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Now that there’s water under the mangroves again, accurate shoreline pounders that have perfected at least two of the three close-up shoreline casting arts — underhand pitching, flipping and skip casting — will score on wise old snook and redfish that got big by being cautious, maybe even caught as a young fin, and usually aren’t accessible to the “outside edges only” cautious shoreline angler.
If you can’t pitch a jig into a coffee can every time from 20 feet away or skip cast a soft plastic an inch or two off the water at least the length of your bay boat, practice is required.
Having the right outfit for the job at hand makes life easier which usually means having more than one to deal with changing cover as you move along probing the shoreline. For example, my pitching rod combo is not suitable for skip casting. The pitching rod uses a bait casting reel the other a spinning reel.
In Southwest Florida, spinning reels usually get the nod but travel to Texas or redfish heaven Louisiana and bait casting reels are the norm for inshore anglers.
I have no trouble using a spinning outfit for pitching or flipping, but spinning reels simply aren’t as efficient as bait casting reels for this technique. On the other hand, I can turn a bait casting reel into a nightmare line birds nest rather quickly when using one to try and skip cast a lite soft plastic.
Not too many years ago inshore anglers that prefer bait casters had to settle for freshwater bass reels that broke down rather quickly in the brine. Now bait caster fans have a good selection of salt friendly inshore reels to choose from. Shimano, Abu Garcia, Lew’s, Quantum and Diawa have all responded to inshore anglers with a selection of bait casters priced from $130 to $225. If like me you are right handed but prefer cranking a bait caster with your left hand instead of the traditional right-hand drive, your choices become more limited although I found and use Diawa and Quantum bait casters with left hand drive.
The world of true lite line big game angling is quite interesting and highlights the amazing angling skills, great teamwork and luck required to put a 573-pound Atlantic Blue Marlin in the boat. That’s a nice one, but not mentioned, it was not only caught in 18 minutes but it was caught on 4-pound test line. Actually a measured wet strength sample of the line tested at 3.55 pounds which still put skilled angler Leo Cloostermans into the record books for Atlantic Blues on 4 pound line.
Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with his earlier 1992 world record catch using 12-pound line. That big blue weighed in at 604 lbs.
How big of a mako shark do you think you could handle on 2-pound mono (officially wet measured 1.52 pound) line, a baby 5 maybe a 10 pounder? To beat David Kahlenberg’s record of 150.3 pounds you would need to be extremely skilled and very lucky and would to have a rope on its tail in less than 38 minutes, David’s actual fight time.
While local anglers are trying to best the current tarpon all tackle class world record of 286.9 pounds, I’m hot on the heels of a world record “poor man’s tarpon” — the ladyfish. I’m not going for the all tackle world record of 8 pounds since the last several hundred ladies I’ve caught over the years haven’t come close to that but I’m working on the 2- (4-pound, 8-ounce) and 4- (5 pound even) pound line test records coming close with a 4.5 pound lady on 4-pound test last year.
There have been tarpon catch reports from the Sanibel Causeway to Boca Grande Pass while every lay down, groin and rock pile along the beach may hold a school of, or one jumbo, snook.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or captgeorget3@aol.com.