The Bass bite in this part of Florida has pretty much such down with successive cold fronts dropping the water temperature in the 50’s. I am close the Stick Marsh/Farm 13 which is very shallow and to say the Largemouth don’t like the cold would be an understatement. Time for another plan.
My buddy, John, and I decided to hit the intercoastal waterway for some saltwater action. This is not something we are familiar with and we have no dedicated salt water gear for fishing. We don’t know enough about it yet to make any substantial investment in new gear either. What to do? The locals told us there were some Bluefish in the Sebastian Inlet. Sounds like some bass gear will do the trick and I broke out a couple of 6’6” Shimano Compre rods, 2500 Stradic reels and 15lb Power Pro.
A quick trip to WalMart for some saltwater licenses and we were off and running. The folks at Minn Kota advised against using my freshwater trolling motor in the salt so it was trolling and drift fishing today. We launched on the mainland side and drove across to the inlet. A good percentage of this area is idle speed only to protect the local Manatee population from accidental strikes but you are good to go up to 30MPH when you are in the main channel. We are running my 65 Jet so 30 was only a dream anyway.
We got over to the inlet and decided to troll first to see if we could locate a school of fish. We started off with a couple of X-Raps and set off to find not only the right depth but the right speed as well. On the second pass we both got hit and the fishing was underway. John and I caught somewhere around fifty fish over the course of the afternoon on a fairly strong incoming tide. We had a couple of spots where we were able to drift through and catch a fish on every cast and that is just plain fun. They are not very big, running between 1.5 and 3.5lbs but they put up a violent fight and it can be a real chore trying to get your lure back. They have a mouthful of razor sharp teeth.
We fished for five hours and had a blast. I would love to get into a school of big blues but apparently this is the wrong time of year. Besides the Blues, John hooked a couple of little sand sharks and foul hooked a couple of catfish. Sure beat sitting back at the house watching TV.
Today’s gear was Shimano 6’6” MH rods paired with 2500 Stradics spooled with 15 lb. Power Pro. With the speeds we were trolling we did not need leaders. They like it fast.
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