Capt. Alex Rodriguez took me on an angling adventure I'll never forget. Being
from New York I had never caught a snook before, But had heard so much about
them. I also didn't have time to go down to the Everglades. Night snook fishing
in Miami was the perfect solution. Little did I know that the snook on
the east coast of Florida are the biggest in the state.
We were waiting for the tide to slow a little at Haulover inlet so we
started by fishing the bridges inside the Biscayne bay area. Well, I loved fishing the
bridges. Alex used his trolling motor to run us just up current from the
bridge's shadow line and kept me in perfect casting position to work my plug. On
our second bridge. I worked my plug through a dark spot between a column and
a bridge bumper. "Bam". Fish on! It was really strong and immediately took my
line. It couldn't decide where to run, and when it did, It shot right
through one of the holes in the bridge bumper."Darn" I said, I couldn't stop it! So I'm
fighting this fish through a hole in a bumper."Great" just what I needed (sarcastically) I said. This is no good! I had to climb the bumper as Alex passed the rod underwater to the other side where I grabbed
it. I then had to fight the fish from the bumper. Alex picked me up on the
other side where I got back on the boat. We still didn't know what the fish
was. Then suddenly it jumped! "It was a tarpon". Nice! My first ever. After a long battle with this stubborn tarpon. We eventually landed the fish and let it go. For catch and release purposes.
Once the tide settled a bit we hit the inlet jig fishing for snook fishing in Miami at it's best. This was Capt. Alex's specialty "jig fishing" He told me, one of many otherfishing likes. Though it wasn't the easiest way to fish for me. I was up for the challenge. Alex gave me great instructions on how to get the jig down and feel it work through the bottom contours. They say if you're not snagging bottom, you're not fishing aggressively enough. "That" holds true here.
But Capt. Alex can tie a great knot in seconds flat. If you get caught up and need to rehook your tackle Anyway, we took several drifts. Alex fished also, so as to find where the fish were. Well, let's just say he caught a few snooksbefore I did. But I was starting to get the hang of this type of fishing. When I got my jig working better, "BAM", big hit! Big fast run. And then. A jump! Just like a small mouth bass but a lot bigger! It was a nice sized snook. Snook are really explosive and fight frantically. I reeled the snook in. And Capt. Alex lipped him and pulled him into the boat, a whopping 34 in. snook. Too big to keep. Darn! They're really pretty fish, with that stripe and all. I would have let him go anyways. That was my first snook ever. I'm so glad it wasn't a tiny one, For sure you bet I will be calling Capt. Alex again for another snook fishing in Miami night.
*Click on the fish to see what other fish we catch*
Story written by William Kearny of New York - Customer and now friend
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