Wind Doesn’t Matter When You Fish the Pit!

I managed one day on the water with a charter this week and even it was a little windy. The Trout were cooperating on both live shrimp and Rip Tide 3 inch Mullet. The most productive colors of the day were the “nite glow” – “electric chicken” – and “silver mullet.”

My guests were Bill and Corey from Minnesota and N. Dakota. Both were experience fresh water anglers but wanted to try the saltwater variety. The bite was slow early on, but Bill did manage to hook up with a nice trout early and then a nice snook which came right up to the side of the boat before pulling lose and escaping before we got a chance to take the picture. Turns out it was the biggest fish of the day and the one that got away.

Both early fish came on the 3 inch Rip Tide Mullet in the nite glow color. If you haven’t tried these super lures you need to. The paddle tail on this lure gives a natural swimming action with a good vibration. Rig it carefully to make it run straight and you have a killer bait. In fact, notice the little fin on the top of the bait and use it for an exit point for the hook when you rig it on a Rip Tide Pro Jig Head. If you bring the hook out right at the fin the bait will be rigged perfectly straight and give you the natural action you are looking for.

When the bite slowed we went to live shrimp for a while and final found some schoolie trout willing to play. Once we found them Bill went right back to the Rip Tide Mullet and caught just as many as Corey did on the shrimp.

Fishing the Pit

The Pit I alluded to in the opening is an operation Southeast of Orlando where you can go fish for Barramundi (an Australian Cousin of the Snook). I had heard how great the fishing was in the ponds and wanted to take my grandson to experience some no-stop catching. It turned out to be a great way to give a little instruction to an amateur angler in the fine art of landing fish on light tackle. All the fishing is from the bank, you simply walk around the pond looking for your own honey hole.

The ponds are part of a commercial fish farm with a couple of different ponds where they conduct hook and line fishing. My grandson was the first to the water with a rod and reel and he made a cast to the waiting Barramundi. Bam! He was hooked up before the rest of us even had our hands on a rod and reel.



And so it continued for four hours of non-stop “catching.” The fish weighed in at between 6 and 8 pounds and I guarantee you they are a blast on light tackle. At one point I switched to my Shimano Stradic 2500 but after a couple of fish I decided to go back to the 4000 for a little more control and less fear of smoke coming from the drag.

I caught most of my fish on my old standby Rip Tide Mullet but also caught them on the Mud Minnow and the Rig Tide Flats Chub as well. I even switched over to a fly rod and caught several more. These Barramundi would hammer about anything you put out there.

If you want a different experience of catch and release fishing you can get more information by calling Capt. Byron Hennecy at 407-908-3216 or by emailing him at bkhennecy@aol.com. His operation is called Osceola Outback Adventures and you can visit the website at www.OsceolaOutback.com.

As always, you can visit my website at www.inshorefishingadventures.com to view pictures of the fish we catch in the Cocoa Beach area. That’s what it’s all about. Good fishin’.

Capt. Ron Presley
Phone 321-454-7285
presleyr@bellsouth.net