What's the Mix Up?

A day on the water with the B.O.W. Crew & friends.

18 BETTER OFF WET | OCTOBER 2022

By: B.O.W. Staff Writer

So, you head out on the water, with a game plan on the targeted species of fish you want to catch; gear ready, lures tied, and a good attitude…and, then something happens to confuse the whole plan and next thing you know, you are all mixed up. I am sure this has happened to more than a few anglers reading this, and it happened to the B.O.W. Crew and some friends one late summer morning, as well. But, even a mixed up day on the water is better than being on land, in our opinion! We had the good attitude and that will get you through almost anything.

We started the day out fairly early,

leaving the rendezvous spot around 5 a.m., wanting to get some live bait, to go along with our artificials, we had set up the night before. We are accustomed to being able to buy bulk ice, near our local bait and tackle shop, but upon arrival, we found that the ice machine was down today. So, a quick u-turn and trip back to a gas station, proved to be the first “mix-up” of the day. But, it is hard to head out fishing (with dreams of keepers) with no ice. After getting ice and putting some live Shrimp in the well, we were off to the boat ramp. The weather man had called for a clear morning, but keeping with the theme, we showed up to the boat ramp, only to see lightning

and thunderstorms building offshore. A quick look at the radar app on our phones showed us that the wind “should” keep those storms off us. So, we launched our vessel, headed out in the dark, to see if we could find the keeper Redfish, we had planned to catch. We felt like we had really done something, after easing up to our first Mangrove line, and catching our targeted species right away. We saw a school of Redfish finning and were able to get a couple on-board. They were not keepers but they were in the same family! After that though, we couldn’t get a Redfish to even look our way. We managed to catch everything else

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Mixed Bag

under the water-line though it seemed. We caught Trout, Snook, Stingray, Pufferfish, and even a dang Needlefish. We kept casting and catching the mixed bag of fish, with no keepers for a couple of hours, laughing about how our plans, rigging, and knot tying the night before were all for naught, as we never even saw another Redfish, in that area, we were fishing. The deciding factor on trying a different type of fishing was seeing the magnificent 10 plus foot Hammerhead, just off our starboard, feasting on whatever his targeted species was for the day. We knew that was a sign, to haul butt and try something else. We hadn’t gotten any bait with our

cast net, but we did have a few dozen live shrimp still in the live-well. So, we decided to cast under a few buoys and see if Mr. Tripletail might be in the area. Well, that worked out good and we caught Tripletail underneath every buoy we came across, it seemed… but, still no keepers. The weather was changing its mind again and it looked as if we could be getting stormed on, at any moment, so we decided to head a couple miles offshore and see if we could at least get something to eat for dinner. No one like to go home empty handed, including us, and with the crazy day we’d had so far, we had visions now of a slobbery old Grouper. The skies looked crazy but the water in

the Gulf was dead still and our short 10 mile run to some known structure was quick and painless. The fishing, once we were there though, not so much. We called out for Grouper and tried to feed them everything we had on board but they never came. We did continue to catch fish however and the mixed bag continued. We caught Bluefish, Mangrove Snapper, Grunts, Spanish mackerel, and it seemed like our hopes seeing a Grouper this day, were done. The sun was well over us and cooking us and the surface of the water. So, we made the decision to start packing it up but, not before hopping in, cooling off, and taking a

20 BETTER OFF WET | OCTOBER 2022

Mixed Bag

look on bottom, to see if we could even manage a glimpse of a Grouper. Sure enough, there were a couple down there; they just had no interest in eating what we were fishing with. So, back on board the boat with the boat ramp as the destination, we were underway. In keeping with the norm for the day, the skies looked crazy, heading in. But, also as had been, the sea-state was perfectly calm. The day had been mixed up and our plans just couldn’t seem to come together, a far as the fishing went. But, the plan to have a great day on the water in Florida was certainly a success. When plans get mixed up on the water, make the best of the situation, and keep smiling… you never know what the next mix up could bring.

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