Well I decided to go ahead and get in a little fishing this weekend so I would not have PFS all week.A friend and I decided to do a little late night swing bridge trip.We got to Port I just in time to buy some live shrimp before the Quick Stop closed at 8:00.The current was moving inland, which is just the opposite from what you would think it should do.When the tide is going out the current flows in at the swing bridge because of the small island and the big Brownsville ship channel on the other side of the island.Don't expect me to explain it. It has something to do with the larger ship channel current acting like a siphon and pulling the water backwards around the island.
Anyway it took about 3 cast to figure out there was a few snook hanging out under the bridge.My first two hookup were cut of before they ever got started good.Nice Hard pulling fish.I finnaly tied myself on a 20# florocarbon leader to try and put an end to those sharp gill plate cut offs.My partner got cut off a time or two himself.Then the Lady fish started biting and the big air show started.We caught at least 20 of these acrobats.I think they are fun to catch but most people gripe about them.About that time I hooked into something large but the drag could not keep it from running under the bridge so I palmed the spool as a last resort.The hook pulled out.Then my partner hooks one with the same results.Then He catches a small 16 inch snook.By this time a few vato's had showed up watching us fish.As Mike unhooked the snook one of the guys said" what are you going to do with that fish?" Mike replied" let it go" The other guy says " Whyee "( I know there is no E on the end of WHY but that is how the people down here talk )Mikes reply " its to short, there is about a 28 inch limit on snook." The guy spouts back " Who gives a @%$* " Mike just slips the fish back in the water as the dude on the bank whispers something that sounds bad, under his breath, in spanish.
Well shortly after that we managed to land a dandy. It took both of us to get this fish to the bank.The light spinning tackle and 8 lb test was pushed , or should I say pulled to its limits on this one.
Here is a nice 30 inch Honey Hole common snook.
We quickly snapped a few pictures and got ready to release the fish.As we were easing the fish back in the water the congregation of Vatos on the bank realy get upset.( What or you doing you %*#^@$ *^&$# gringos? )Mike replies " we're going to release it " The guy on the bank with a crack in his voice replies back in words that I could not understand. We tell him that these Big common snook are not all that common. He did not understand the pun in Mikes statement.I'm not shure Mike did. He started begging for the fish. He said He would pay money for it.But the fish was gone.More choice words were spilled on us in spanish.Shortly after that the guys got in their trucks and left. I guess they were mad.
Then the tide turns.We actualy saw the currents run into each other right in front of our eyes.Water coming from the right hits water coming from the left. The water from the left wins the pushing contest and the current starts moving out now.
That puts an end to the fish bite.We go up on the oposite side of the bridge and look down at the fish in the eddie currents behind the swing bridge cable anchor posts.You could see snook rising and desending in the lights.Some of them looked like monsters.Every bit as big as the one caught earlier, if not bigger.I dngled a shrimp in the water for a while.I had a few big snook rise up and look at it then turn up their nose and desend back down into the shadows of the bridge.Pretty soon here comes security to run us off the bridge but we beat him to the punch.It is against their rules to fish from the bridge or on the west side of it.That is where all the fish are now that the current has turned.
We pack it up and head home, Its 2:30 am and I have to get up at 6:30 anyway.I got home at about 3:45.
A few interresting facts about snook:
There are fat snook and common snook.A few more species in other parts of the world. The fat snook looks just like a common snook but seldom ever gets longer than 16 inches.
Common snook are protandric hermaphrodites, which means they can change their sex from male to female; this change usually happens between the ages of 2 and 7 and between the lengths of 17 to 30 inches. Within a group of common snook, sex reversal is brought about by a change in the size of individuals, that is, if a group that loses its largest fish has lost females, some males may undergo sex reversal to fill the absence, a process which takes from 60 to 90 days.
In my reference book, the world record, caught in Costa Rica ( 53 lb 10 oz. ) is smaller than the Texas state record of ( 57 lb 4 oz )caught at....... you guessed it, SPI of all place back in 1937.By Louis Rawalt of Corpus.
Just a little FYI.
Fish On Brotha's
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