My Diary

A fall day at the office.

12/18/01

Had a great day fishing on PINS yesterday. I went to work and the weather was so nice I thought it would be the ideal time to do some more testing on the new 12ft 4in Breakaway. I reached the end of the black top at about 10am. The water was perfect in the light south breeze. Sandman was sitting there with his line in the water and his shirt off. (Disgusting site) “This is December in Texas”. The driving was great and Spur, my co-driver was busy poring the coffee and feeding me diet cokes.:-)
It was not long before we contacted Hardhead and Linda practicing their vows at the seven. (Their wedding is at the seven-mile marker on Saturday) They joined us for the trip south. Hardhead made the comment, “don’t care if I don’t catch fish, its worth being here just for the drive.” First stop was the 39, taking the low road through the high backs soon had us at this mark. Unfortunately there was already someone working the wreck so we headed south. In the distance I could pick out the unmistakable outline of Capt Billy Sandifer, working lures in a nice pinch looking for the winter trout. (He calls this R&D) Stopping with Billy we shared a few stories and enjoyed the company and the environment that is so special on a day like this. Spur provided a ¼ of fresh Oysters and Mr and Mrs Hardhead had the fried chicken. Well its time to put the 12-4 to the test. Taking a chunk of cut whiting I baited up a PRIG1. (Attaching the impact shield to the loop in the snood allows you to cast large baits and retain aerodynamics.) With a 130 gram short tail sinker. This rod really casts well. I was able to reach the other side of the second gut. Placing the rod on the front of Billy’s truck I went back to the table. It was not long before I heard the rod drop. (As it does when you up tide :-) indicating, fish on.)
It was a nice 3 to 4 ft Black tip, at the same time Hardheads rod was nodding and he caught one of the biggest Pompano I have seen in these waters. (The Pompano seem to be bigger this year.) He was using Fish bites on a PRIG1 with a 12-0 Mustad circle hook. “That’s a big hook for a Pomp”. The next two casts were both producers using the same rig and bait. Lynda pulled this 37 inch red from behind the bar, “very professionally I might add.” Strange thing about this Red was that after the pictures were taken, I had a hard time bringing it back. I worked with it for about 2 minutes but could not get any signs of life out of it. I decided to give it a shock by shaking the tail very hard. I only had to do this once and she started to swim instantly. Had another Black-tip on the next cast and then we decided it was time to call it a day. I was off the beach by 4.30, totally content. “Another great day at the office”. Regards Nickaway.

37 inch red. Fell to a chunk of whiting.