Conditions: The Best Excuse

How’d you do? Catch any snook Saturday? Crowded on the weekends, isn’t it?

The verbatim report:

“Not one fish! Conditions were awful, specially for Robert. He showed up late, hung over, and got sick in the boat ramp parking lot. Must have been ten boats ahead of us. Crowded conditions at the ramp, one near-fist fight, had to park a block away.

“We didn’t get away until the crack of 7:30. I was on the bow with the castnet, and we went to where the bait was supposed to be, but conditions had changed, and the water was dirty, couldn’t find the pilchards. Then Robert’s new 10-foot castnet got fouled on the bottom in the channel. I could feel it tearing, but it must have gotten hung on the lead line. All the boats running by made conditions rough. Most smiled and waved, seeing how we were attached to earth by the net line. Jerks! I finally gave up trying to get it back in the boat.

“By then we’d missed the tide, and the water was dirty anyway, like I said. Due to the full moon and the front blowing through the night before, I knew it was going to be tough fishing, a blue-sky day, the toughest of conditions for a snook bite. I was right, at first. We threw artificials everywhere we knew, caught one 6-inch jack, then conditions started to change and the wind came up, and clouds started building in the north. Must have been another front. I don’t know, but conditions changed in ten minutes to a regular, rumblin’, lightenin’ rain event like you see on tee vee. That’s Florida for you.

“In those conditions we knew it would be a madhouse at the boat ramp, so we ran and hid under the bridge to have lunch and wait it out. Trouble with that plan was that I’d forgotten the lunch at home, right on the counter with my rain jacket. The Little Woman had made us sliced tenderloin sandwiches on her homemade bread. Pickles and chips, Cokes in the 6-pack cooler. Still right where I left it.”

So, after a day with such bad conditions, what are you planning to do tomorrow, stay home, mow the lawn?

“Conditions at my house when I got home were favorable for laughter and gentle ridicule at my expense: You didn’t catch anything?  She had worried when the storm came up, and I’d left my rain jacket.

"So, she left me no choice. We’re going again in the morning, early this time. Same sandwiches. Robert got a new net. I can always buy some grouper fillets to improve conditions at home. Grouper, snook, who can tell the difference?”