6/16 Port Orange Flounder and Snook and a Three-Car crash on Dunlawton

[KodiakZach]

As I'm sure most of you know, live shrimp has been impossible to find from any bait shop from Ormond to New Smyrna this past week. Despite NOT having any live bait, started out midday Friday catching 5 Flounder on GULP! shrimp. All were caught from a new hole I discovered while driving down the road. (don't ask cuz I aint telling anyone :p ) Only 2 of them were keepers, but I didn't keep any since we were planning to barbeque with friends last night. Here are a few pics:

http://i5.tinypic.com/14nmqhi.jpg

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nmstw.jpg

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nmtd0.jpg

http://i5.tinypic.com/14nmtk2.jpg

So after the barbeque, me and some buddies snuck off to go fishing again. We cast netted some live bait around Dunlawton, I tore and ruined my cast net, then we hit up the flat bridge to fish and it was interesting to say the least. I opened with an 18-20 inch Snook which spit my bait at the top of the water.

THE CAR CRASH: Then some idiot kid wearing a black shirt and camo hat on backwards with earrings (we'll call him LOSER) walks across Dunlawton as some cars are coming. In the East bound lane a little crappy Honda coupe sees the kid crossing the street and honks their horn and slams on their brakes. Then a Pearl Lincoln Navigator plows into the back of the Honda, then an Acura slams into the back of the Navigator. Luckily a fourth car (Toyota) was smart enough to slam on the breaks and miss the other 3 cars involved. Long story short is I call 911, the LOSER who caused the crash disappeared quicker than a white girl alone on a beach in Aruba, and 5 LEO's, a Ambulance, and a Fire Truck showed up.

At that point we had the bridge nicely lit for us with flashing lights, so my buddy Blake caught him a couple flatties on baby pinfish:

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nn38n.jpg

Then my buddy scott threw his cast net about 8 ft off the bridge and brought up a Snook by accident (Blake took the pic below with him and threw it back):

http://i5.tinypic.com/14nn3hd.jpg

At that point Blake left and me and Scott cast netted some finger mullet. We hooked up with some of the largest snook I've ever hooked into. 4 hookups total, the longest fight lasted about 15 seconds, and all of them shook the hook on both mine and scott's rigs. We are talking about GANGSTA SNOOK here....

Also, we castnetted some menhaden for bait. Just little 12" ones, like the ones you see below:

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nnr4w.jpg

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN MENHADEN THIS SIZE!! :D


It was a crazy and weird night for sure...

[KodiakZach]

Oh yeah, I also caught a Sea Robin on a Gulp! (what an odd little critter):

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nodb8.jpg

and a ton of these annoying under slot Mango shrimp stealers:

http://i6.tinypic.com/14nodnc.jpg

Finally, the best for last, another Snook we castnetted about 2 inches long:

http://i5.tinypic.com/14o1x20.jpg

[Anthony]

Sea robin strips are an excellent flounder bait. Next time fillet one of those bad boys up and see what happens.

[TreednNC]

When NC's striper record fell this winter, that 'school' of fish was eatin menhaden that size from what we were hearing.


Great report as well, atleast some of yall are fishin lol

[RuddeDogg]

Great job Zach....Catch em how ya can.

[patindaytona]

Nice catch! Unbelievable! You know what you're doing obviously...I know that bridge well, but I don't know how you're catching them like that.

[yogai]

Good stuff.

Are you using fluoro leaders with the gulp shrimp or mono?

[KodiakZach]

Always use FLORO leaders.

Went back last night and I can honestly say, the fish were scared of the GOLIATH SIZED shrimp we had. We had Colossal and Jumbo, and the fish were scared of these lobster sized shrimp. Had a couple good wacks from big big fish, but other than that, it was very hard to convince anything to bite with mega size shrimp. Did pull a couple lady's and this little fella, all of which were released to fight another day:

http://i6.tinypic.com/14w7zog.jpg

[snookman]

Your reports are always great to read and the photos make them even better. I haven't seen a sea robin since I moved here from Long Island, we always caught them while going for flounder and weakfish. Schools of bunker that size were fairly common on Long Island. Monster blues used to box them in and go to town. Amazing to watch and great fishing.