Fixed line fishing in Florida

by Martin P
(WV)

Our family vacation in Marathon gave us access to a small boat dock. We had the Fieldmaster 44 with us so it was game on! We caught many Mangrove snappers, pin fish, unidentified fish in the photo and a few blue-lined grunts. I caught a couple of pinfish initially using killer bugs but it was slow progress and after all who was going to judge if I used bait. Frozen shrimp on a small hook (6 or 8) worked well and this encouraged my teenaged kids to have go. My son liked to watch the shrimp disappear and time the hook set, my daughter and I used a small bobber and struck when it went under. I would like to say we returned all the fish alive and happy but the local 12 inch long barracudas managed to grab a few as we pulled them in. We used 5x fluorocarbon so we did not land any toothy critters. The main lesson to catch the little Mangrove Snappers was to use pieces of the shrimp still frozen or they just sucked it off the hook time after time.
I washed the FM 44 at the end of the trip and have used it since without any issues.

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.

We've all had situations where seriously chewed up flies kept catching fish after fish after fish. It is no sin to tie flies that come off the vise looking seriously chewed up.

All the hooks sold on TenkaraBum.com, whether packaged as loose hooks or incorporated into flies, are sharp - or as Daiichi says on their hook packages, Dangerously Sharp. Some have barbs, which make removal from skin, eyes or clothing difficult. Wear eye protection. Wear a broad-brimmed hat. If you fish with or around children, bend down all hook barbs and make sure the children wear eye protection and broad-brimmed hats. Be aware of your back cast so no one gets hooked.

Also, all the rods sold on TenkaraBum.com will conduct electricity. Do not, under any circumstances, fish during a thunder storm. Consider any fishing rod to be a lightning rod! Fishing rods can and do get hit by lightning!