Dave from the Windy city started the new year with Captain Steven. Last time Dave was in town (winter 2009) he had a banner day with Captain Steven catching 30-40 snook. Today was a different ballgame starting with water temperatures in the low to mid 50’s vs. mid 60’s of 2009.
Working docks along deep muddy bottom canals is were we started. Dock after dock Dave perfectly dropped live shrimp. The first hour yielded only a few hits. Finally Dave got the skunk of the boat landing a chunky black drum.
The black drum was followed by sheepshead. Only a mother sheepshead could love those faces! Sheepshead teeth are perfect for crushing crabs and mussels. Small mouths require smaller hook (size 1) and small or just a piece of shrimp as sheepshead are masters of stealing bait.
As the day warmed we moved to grass flats casting DOA CAL jerk baits. Unlike recent trips several sure fire holes went without a hit. We would finally get a trout or two but could never get on the typical rapid action trout are famous for. This occurred several times as it appeared we found the trout only to have the action stop as quickly as it started. Zero redfish today which was surprising given recent results in the same areas and the skill of today’s angler.
