By Caitlyn Gatrell
If you’re a monthly follower of the Coastal Angler Magazine, then you’ve probably come across quite a few of my articles! From a day in my life fishing in this area, to chasing tarpon down in the Everglades flats, cruising the backwater mangroves, to even camping out on the islands, there’s tons of adventures I’ve been on and shared. Each one has looked a bit different, especially more nowadays, because my trips now are plus one! As this is published, I am currently in my third trimester of my first pregnancy!
The journey has had its ups and downs, and at the beginning I wasn’t able to get out on the water much. Luckily, I didn’t miss too much as the winter season brought cold temperatures and more windy/rainy conditions. And once I started to feel better, the weather started to get a bit nicer. It’s a little more of a challenge right now, especially because I can’t bend around as much as normal. Getting on and off the boat can be a little tricky, and I have to be more careful about choppy conditions and even skip out on a trip if it’s looking rough. But recently I’ve had some fun and was able to get in on some nice inshore action!
On my latest fishing trip, I got out for a nice afternoon/evening run. We collected some whitebait at a local shop, and I was even able to take a nice stroll along the shoreline. It’s always exciting to see the bait, fish, and surrounding wildlife become more active as we go through the spring and gear up for the summer months. This day particularly was still a tad windy, so we stayed inshore.
In the calmer, darker backwaters, we scanned for bait schools and wakes along the mangrove lines or out in the open. It seemed fish were hugging the island lines, so we quietly approached, threw out our whitebait, and let it go to work. Sure enough, it didn’t take too long before our hooks were getting yanked and our lines were pulled. Multiple snook, trout, and tarpon hookups and catches occurred, proving the spring bite was fired up. Once the bite would die down, we’d head out to another hotspot.
In the backwaters, you can often find deep cuts, currents, and hidden structure, where loads of fish will hang around. At one of our honey holes, with a mix of all the above, we were hooking up to some tarpon, snapper, and nice grouper. With a strong current pushing due to a flowing outgoing tide, it made the battle even tougher. I may be a little weaker right now, as I get tired quickly, but I made sure to put in the work, ripping up grouper that were digging down towards safe holes. And it felt good!