I called a few people but none wanted to fish or couldn't. The night before the trip, my buddy Troy called and was looking to go fishing. I told him what I had in mind. Troy decided that he wanted to go. We put a plan in place to meet up and executed it. We arrived at the launch spot around 8:45 pm. After setting up the yaks, we got them in the water and set off to our first spot to fish. We launched around 9:15 pm. We were in no rush to hit the water. I didn't want to hit the first light until around 10:00 pm. By the time we hit the first canal, my fish finder turned off for some strange reason. I had tried something new with one of my batteries and this was the maiden voyage for it. The battery lasted 5 - 10 minutes and then the fish finder turned off. Troy fished the lights while I made my way onto a dock and changed my battery. I brought the battery I regularly use which was in my front hatch in my dry bag. I changed out batteries but nothing happened. The fish finder wouldn't turn on. I didn't want to spend a lot of time figuring this out and losing out on my fishing so I just put the other battery back on. I figured that 10 minutes on a battery and having to restart when I needed it was better than no battery at all. I would figure this problem out later when I made it back home after I got some sleep. For now, I got back in the yak. Troy and I proceeded for some other canals to fish.
For some reason, the first half of all the canals on the north part of Tiki was not producing so Troy and I kept moving. Later on, we found some canals that held fish. Troy and I both managed some hook ups in the same canal but at different lights. My first fish was a trout and it was at 20". This trout fought pretty good and had quite a few head shakes. I shook my head back at it to let it know that I agreed with it that it was going home in my fish bag.
About 3/4 of the way around the north part of Tiki I was making may way into a canal when I saw someone in a Hobie PA 12. I asked him if he was having any luck and introduced myself. After talking for a short time, he asked if I had some bug spray. The skeeters were chewing him up. I gave him some to spray himself down then we went back to fishing. This person seemed pretty nice, well mannered. The issue came afterward meeting him. This person kept in front of us the entire time steeling all lights, even when we were in a canal. At one time I was ahead of him and heading toward the back where I knew some lights that were good were at and he flew past me just so he could hit those lights first. At another time the guy texted me (we swapped up contact info in the beginning) and he said he wasn't going to fish the west lights at all and he would give them to us to fish. I knew better as since Harvey, the west lights have never been quite the same. We saw no activity in the west lights continuing to move to the south side. I knew that this person was going to a certain set of lights and when we hit the corner and made our way down, I was exactly right! There was some lights that held huge fish. At one light he had already tried to catch a fish so that light was spooked. He broke off, if my memory serves me right, and when we saw him he was rigging up. Troy hit one light, that guy hit another light, and I hit the first light. I managed a 22" red from the first light. I can't remember what happened with that guy on the second light but he should have hooked up because every fish in that light was a keeper. Troy didn't find anything in the third light (that could of been the light that the guy broke off in and that was spooked).
Troy and I decided to skip the next canal and give it to that guy so we could have a canal to ourselves. By the time we got to that canal, that guy caught up to us and killed our momentum. He went back toward the west and so I was tired of trying to fish with this dude's fishing mentality. It was my birthday and I even told this guy that it was early on. Knowing that he still kept on taking all the lights leaving us with nothing to fish for. I mentioned to Troy that our night was over and we should head back to the launch. Troy agreed so that is what we did. We didn't hit anymore canals and headed south toward the Causeway and then under the Tiki bridge. From there we made our way back to the launch. I believe we made it back to the launch around 4:30 am.
BTW.... the weather that night was clear skies and a low of 70 degrees. The winds were 2 - 5 mph throughout the night. The tidal movement was supposed to be great throughout the night. The first half of the night the movement was great. The last half was not bad but it wasn't as good as projected. Overall, it was definitely a great night to fish.
All in all, Troy and I both left with one red fish each and three trout each. Considering the circumstances, we did fairly well.
One last thing I would like to add is that when night fishing if you see a person fishing from their dock, give them the courtesy they deserve and leave them to fish without casting into their light. I have found that by being nice, many of those people will leave on their lights for you to fish once they are done. If you are rude, they will switch off their light leaving you with nothing to fish. Yes, I hear ya. There are plenty of other lights to fish but what if that particular light was a very good light. Now that the person that owns that light turns it off, you will not have a chance for that light to gather fish again later that night. Many good lights that have fish will regather fish once you have caught one if you give it enough time. If the light is off for the duration of the night, you have guaranteed that you won't catch anything in that light at all.
Something I forgot to mention, while I was fishing a light earlier in the night, I managed to hook up in a light and as I was pulling it in, the fish seemed to be going in a weird pattern. Finally, as I got my line semi close to the yak, I saw another line connected to mine. I looked forward and there was a guy fishing on a dock. Neither of us saw each other. He had no light on his dock but was fishing the light at the home next to his. I untangled the line as we hooked each other. Neither of us lost our rigs and I was very apologetic to the guy. He was cool about things. We both laughed as neither of us saw each other. All we saw was a few big fish in a light. I guess we both had tunnel vision at that moment, lol.
Just as we would give the same respect to light owners, the same can be said for fishing on a kayak. Be respectful and don't hog all of the lights. If you know a kayaker is fishing a certain canal, the other kayaker may want to fish a different canal. The other thing that can be done is that one kayaker fishes the right side of the canal and the other kayaker fishes the left side of the canal. In short, be respectful!
After Troy and I made our way away from the launch, we headed to a nearby cleaning station to clean our fish.
After cleaning fish, Troy and I both drove our separate vehicles due to COVID-19 and headed to Buc-ee's. I went in to get some coffee and breakfast. Don't worry, I wore my mask and gloves while in Buc-ee's. From Buc-ee's we both headed home with some good fish to cook.
I hope you guys have as much luck as I have had lately. Tight lines!
