The Journey Begins

Okay so at this point, I know that there SHOULD be fish in the "creek" by my house. I caught a 26 1/2 inch drum there, and by asking around, I heard there should also be speckled trout and maybe even flounder! 

I had decided to go out about an hour before sunset because I heard that usually sunrise and sunset are prime fishing times. At least they were in fresh water.

On advice of a friend, I tried some Gulp bait shrimp with a red jig head. I made some sand spikes and used another pole with a pyramid sinker bottom rig with shrimp as bait. Within 30 minutes, I had a 15" red drum. Legally, it was to little to keep, but at this point, I'm fishing to eat. I made the 20 second drive back to my house and had a very fresh, delicious fish dinner.

The very next day, I give it another shot. Same time, same setup. This time however, within 15 minutes, much to my surprise, I caught a 12" flounder! Once again, not legal size, but once again, a man's got to eat.

I proceeded to catch drum everyday for about two weeks, each one a little larger than the last. Now that I had a good steady fishing hole, it was time to branch out and explore other areas.

Well my good friend had also gotten the fishing bug, only he had a boat. We launched off of Hancock Marina after work one day to get to his favorite spot. Since the fish didn't start biting for a few hours, we spent time with him throwing the cast net for fresh bait. He had told me how much I need to get a cast net, however at this time, I was still broke, and the damn things are about $40. 

Once we had enough bait to last a while, we headed down river to the fishing hole. It didn't take too long before we started pulling in the drum. Ted hooked a healthy 24 incher and while he was getting the hook out, I mentioned about how I was bitten by the one that I caught last fall. He laughed at me and said they don't have teeth. Then it bit him and tore up his thumb in the same manner as what had happened to me. 

"The ones in Florida don't have teeth!", he said, as I tried rather unsuccessfully to stop laughing at him.

We both ended up with one legal drum each, as is the creel limit. (Notice the gloves).