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SPI on an SCB
My dad woke me up at 6 to get ready, I looked out the out the window and said, "Are we really going to go in that?"
"Yup, now get ready," said my dad.
I got up and got dressed quick so that we could meet my dad's client, Mr. Russell Harbison, on time. We loaded up the remaining gear from inside into the truck and then we took off. We left from Port Isabel and went across the causeway to South Padre to meet Mr. Harbison at his condo because he wanted to take his boat. His boat is an SCB Recon and is the best boat that I have ever been on.
While we were loading up the boat it seemed to be clearing up. The sun was coming out a little and we thought it was going to get better soon. We left the harbor and got out on the bay. The wind picked up and the sky got dark again. My dad decided that he was just going to test the boat and these were the perfect conditions. The water was rough across the ICW and we went right over it like nothing. We started going at about 25mph and then my dad pushed the throttle down. We quickly went from 25mph to 53 mph. I was trying to keep my butt grounded on the front cooler because we were going so fast. The ride was pretty smooth though and I had a hard time staying awake.
We knew it could go fast and handle rough water, but my dad wanted to test how shallow the boat would run. We went back into a small section of the bay and my dad had the boat heading towards the flats. We got into some areas that were so shallow that there might have been enough water to cover the top of my wading boot, and we just flew through it.
My dad had turned the boat back to the entrance of the little inlet and then he and Mr. Harbison saw a trout slick so they thought that we might try to do a little fishing and take a break from running the boat. It was too deep to wade so we got the drift socks and set them out. We grabbed our rods, got into position so that we could all cast easily, and then we started fishing.
I was at the bow, Mr. Harbison in the middle and my dad was at the stern. We all had plenty of casting room. We cast out and at first we didn't have any hits. After a few casts, I had a few hits. Then my dad had a few and even got the tail bitten off of his lure. We drifted quite a ways because the wind was pushing us fast, even with the drift socks behind us. We hadn't caught anything, all we had were some short strikes, and after a few casts we were going to pick up and move to a different area. On my last cast I hooked up and it jumped out of the water. It wasn't anything big, it was decent sized and silver, but fought like a redfish. I wasn't sure what was on the line but my dad thought it was a trout. It got closer to the boat and then I saw it. It was a small snook. It went under the boat and pulled a little drag. My dad asked if I wanted him to get the net and I looked at him and said "yes." He netted the fish and we got it on the boat. I was happy. My first snook, I didn't care how big it was, I didn't care that we were drifting, I was just happy that after two days of hard fishing I had finally caught one. We took pictures and released it.
By the time we got through with my first snook, the sky had cleared up and the sun was starting to come out. We moved to another spot and got out and started wading, it was nothing but blow ups on topwaters and short strikes on plastics. The west wind shut down the fish. We moved around walking and casting. We finally left the little inlet we were in and headed over to some submerged spoils and ended our day. After two days of whupping my dad's butt with a $3 topwater from Walmart, he finally put it on me here. It took two days, but better late than never.
"Yup, now get ready," said my dad.
I got up and got dressed quick so that we could meet my dad's client, Mr. Russell Harbison, on time. We loaded up the remaining gear from inside into the truck and then we took off. We left from Port Isabel and went across the causeway to South Padre to meet Mr. Harbison at his condo because he wanted to take his boat. His boat is an SCB Recon and is the best boat that I have ever been on.
While we were loading up the boat it seemed to be clearing up. The sun was coming out a little and we thought it was going to get better soon. We left the harbor and got out on the bay. The wind picked up and the sky got dark again. My dad decided that he was just going to test the boat and these were the perfect conditions. The water was rough across the ICW and we went right over it like nothing. We started going at about 25mph and then my dad pushed the throttle down. We quickly went from 25mph to 53 mph. I was trying to keep my butt grounded on the front cooler because we were going so fast. The ride was pretty smooth though and I had a hard time staying awake.
We knew it could go fast and handle rough water, but my dad wanted to test how shallow the boat would run. We went back into a small section of the bay and my dad had the boat heading towards the flats. We got into some areas that were so shallow that there might have been enough water to cover the top of my wading boot, and we just flew through it.
My dad had turned the boat back to the entrance of the little inlet and then he and Mr. Harbison saw a trout slick so they thought that we might try to do a little fishing and take a break from running the boat. It was too deep to wade so we got the drift socks and set them out. We grabbed our rods, got into position so that we could all cast easily, and then we started fishing.
I was at the bow, Mr. Harbison in the middle and my dad was at the stern. We all had plenty of casting room. We cast out and at first we didn't have any hits. After a few casts, I had a few hits. Then my dad had a few and even got the tail bitten off of his lure. We drifted quite a ways because the wind was pushing us fast, even with the drift socks behind us. We hadn't caught anything, all we had were some short strikes, and after a few casts we were going to pick up and move to a different area. On my last cast I hooked up and it jumped out of the water. It wasn't anything big, it was decent sized and silver, but fought like a redfish. I wasn't sure what was on the line but my dad thought it was a trout. It got closer to the boat and then I saw it. It was a small snook. It went under the boat and pulled a little drag. My dad asked if I wanted him to get the net and I looked at him and said "yes." He netted the fish and we got it on the boat. I was happy. My first snook, I didn't care how big it was, I didn't care that we were drifting, I was just happy that after two days of hard fishing I had finally caught one. We took pictures and released it.
By the time we got through with my first snook, the sky had cleared up and the sun was starting to come out. We moved to another spot and got out and started wading, it was nothing but blow ups on topwaters and short strikes on plastics. The west wind shut down the fish. We moved around walking and casting. We finally left the little inlet we were in and headed over to some submerged spoils and ended our day. After two days of whupping my dad's butt with a $3 topwater from Walmart, he finally put it on me here. It took two days, but better late than never.