Any way here goes..
This "winter" I've been doing all of my fishing in one of two places 1)Everglades National Park and 2)the old rickenbacker bridge (the rick)
With cooler waters the jetties and piers have slowed down so i've been doing some backcountry fishing and the macks are on fire in key biscayne so the rick has been a great/cheap/close fishing alternative.
Went to ENP 3 times this winter and all 3 times have been very different fishing.
The first time i went was with my buddy Ryan in the blistering cold (was good and bad!). Right off the bat i nail 2 pretty big jacks using live shrimp on a troll-rite (sp?). Just right after i nail a 13 inch grover. After a while i start missing alot of hookups with the troll-rite (still getting the hang of it) so i lose confidence and switch over to circles...i nail another kepper grover at 11.5 and my first keeper sheepshead
(delicious btw).So i'm on fire and my buddy ryan hasn't caught anything. I'm getting worried because i hate when i go fishing with a friend and they get skunked, luckily this wasnt the case this time. Ryan FINALLY hooks up to something....after a few seconds of a struggle he's bringing the fish in close and i see it...at first i thought "MAN THATS A NICE MANGO!" and the fish goes back under...then he gets it up on the ramp...and its a slot Redfish...measured at 21.5 inches...so stoked as i hadn't seen one at that spot yet, although i had heard they were around. He was thrashing alot and my boy didnt wanna lip him so we took the pic after the fact
End of the night tally was ryan: 2 kepper mangos, slot red, and two small snook...me: 2 nice jacks (i keep em for my dads laborers, they love them),1 keeper sheep,2 keeper mangos and 2 small snook....amongst a bunch of small throwbacks.
it got too cold to bear about 2 hrs into it so we called it a night...great 2 hours though, non-stop action.
The second time i go out there was after juan (swordfish) gave me the heads up that it was on fire...i couldn't make it out there with juan since he was going late and staying all night so i went at like 8pm with my bud......action was veeeery sloooooooow...almost no baby fish...all the fish we caught were either keepers or snook we had to throw back.
This time i used only circles and so did my boy....ended the night with him getting 2 keeper mangroves and a keeper sheep and i got a keeper sheep and a slot black drum (another first!
). He also got a small snook and i got 2, one being a bit nicer (didnt measure him).Third trip was fast and furious...Juan, my gf, and I went out there despite the heat and the mosquitoes....right away, first cast juan nails a juvi poon...and it was ON after that!!
I hear my gf's drag screaming and i see her going back and fourth around the platform we were on....big jack...she landed it with a little coaching (mind you, she's 5'0 and 105lbs and we were all using light tackle with 10lb mono)....after that she gets another screamer...another big jack!!
So after seeing Juan nail another poon and a small snook i nail 2 13in grovers and a small sheepie....then i hear my gf's drag go off again....15.5in fat grover!! Go figure...got a few more jacks and some baby poons in the mix before we called it a night
Oh yea...me and Juan both got school by something BIG...i've never had anything pull me so hard before and no matter how much i tried i couldnt get its head turned and it wrapped me on the post...did the same to juan.....we both just said it was a big "jack" so we didnt feel too bad about it lol, but it could have been anything
And finally for those who bothered to read this far the rickenbaker!!
long story short went solo and nailed 17 macks from the bridge all on crappie jigs...kept took 14 home and gave most but the bigger ones to my boy.
line to line w/20lb fluoro tied to 10lb mono mainline for all my rigs on these trips...crappie jigs for macks...live shrimp for the night timers...only a small splitshot added on the leader to get the shrimp down if i was using circles....
Winter has treated me fairly well and i hope all of you have had the same luck...i haven't seen many reports as of late except for the same guys who always post, so I'm hoping everyone is busy slaying the fish
till next time....tight lines!
