Launched early yesterday morning with Tim (Secret Spot) at CRB ramp. We headed out to find some white bait and found it just a few minutes later near the CRB channel. Tim made a few casts and we had a lot, but not enough for Tim. We went down to work an area on the South Shore for some snook. We trolled around for a while looking and spotted a big pod of snook near the bank. We backed off, rigged up and put the anchor down. We worked the area slowly working back into this area as the tide came up. Tim ended up catching six snook up to 25" with only one below 20". He did lose a sure enough monster that could barely break the surface of the water. The fish went straight for the mangroves and broke him off. I caught four snook from 20-22" in this spot.Snook were popping all around us. We each caught a stingray. I caught four flounder while Tim caught one. All were about 12". Unfortunately, the screw on Tim's trolling motor came off and his prop fell off. We were able to find the prop, but couldn't use the tm for the rest off the day, which limited our options. The bite turned off so we moved on.
We came across a fairly shallow flat on the way back and cast some jigs. I picked up three small trout while Tim managed two. We rounded Port Manatee and huge schools of white bait were surfacing. We stopped and watched for a minute. Something was making them spray the surface so we rigged up. I managed to catch two small mackerel but the activity died and we moved on. The bait was extremely thick there. Also, saw a lot of white butterflies throughtout the day for you tarpon anglers.
We worked some more flats and shallow areas looking for a red or two but were unsuccessful. We went back near the CRB ramp. By now, the wind was blowing pretty good. While there, Tim managed a 14" flounder and a 12" trout, while I was able to catch a 20" snook.
It was getting late so we headed in. It was a great experience fishing with Tim as always and we had some good action on both live and dead bait. We couldn't help but think about that one monster snook that got away as we drove home.
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