pretty wierd morning this morning... the wind STILL hasnt laid down.. i mean my god! give us a break!! had a client with me this morning and we beelined over to my usual canal mouth.. it was chopped out but i decided we should try it anyhow upon seeing bait being scattered all over the place.. we were completely and utterly snubbed.. i do not understand why.. i know there was good fish in there because they were giving the mullet hell.. we were chuckin topwaters for a good hour but came up empty handed.. scratchin my head on that one because we both made some really good casts, especially up in this big indentation where ive pulled plenty of fish off before.. i even switched to a sebile stick shad ... no takers.. we dropped back out of the wind and completed the lesson, with just a few ladyfish to show for it ( every time i bring someone out there, we get skunked.. not understanding it..........)

went back to the ramp with him around 9 and contemplated loading it up and heading out because the wind was really screaming.. i decided to go look around a little bit longer and stay in close proximity to the ramp... i headed north, which i usually dont do, but on account of this garbage weather you gotta get out of your comfort zone sometimes... found some pretty slack shorelines.. i saw a helluva trout while on foot but he saw me first of course and blew off... started to see a glimmer of hope.. got back in the canoe and poled around... ended up seeing a small red but spooked him as well (im good at that) made my way around a corner and found a nice little sheltered cove and decided its now or never, ill fish this and then take off...

jumped out of the canoe and made a few shots.. the water was very shallow in here, a little over a foot.. i made a cast that missed the mark and landed about 6 feet off the mangroves.. gave it a couple twitches and saw the gnarliest wake ive ever seen come out from under the mangroves... it looked like an invisible boat in there lol.. whatever it was slammed it, and took off... BIG fish.. had my pole doubled over and was taking line fast.. every time it flipped its tail a huge boil came up.. didnt have my landing net on me so i was fighting the fish, walking backwards towards the canoe when all of a sudden, no more pressure.. holy hell was i mad... that was a nice fish..

had a cig and waited for my hands to stop shaking lol.. collected myself and went back at it MAKING SURE I HAD MY GD NET! i waded up into the cove and spotted a small red.. i stopped, made the cast about 6-8 feet in front of him, but this dude beat him to it ....



didnt see him at all, and he came a good ways out of the mangroves to clobber it.. the water was super clear and i got to see him clobber my unfair rip n slash clear as day... THAT was cool.. this guy had some fight to him, i really had to put the heat on him to keep him out of the mangroves.. 26.5 inches and was definently over 7lbs.. nice stocky fish.. released in good health, as always.. i also had a flat line out with a chunk of ladyfish that doubled over as soon as i got this fish in the net.. at this point i thought i'd bit off more than i could chew, but it turned out to be a big fat hardhead catfish lol... had 2 good fish shake off after that.. then about 11:30 it clouded up bad and the bite shut down... the only bites i had occured when the sun came out from behind the clouds.. everything that happened today seemed to fly in the face of conventional wisdom... dont ask me why they decided to start eating so late but i guess its better than them not eating at all :grin i wish someone would turn off this **** wind though......