Another Bad Night Of Fishing

So I didn’t even get the chance to go down south to some hardcore deep sea fishing in Florida, but I did however get a night off from the family so I decided I was going to do some fishing no matter what. This was kind of a last minute decision so I wanted to get a couple of buddies to go with me, called up all the fishing friends that I knew and of course everyone was busy with their own plans. Like sitting at home drinking and watching television, losers. So I said screw it, I am going out there by myself, at least I have a camera to show and tell some stories, plus I am good at photo chopping the fish to make them look bigger. LOL

So I grabbed a couple of fishing rods, got the cooler and was on my way down to Fort Desoto. See if I would have waited one more night, it would have been a full moon. A full moon is the best time to do some Florida snook fishing. But of course I didn’t want to wait another night, I had to go on the night before the full moon, almost as good of chance. Not that I would have kept the snook if I had caught any (which I didn’t) due to snook season ending early this year for those of us on the gulf coast of Florida.

So I got my little dolly, fishing rods n reels, cooler, now all I needed to do was stop at the local bait shop as soon as you get near the park, pick up some shrimp, sand fleas, ice, and a six pack of bud light. FYI if you plan on drinking at Fort Desoto buy the beer before you get close to the park, it is expensive once you get close. So I have all the necessities needed to catch some fish.

When I go to the piers of Fort Desoto, I usually just fish the short pier, but sure enough I arrive there and it is dark, when the lights are always supposed to be on. But this time they weren’t, well that sucked. So I had to grab all my fishing gear and pack it back in my tiny ass Toyota corolla and head to the gulf pier, which is just about a quarter mile away.

Got to the gulf pier and and set up all of my fishing gear and stuff. I was using a light spinning rod with 10 pound test with a 40 pound leader line, along with a couple of split shot sinkers and a circle hook. Put a live shrimp on and cast away, cracked open a beer and lit up a cigarette. Within a couple of minutes I had a fish on, a fish that was fighting pretty damn hard, I could tell it wasn’t a snook though.

Soon as I reeled him up I saw that it was just a baby hammerhead shark, not what I was looking for but fun to fight on light tackle. That was about all the action I would see that night besides a couple of small flounder. What I have realized in December in Florida, when it is freezing cold and windy out, it’s not the best time to go fishing because you probably wont catch anything but a buzz and a cold. It was still nice to get out of the house though.

Saltwater Fishing Fort Desoto - Part 2

So me and my buddy Joe were heading out to Fort Desoto park to do some saltwater fishing, but this time we were not going to fish the piers like we normally do. We decided that we were going to do some fishing from the bridges on the way to the piers, and depending on the tide sometimes this will pay off pretty good. Now I am sure you can put some bait on a hook and fish from the bridge, but I have never really tried that, and haven’t ever really heard of anyone catching anything worth keeping. But I am sure that it has been done, me on the other hand, decided that I was going to be using a cast net, the cast net that I had was a 7 footer, and I was aiming to catch some mullet.

We pulled up to the bridge when it was high tide, and it was about 8 am in the morning, threw a couple of casts, and really didn’t get much initially, just a couple of small shiners and some pin fish, maybe a small mullet o two here and there, nothing worth keeping though. Then I had seen a huge school of mullet swimming under the bridge, this was my chance to get some. So I threw the net with a perfect spread, and when I pulled the cast net up, there were about 10-15 mullet in there, here’s a little picture of what I had got on just one cast.




I figured out that the key to catching mullet off of this bridge is patience and luck, and you also have to know where to throw, many people avoid this place because there are lots of rocks at the bottom, and I myself have messed up a lot of cast nets trying to get some fish. So if you are not sure if there are fish there do not toss the net in the water, wait patiently until you are sure that there is a school of fish there. And do not bring a huge expensive cast net out there unless you can accept that it is probably going to get messed up in the rocks, I have completely destroyed one of my cast nets doing so. If you are driving to Fort Desoto Park, towards the beach, go to the last bridge, and fish on the right side of the bridge with a cast net, there are fewer rocks on the right side and you have a better chance of not getting hung up in the rocks. That’s all for today folks, happy saltwater fishing !

saltwater fishing, fort desoto park, cast net fishing, catching mullet