbles but not a lot of luck. Hmm. Don't know if it's the
color of the light or just no luck.
We moved on to another light and within moments pulled in 2 more
pinfish.
We had all we needed to go for something bigger so off we went to
find a spot.
And of course I sang, “Under the light was right” over and
over again.
He doesn't believe me but I say the proof is in the pudding. We
fished in the dark and caught nothing. We fished under the light and
got all the bait we needed within 15 minutes.
Bless his heart, he hates it when I'm right.
After we had our bait he decided to fish in the channel coming
into the bayou.
I suggested we back off a little ways from some of the lights and
catch the bigger fish who were there to eat the little fish but he
didn't believe that would work.
Ok.
Out into the channel we went AND we didn't even get a nibble.
Now we need to go back and test my theory about fishing just out
of range of the dock lights for trout or redfish.Labels: Done
