Florida Fishing Has Begun--With a Bang!
Capt. Sal Tardella
November 28, 2008
Norwalk Islands - Saltwater Fishing Report
We had our Florida shakedown cruise last Tuesday--with Sebastian local, Rick Pino, and Ed Jones from Virginia. We started working the Indian River, catching seven pompano and some sea trout close to the Sebastian Inlet.
The day after Thanksgiving we headed out into the ocean on Rick Pino's boat--again with Ed Jones--and also Mike Kanner of Vero Beach. After catching croakers for bait--along with frozen squid and bunker--we made out way about 25 miles offshore. We spotted Spanish Mackerel breaking the surface along the way, but we left them alone and moved further out. While drifting over one of the reefs we hooked into some Lane Snapper and some nice Redfish 5-7 pounds. Ed then hooked into an unknown monster and exhausted himself in a 15-minute tug of war--and had to hand over the rod to Rick--who struggled for ten minutes with what turned out to be a nurse shark that weighed approximately 175-pounds; Rick handed me the rod which I held for another ten minutes, reeling the fish alongside the boat, but it was too heavy to bring over the side. Mercifully, for us and for the shark, he broke the line after this marathon effort for all concerned. While this was happening, Mike hooked into a Cobia that was underneath the shark, and it took off like a rocket, snapping the line within a couple of minutes. We then moved to another reef and continued catching Red Snapper and Grouper, with the largest Grouper coming in at 25 pounds.
It was a great day for all of us--with lots of fillets for four families.
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