I didn’t mention it last week, but Becky and I spent a couple of days in Key West. We went on a saltwater fishing trip that I think says something about fishing, although I’m not sure there was anything in it that’ll help us catch bass.
We booked our trip with RT Trosset. He was recommended by a friend. That recommendation turned out to be a good one. I wanted to spend some fun time with Becky, and I wanted her to feel the pull of a big fish. We got both with RT.
The similarities and differences between freshwater fishing and saltwater fishing fascinated me. One of the differences was how we started our day. We spent the first couple of hours throwing a cast net so we had just the right bait. For most of us that’s never part of a bass fishing trip.
It was interesting, though, to realize that although we were using live bait instead of artificial, both require picking the right thing. And, they both require that our offerings be in the right place and at the right depth.
During most of our day we fished a spot that was a rise off the ocean floor. If we had been in freshwater, we’d call it a hump. RT said it was created by military bombing exercises. The deal was that they made a target out of old wooden crates and pallets. Then they bombed the heck out of them. The debris from that bombing was on the bottom.
What RT does is pretty much like what we do. He used his SONAR to locate abnormalities on the bottom that attract fish, marked the location with his GPS and then started fishing.
That spot was a real producer the day we fished. In just a few hours we caught nine different species. I’m no saltwater expert so I won’t try to name them all, but it was pretty cool. They all looked so different. It was awesome.
I was especially happy for Becky. We used to fish together some, but when the kids came along that went by the wayside for the most part. We both miss it. We’re not complaining, though. We’re both happy we had them and wouldn’t do anything different even if we could. Nevertheless, it was nice when we had more one-on-one time so we really enjoyed our mini vacation all by ourselves.
Then, about two hours before we went in, we went shark fishing.
There was this giant flat out there. It was at least 10 miles long. Right in the middle of it was a trough. When the tide went out the sharks moved into the trough where the water was deeper. That’s exactly like bass fishing in tidal water. Bass move towards deeper water on an outgoing tide just like the sharks did.
The more fishing I do the more I’ve come to believe that fish are fish. Trying to catch them is pretty much the same, too, although there are different tricks and techniques for every species regardless of where they live.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
