By: Capt. Tim Ramsey
Fishing has been fantastic. This year it seems my favorite fish, the snook, has come back strong after some rather slim years. Problem is, everybody knows it. While containing my rage at people I see cleaning slot fish at the dock, I often take the opportunity to mix it up a bit. No, not in the pugilistic sense, but rather, just go catch something else. Thatâs when I go ârunning and gunning.â
Preparation for such an event is easy. Three rods. One with a plain silver lure I love called a âmirrodine.â The second with a bucktail jig, and the third with a Cajun Thunder cork rig. Keep a few shrimp with you. Quite often Iâll stop, go on the trolling motor, and run the crab buoys for tripletail. Lots of fun. You learn a lot about reading the water, fish behavior, and your casting accuracy. Forgive me if I donât share any secrets here. An added bonus is the chance to snicker at the people with big, multi-engine offshore boats trying to fish the traps while spending ten times as much on their boats and having to keep their engines running all day. I do the same when these people get the big boats stuck in the skinny waters. Why did you buy the wrong boat? I digress.
Sometimes I think running and gunning is cheating, but I donât care. Cruise along, look for jumping fish, schools of rays, oddly discolored or disturbed water, birds hovering or diving, and the odd fin sticking out that doesnât belong to a dolphin. Stop, ease closer, cast to the other side of the target and reel. Too easy. Donât run right up close and stop. Donât circle. Donât run by the people tarpon fishing or the guides out with a charter and throw a wake at them. Sure, sometimes they do it to you, especially in the backcountry, but we can all do our part for fishing etiquette. I think I harp on that, but again, I digress.
You can get an amazing display of the wide diversity of species when running and gunning. Iâve pulled up on schools of redfish, black drum, jacks, tarpon, bluefish, and spanish mackerel. Iâve discovered trout, tripletail, and pompano in areas I didnât know, caught cobia and reds following behind schools of rays, played with blacktip and bonnethead sharks, happened on permit, and found my good friend, the snook. Of course, we revive and release everything. Well, except for maybe some bluefish and spanish mackerel. Ignore the naysayers, bluefish stew is as good as anything you can eat. Maybe better. Just be careful operating your boat and pick up any trash you see floating around. The wildlife will thank you for it. See you out there.