It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

I arrived at our home in Vero Beach, Florida on December 21, suffering a bad case of cabin fever, also called, “I need to get out and go fishing”. Spring in the Catskills had been awesome, I fished Utah and Montana with Lee Hartman, I enjoyed some good nymph fishing in Central Pa., the fall had been good to me on the Salmon River, the blues had been hitting really well all summer and the stripers cooperated a bit with me in November or December. All and all a very exciting and adventuresome year to this point.
With all of the obligatory family visits, tons of eating and business to attend to I did not get out fishing till Dec. 27th, before the cold front hit. I typically wade the Indian River in several different spots and I hit a few of those locations picking up a few small sea trout, small jacks and a ladyfish or two. The next day I went out with a guide who I have fished with before and we had a poor day of fishing; I caught two small (12″) trout, one pompano and a salt water catfish. We did spend over an hour and a half trying to get several large, (18″-28″estimated size) trout and redfish to eat anything we threw at them… to no avail.
The next day, with the temperatures slowly but steadily dropping, I drove to Round Island to an area I had discovered and fished, with success, last July. I had consistently caught 8″-12″ snook there, always at least 6, on small Clousers. I was not optomistic because of the cold temps but that changed when on my third cast I hooked and landed the first snook of the day. That was followed during the next two hours by at least a dozen more! The size also was impressive. The 8″-12″ snook were now all over 12″ and up to 18″!!!! Boy, can they pull on a 7 wt. fly rod. The tough thing is that they hang on the mangrove edges and as soon as they feel the steel they try to get into the roots. And because you are casting towards the mangroves and stripping line you never get thse strong speedsters on the reel, you are fighing them by hand. Additionally, in the past I had only found these snook in one small area but on this day as I moved along the shoreline I found what I was seeking- more holding/ambush points. I was in fisherman’s heaven. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better they did. In the midst of this snookfest I caught and released my first ever redfish, one of the other prime, highly prized fish of the coast.
It was the best of times!!!
Then the cold wave hit.. and got worse.. and colder.. and colder. We were in the grips of the coldest and longest cold spell in the history of the area and when I went to Round Island to look at the water and see what was happening to the Manatees because of the cold, I was shocked and DEVASTATED! There were no manatees in the cove but the surface and the bottom of the water were littered with the bodies of dead and dying snook; my snook. I did not know at the time but was told by the other mourners who were there to witness this catastrophe that snook are a tropical fish and are the first to die if the water gets too cold. I saw a many, many small snook, dozens of dead snook that were over 15 inches and I was blown away. I saw several that were over 25″ and saw one, just under the dock in two feet of water, that had a head as big as a small dog, shoulders like a linebacker and was estimated by several of us to be at least 9 pounds!
It was the worst of times.
I do not know how long this fishing will take to rebound but I’ll keep you posted. I had my camera and would have taken and posted a photo of the monster if I could have pulled it onto the shore but we were warned to not even attempt to move or touch these fish as the fine is very heavy and enforced; that is a good thing. I’ll try to get the picture out of my mind.
Finally, before I go I wanted to report that the trip out West was great this year but not long enough. I would love to go out again this year with some Louts so if anyone is interested send me an e-mail. If you are going to be on the east coast of Fla. near Vero, look me up.
Tight lines, Glenn
glenn.kamp@wmtps.org