Casting Platform updated and some recent quick trips

I just got in my new accessory for my Yeti and though I've been using it for a while as a casting platform it needed a bit of an upgrade to make it perfect so I took the plunge and ordered the SeaDek for it and just installed it.  It looks great and I think will be much easier on the knees and more stable.  Also, it will pad at least a little if someone is riding on the cooler which doubles as my jump seat in front of my console.  I absolutely love my Yeti and being that my truck also doubles as an office and I do a lot of work outside, my cooler is a pretty important piece of gear.  I've had this cooler for over a year now and the only time it hasn't had ice and drinks in it was when I've done a quarterly clean out.  It's a little scuffed up but these things are built to last and it was worth every penny. 

So I've been out on a couple of short trips to Weedon Island over the past few weekends and have had some success on artificials since the bait shops around here don't open early enough for the bite during the summer.



The other week I went out solo looking for an early morning topwater bite and I found plenty of big fish that really didn't feel like playing.  I missed a couple aggressive strikes along a mangrove shoreline leading into the backcountry and as I floated in with the tide I saw many large snook and reds away from the bank in feeding lanes.  Unfortunatel, by that point I had spooked them so I moved around and jigged back behind me and ended up with a perfect slot red up under the mangroves that I didn't spook out.  I then ventured into the back country pushing fish left and right and ended up with a couple more slot sized reds in with the mullet.  While working my way back out I saw more snook that I had ever seen in my life but after throwing the kitchen sink at them I was convinced that they just weren't willing to bite this morning and gave up.


I went back to that same place a week later around the full moon with Dr. Schuster and all those large fish were gone to probably the beaches to spawn.  We fished for a few hours throwing artificials and all we had to show was one lost mirromullet that got taken by a pretty hefty snook.  We found some mullet activity and casting through the mullet yielded a violent strike and after a couple of tailwalks and runs towards the boat she finally realized she was hooked and smoked out away from the boat.  I was unable to raise the rod tip up high enough to keep from cutting through the leader so away she went with my lure.  Oh well it was a great 10 seconds or so and made the day for myself.  We had another couple of blowups a few minutes later but no hookups.  We ended up with the dreaded skunk but hey that's fishing.  We had a great morning and we knew going in that it was going to probably be all or nothing.