Fishing Report 9/23/2019
Recently, inshore fishing has been outstanding. Especially for Trout and Redfish. Now that summer is over, predators are feeding aggressively in advance of Winter. So, they are pretty easy to catch. While Trout and Redfish are abundant inshore, they are often on the smaller side.
This weekend, I decided to fish a “hero or zero” strategy. Exclusively targeting larger fish and significantly increasing the chance of catching nothing. When inshore fishing, I typically fish with a Shimano Expride 7-foot light action rod with a Stella 1000 frame reel. This outfit is very light, sensitive and easy to cast all day long. When hero fishing, I use an Expride 7-foot medium action rod with a Stradic 3000 frame reel. This outfit casts larger lures and handles hero-size fish extremely well. However, it weighs significantly more than my light tackle outfit.
My plan was to fish at the jetties for the first half of the incoming tide. When fishing with lures, clear water is important (so fish can easily see the lure). At the jetties, the incoming tide usually brings clear water with it. On Saturday, this was not the case. High winds and big waves stirred up the bottom sediment and poor water clarity prevailed. Undeterred, I selected a chartreuse Z-Man 4-inch Jerk ShadZ (the most visible lure in the conditions) and rigged it in a 3/8-ounce jig. Then began casting the lure to the rocks. Two hours and hundreds of casts later, I had no bites and a sore elbow from casting the heavier tackle. I made a note that hero fishing is not as much fun as I recalled, took some Advil and started casting again. Over the next 2 hours, I made hundreds of more casts, caught one small Redfish and made an appointment with my doctor to look at my elbow.
On Saturday, I was not a hero or a zero. Today, I am an orthopedic patient
