Day 2
Rise, coffee, make a run, hunt for silver kinds. I could do this every day. Once again, not a lot of tarpon out…but a few were rolling and swimming. The “feed em” situation hadn’t changed much though. I blame it on the water temps and not on my complete ineptitude as a saltwater angler… The afternoon is wiled away much as the previous with backcountry snook. Days on a flats boat go way too fast. After dinner, our night fishing remained in question so we decided to stop at the only place open after 9 on the Gulf Coast: Wal Mart. Without a craft in Florida, fly fishing is “playing on the hardest level” and we decide to pick up a shark rig for a beach mission. Then we see her. A shapely beauty, decked out super tactical black ops camo: the Seahawk 2 person raft. Complete with oars, pump, safety chamber, and certification (whatever that means). A craft! A vessel! Only $44.95.
It took us all of 8 seconds to make this decision.
As crusty fly shop dudes, after two days and two nights of tough fishing with little sleep, it is possible that we could make decisions that might be considered “unwise”. Decisions such as taking a craft suited for swimming pool and putting it into the ocean. We were sick of the picky fish. We were sick of the refusals. Skate or die man. Back to the hotel! Rig rods, assemble boat, disregard safety, and drop in over a local barnacle encrusted seawall. To our surprise, the craft held. Off to the first dock light.
Now we had no real point of reference for this type of fly fishing, and we expected minimal success. I was up first while Rob kept us in position with the GI Joe oar. Doing my best to not flip the Seahawk, I writhed into a puckered position and eked out a miserable cast, far short of the target… it didn’t matter, my first strip and I had 3 followers. No committers, but enough to get my heart racing. My second cast and I had one on. A respectable snook in the length of teens. Not slot, but whatever; goal’s 2 and 3 accomplished: DIY saltwater fish on our own flies.
For trout dorks from Colorado, this is a big deal.
On the edge of visible light, possibly on the edge of our sanity, she sat motionless. A snook, longer than our boat is wide, watched as the juvies dart in and out of the green glow with an adolescent stupidness. She knew this game, and she played her cards well. The fly landed and instantly 5 pre-pubescent linesiders were on it. Rob can’t strip fast enough to keep it out of snapping jaws and make another cast. The track star of the bunch eats turns, runs, and breaks our 25 pound shock, pulling the boat too close. The entire light goes up in an explosion of kicking tails and boiling water. When the wake subsides, she is gone. If one finds themselves fishing in the vampire hours of the night, drifting in a “certified” inflatable craft from Wally World, hopped up on more coffee than they would like to admit; big snook become terrors of the mind.
BEHEMOTH
The BEHEMOTH offers the performance of a premier skiff at the price of a Wally World raft, keeping your DIY trip within budget.
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