Beautiful day in the glades

[TK]

So Mr. Livelybaits asked me to take one of his cliqueish East Coast friends fishing. His friend's name is Shawn, he knows how to fish, has done a lot of touring type kayaing, but not a lot of fishing from a kayak.

Chatted with Shawn a few times on the phone and we decided to meet up to do some fishing this morning. We launched into West Lake as the sun was just starting to come up (6:30). No wind, darn few bugs and a beautiful sun rise.

Not much was happening early. We paddled our way to the far end of the lake, hitting a few spots along the way. I managed a pair of trout and a small snook on the way out. Shawn got a couple of trout.

When we got to the far end of the lake, there was no water moving through the creek, which usually means fishing is going to be slow. Didn't matter too much because the creek was well gaurded by a decent sizent gent in a green suit.

Shawn some how avoided his ire. He would not let me anywhere near the creek, so I backed out a bit. When I did he followed me, all puffed up, back and tail out of the water.

This allowed Shawn to take a few casts. As soon as he hooked up, the gator left me and wen for Shawn. I had to run interference so Shawn didn't get t-boned by the gator while he was releasing his fish.

After that things slowed down a lot. After paddling around that end of the lake for a few hours with no luck, we decided to fish our way home.

Shawn struck first with a really nice 28" snook. He managed a couple of more smaller guys as well.

I bagged 3 small snook and a small tarpon on the way home, leaving me a redfish short of the super slam.

All in all a beautiful day on the lake, with 3 or 4 trout, 6 or 7 snook to 28" and one little tarpon caught among us. We both lost quite a few other fish to the mangroves and angler error (still can't set the hook right with worm hooks).