Daylight on the shore

[Riley Smith]

The time had come to go fishing. I love to fish and have access to a perfect place that doesn't require hours of preparation, a boat, and money on top of all that. I can just decide to go and be there in twenty minutes, after loading a rod and tackle. And so that's what I did this morning. I had gotten up early (4am) and that thought intruded upon my psyche about 4:30. I was on the shore at 5:30 am, after a cup of coffee and feeding the animals. There wasn't much hurry because daylight comes around 5:45.
The tide was incoming and that's not ideal, but there were schools of menhaden all over the little bay there. The spotter planes appeared soon, headed out to the Louisiana marsh where the menhaden boats are operating at the moment. There was hardly a whisper of wind and what there was came from the northeast. The water looked like a mirror except where a school of menhaden ruffled its surface. Out at Chandeleur Island, 60 miles away, a lone thunderstorm began to reflect the rays of the rising sun. I saw lightning once but it is so far away the thunder was lost in the distance. It was very beautiful and serene.
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For a while there were no takers on the lure. Sure, I could have caught some bait with the brill net and had better luck, but I really enjoy trying to make something bite on artificial. And lugging a net and a bucket makes the whole quick trip thing awkward. I kept taking pictures of the thunderstorm out there as the light changed. I finally got a strike on a top water lure and reeled in a pretty nice spotted sea trout. A speck in the local language. I reached for the camera and it flopped and went back into the water. O well.
I changed lures a couple of times but the fish were stingy with strikes. Most likely, the bite had come around 2am in the morning under the quarter moon. Soon, two skimmers showed up and began to work the schools of fish. They're basic black and white with a long, bright orange bill, and they fly just above the surface of the water dragging that bottom portion of that long bill. Upon contact with bait, they just close their beak and voila! Breakfast served!
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The fish were being really stingy with the bites leading me to come to the 2am bite conclusion. They were already full because, with the amount of available bait in the water, and that top water lure, I SHOULD have been getting strikes. Eventually the rays of the rising sun reached my skin, and I immediately began sweating. And before long I gave it up, slammed a bottle of water and headed back home, as the sweat trickled down my back. As I pulled away, the local terrapin was in the road and I moved the fellow to a safer spot.
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[Riley Smith]

Compression is bad on that thunderstorm pic. You should see it if full detail. Further, you shoulda been there