Sorry don't know how to do pics

[mrmacwvu1]

but yesterday was a great day for me.

 

It all started two days before when my buddy, Howard called and said that my other buddy cancelled. Earlier in that day I gave up my normal Wednesday fishing with Howard so he could go and learn from the guy I call the master. He always catches fish as he has been fishing here in the harbor for over 33 years. I

told him sure I would go. I wake up at 430 in the morning and walk outside and it is raining so I text him and say I will see him tomorrow as I was going to get paperwork done. The wife had been asking me to do it for a week and she is so awesome that she lets me fish anytime that I am not working.

 

About 5 hours later I get a text from my buddy saying that he caught a 38 inch 36 inch and a 40 inch snook at first light and since my lazy butt was not there he got no photos. We bantered back and forth. I would tell him that he was too old and was reading the tape wrong and so on and so forth. He told me to be at his house at 530 the next day or else.

 

First off this is one of the greatest human beings that I have ever met. I was just a bass fisherman and trout fisherman from up north. We met at a little local pub two years ago. He invited me to go on his boat and teach me how to fish these waters. He has never allowed me to pay for gas or for any other repairs on his boat. All I do is wash his boat after everytime we fish and buy him three beers at a the same watering hole we met at.

 

Second, This was the first and only time that I have ever cancelled on him. He is 74 years old now and does not like to go by himself. The waters down here are constantly changing and even though you have local knowledge it is still easy to get stuck. For anyone that has fished for snook or redfish they know that if your boat is not getting hung up or your baits are not getting caught in the mangroves you are not catching fish.

 

Sorry I am long winded so I will get to the story. We launch at first light and make a short run to where he caught his fish the day before. I am still a little skeptical until my third cast. I catch a nice 32 inch snook. I am happy that is my biggest in a few weeks and he giggles. Nowhere near what they were yesterday. We beat the bank and pick up about ten more snook nothing great. Then I am watching his spook as I was trying to see where to cast and it disappeared. No sound. Quiet as it could be for 2 seconds. It seemed like an eternity. Then this big girl came out of the water and splashed harder than a fat kid doing a cannon ball at 12 year olds birthday party. Then there was the whine. The whine that makes most people cringe as they are listing to Fran Dresher talk. But this the whine of line being pulled from a nearly fully set drag. The frantic moments over the next minutes included raising the trim on the outboard. Next was trading spots on the boat. I set the trolling motor to five to move away from shore as fast I could. That little minkota had a fight on its hand. As he was yelling get me away from shore I am yelling I am trying. Many runs later and finally getting the boat away from shore, she gave up. She circles around and I am there waiting with net. He artfully handles her one last run and guides her gently in my net. Holly crap I said. I went to lift her out of the water and the handle broke. I grabbed the netting and pulled her into the boat. She went just over 44 inches and his personal best in 33 years. I got his pictures and apologized for the net and not being there the day before.

 

He said F it totally worth it. We fished the rest of the morning knowing it would be hard to top that. At the end of the day I wash his boat, took him for a few beers and at the end of the day shook his hand and said see you Wednesday. He said thanks see you then.

[soflabasser]

Congratulations to your friend for catching his personal best snook. They are one of my favorite fish to catch and any snook over 40 inches is a trophy snook that is much more powerful than any largemouth or smallmouth bass.

[Dwight Hottle]

Great story. 

[FishDewd]

Wow, awesome story! Sounds like a fun time! I've always wanted to fish for snook, we have them here in our waters... somewhere! Btw, to upload a pic you can attach it directly from the computer but if the size is too large you'll have to shrink it. Easiest way is with a program called "fotor". Download it and open the pic using fotor. Then use the save icon near the bottom right panel. It'll look like an old floppy disc. It'll have dimensions that come up. Set the first box to like 1500 and the second one should automatically scale to size. Save. Now it should upload!