4th of July report "A Fresh Experience"

On the day of our great nations independance, I decided to go celebrate my freedom in an un-traditional way before the skys began to echo with the concussions from packed gun powder and the streets became obsolete due to clouds of lingering smoke. After sitting around inside all day watching the rest of the "Nation" get drunk to the point they were incoherent by 5 p.m. I tried to rally some of the party folks for the task ahead, and of course nobody was down for the struggle with the 12 hour rainstorms that sat on-top of South Florida all day. So before joining the festivities of the 4th I mobolized to find some bait in search of the ever elusive trophy large mouth bass in the torrential downpour.

I arrived at my bait spot only to find it vacant of the target species after a few throws with the net, but was able to obtain a few large, non- native Mayan Ciclids and decided to head to a little over flow where snook are known to congregate in fresh water during rainstorms.

I arrived about an hour before dark with the rain still flooding the streets and the current was moving strong, this all mixed with the fact that nobody was in sight, all the makings for a good afternoon bite here. I hooked the first bait and threw it up current, on the retrieve I felt that un-mistakeable snook "thump" and came tight to the culprit. After a pretty brutal fight involving a few wrap ups on rocks and tree I was able to pull this freshwater stud out of the honey hole. This is the largest one I have ever pulled out of this particular spot, a little over 40 inches, judging by the size of my size 13 boot.

Fished two more baits to get a little 3lber and then nothing after that, not a bad way to lay into one before the celebration began, all in all, happy I made the decision to go out and brave the storm for a few hours and was able to reap the reward from Floridas legendary canal system.

Until next time...Team Rebel Out!