Tagging fish

[capt hoop]

I had a booking that got messed up so I decided to take the bay boat and go to Venice marina to see if anybody was looking for a trip. If not I was going scouting. Lou (Rock) was working on his boat but could not get the parts on the weekend. After a breakfast at Venice marina we decided to go out scouting together. Another guide wanted to do some tagging so he jumped on also.



Our morning went uneventful. There was not much water movement. We went through some thin cuts and into some back ponds. As I was trolling through one of these cuts I noticed a good sized tail just beyond the entrance to the pond. I put the power pole down in the cut and we worked the entrance of the pond without going into it. This paid off because I soon had our first fish of the day. After working up and tagging the fish we took a picture and released it.



This was not the size fish we were expecting. Although the water got stirred up a bit the mullet were still moving in that area and it was not long before Rock hooks up.



The fish ran back into the pond and around the corner to the right. I was getting ready to chase it but Rock was able to keep enough pressure on the fish for it to turn and come back in front of the entrance so he could fight it to the boat. This one also has the beautiful colors of the one I landed.



The water was getting stirred up by this action but the mullet were still moving in the area so we played it a bit more. As I was contemplating another move I hook up to another hog. This fish is bland colored compared to the first 2 fish.



After this guy the mullet left and the muddy water was thick so we moved on. Way back in this pond Rock hooks up to a monster gar fish 4 feet or better. The fight lasted for a while but the gar won.

We left this area and went a few miles away to some other back ponds. We bounced around there and landed our biggest of the day.



I think by the time we finished the day we tagged 7 of these guys.



We decided to bring in some puppy drum for food and also added one redfish to our cooler. Overall a good ending to a day that started out with no direction. When things don't look right --- Go Fishing.



Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM