Keep An Open Mind
Nick Dyroff
Many of my close friends and fishing buddies know me for my many “life lesson” slogans which I picked up from some of the most inspirational people throughout my life. As I sit in front of my keyboard and reflect on the past weekend of fishing, one slogan comes to me, “keep an open mind.”
Driving in to Titusville as the red sky slowly fades.
My good friend Paul Rivera and I spoke earlier in the week about heading off the beach this past weekend in search of only who knows what. As the week progressed the weather and wave predictions continued to look worse for us Saturday morning. When Paul called me up on Friday to discuss launch locations I told him we still need to check it out, if we get there in the morning and it looks rough, we would head elsewhere and figure it out. The old me would have researched, planned and stressed about backup plans, instead I decided to keep an open mind and go with the flow.
We originally planned to wake up early and meet at the launch an hour away from home around 6:30 a.m. Instead, I was woken up at 6:15 a.m. Saturday morning by a text message from Paul, he slept in and was just about to leave home, we both slept though our alarms and neither of us stressed about it. The skies were red as the sun began to slowly show, I kept telling myself red sky by morning sailors take warning. I also reminded myself liquor before beer, you’re in the clear, just my ADD kicking in. We both arrived at the beach at the same time and were greeted by forceful pounding waves. Continuing to keep an open mind, I asked Paul if he wanted to check the lagoon across the street and have a go at it. He was equally as willing to go with the flow, but met me with some hesitation as that location can be heavily fished and has not produced well in the past. I haven’t fished that area in years, but I used to primarily fish it back when I first began kayak fishing, so I wanted to check on some of my old honey holes. With a blow of the conch horn, we were off.
Shortly after launching, we begin adjusting tackle and tying on our lures of choice. I decided to go with a top water plug on some green 8 lb. Fins Windtamer Super Braid before the wind picked up too much, and I’m a sucker for those top water strikes. My plug was averaging 4-6 strikes every return, boating four or five dink trout including Paul’s hyper ladyfish. Shortly after, I hook on to something that felt like a stick, as it comes to the boat I became very puzzled studying a Top Pup lure hooked to my plug. I see there is still line attached, so I begin pulling it up only to be greeted by a freshly dropped rod and reel combo in great shape. I take a few casts with it to test the condition and end up landing another dink trout. Laughing hysterically I told Paul it’s time to move on to some larger trout around the corner.
After a very short paddle, we get to a fishy looking spot and Paul hooks in to a nice 20” trout. We snap a few photos, he blows his conch horn (much to the dismay of the skiff creeping too close in to our vicinity) and we’re off for more. I wanted very badly to keep paddling back to one of my old favorite fishing holes, but we were strapped for time.
We split up, keeping an open mind, I paddle out to some deeper water with a grassy bottom and plenty of pot holes. I stake out and begin working my zoom super fluke coated in mullet scented Pro-Cure. On the first cast the water explodes the second my lure hits the water and I am greeted with a VERY nice fight. Knowing it was a trout from the head shake, my stress level intensifies, knowing how soft their lips can be. I eventually boat it and notice the hook was buried way down in her mouth. I was able to successfully dislodge it snap a few photos and release her to fight another day.
After catching several more in the same spot, I couldn't get over how hard they were hitting the lures causing them to get deeply hooked in ways I was not happy with. So I wrangled up some finger mullet with a cast net, tossed them in the livewell on my Malibu Stealth and decided to switch over to circle hooks to avoid hurting these breeders any more. Shortly after doing so, I toss a circle hook on to the combo I fished up earlier, toss a finger mullet out and leave it in the rod holder. I then tossed on an Unfair Lure Paul Dinkum Shrimp lathered in Pro-Cure (only has one treble hook) out to a large sand hole and was greeted with a strike immediately As I am bringing this trout to the boat my other rod begins to go off, DOUBLE HOOK-UP! I boat a nice 28″ trout on the lure and 26″ trout on the mullet. Some might say that’s being greedy, but I had to put some points up on the board for Kayak Wars.
Paul and I continued to pound on the trout until the wind picked up and we had to quickly get out of there and head over to a friend’s fishing seminar at Kayaks By Bo (Vickie Sallee, Fish Like A Girl). Had we not kept an open mind, we would have skipped fishing that area and went to somewhere we were more familiar with, or we would have been stubborn and continued stalking the shoreline in search of singles. Since we kept an open mind, our expectations were low and our fishing was successful.
