By: Chase Cornel
The first week in November, I finished work early and hit the water around 3 p.m. to catch bait. I put out a block of chum at a trusty bait hole and had the pinfish and pigfish swarming behind the boat. After about two hours the well was full with fresh bait to deploy on the outgoing tide that evening. The rest of the guys got off work around 5 p.m. and all met me at the ramp.
From where I caught the bait to where we fish is a long run in open water for the small skiff, so we closed off the drain valve to the bait well and pulled the boat out of the water. My buddies loaded their gear in the boat. Beau busted out dinner and we chilled out in the parking lot, eating our subs and drinking those mini cocoa colas as the sun began to retreat below the western sky.
A father and his son were fishing from the end of one of the docks at the boat ramp, the wind was rustling through the palm trees and those Publix subs were delicious. Just as we were about to load up in the truck and make the ride up to the inlet, the young boy fishing from the boat ramp dock set the hook on a fish. His rod was bent over so far that at first we were all making our guesses, “stingray, trophy catfish, nurse shark.”
Something sparked my interest about the situation and I began walking over towards the father and his boy who was struggling mightily with the weight of the fish on the other end of his line. As I neared the dock I caught a glimpse of the unmistakable yellow dorsal fin of a giant snook break the surface of the water for a split second.
“Get the net, it’s a huge snook,” I shouted back to Matt.
Matt was still in the boat at this point and grabbed our landing net and leapt out of the boat and sprinted for the dock. By this point, the fish had swum around the father’s line and was thrashing around underneath the boat ramp dock in an angry fury.
The fish popped its head out from under the dock for a split second and Matt awkwardly finessed the fish into the landing net. It barely fit in our net. Once on the dock the fish was giant. It had to weigh 25-pounds and be over 40-inches in length.
In an act of exuberance, the young boy put his rod on the dock and threw his hands up in the air and let out a shout. An old man cheered from the pavilion opposite the dock and the father gave his son a hug. He was so excited that he began speaking rapidly in Spanish and only his father could communicate with him.
Matt, Beau, Travis and I went on to catch a limit of snook that night up at the inlet, but we could not stop talking about that little boy that caught his trophy snook at the boat ramp. We all got a little closer sharing that moment and were reminded why we love fishing so much.
Chase lives in Vero Beach and loves to fish and write about his adventures. Read more of his fishing escapades at bitepress.wordpress.com.
