The First Hooks of 2017!
On the first day of each year, my son, Elliott, my brother, David, and I fish together. I am not sure when the tradition started but it was many years ago. Regardless of weather conditions, we always go. This year, a light rain and a cool breeze made fishing a bit of a challenge. However, we were determined to start the year together doing something that we loved. So we launched the skiff into the last of the falling tide. Our plan was to target Redfish in the shallows using one of Elliott’s Christmas presents, a Sage Motive Fly rod. Conditions were not optimal for this endeavor but the fun is in the trying. If we did not catch anything, at least we were together on New Year’s Day.
Upon our arrival on the Redfish flat, I jumped up on the platform and began quietly poling the skiff into position. The rain, wind and clouds made spotting the Redfish (before they spotted us) difficult. We blew up several pods of fish without ever seeing them. Difficult as it was, we stayed with it. Our persistence was rewarded, when we located a large school of fish a good distance away from the skiff. Elliott put his new fly rod to good use and made an outstanding presentation of the fly (a tan Clouser Minnow with lots of gold flash). We watched as one of the Redfish shot forward and inhaled the fly. Elliott, David and I cheered the first hook up of 2017. We were still laughing and cutting up when Elliott landed the Red. During all of the commotion, a porpoise came alongside the skiff and waited for us to release the fish. From experience, we knew it would eat the Redfish as soon as we let it go. So we poled the skiff into super shallow water to release the Red. To our surprise, the porpoise charged into water less than a foot deep and began chasing the Redfish around. Water and mud splashed into the skiff as the porpoise wallowed around in the shallows. It was quite a show. Thankfully, the Redfish escaped.
For the next hour, we continued fishing and the porpoise followed us (just a few feet away from the skiff). So we kept all the fish we caught in the release well of the boat and let them go after the porpoise left. It was a great way to start the year. Unless of course you were the porpoise.