If you ain't teasing, you ain't fishing

I've called the jury in on that deal as I've fished the teaser now almost exclusively. Here is a close up of one I tied on 2/0 siwash hook. I use the loop knot just like you would for bottom fishing with multiple hooks and I like the teaser five feet or so from the swivel for my lure.

I started out using plain old coho flys like we use in Alaska for salmon but I've found out that white and glitter is the deal, maybe just a little blue flash abou or green in there won't hurt but the mainly white color looks most like a small sardine. Also you don't want your loop to far from the line as it will twist up more and you need to keep it a half a foot or so below your braid which is tied with an albright knot,,,,if the loop is long enough to reach the braid you can have a real shamoozle and straightening out the braid at O dark thirty will test your patience. Here is pic of my third or fourth cast the other morning...it pulled really hard and I thought huge pargo, well, it was a doublea...Pargo on the teaser and Toro on theMirro lure.

In the last 3 months the Toro come to the tease about 75 % of the time. I've had two fish on it an once about 20 times I'd say....but... there are issues. For one thing you need to keep it small so as to not catch to much air and overly effect your cast or the action of your lure. If you're fish lures or metal make sure you advise you financial dept. because what can happen when the tease is hit and not the metal you're dragging a 10 dollar lure through the rocks and if it gets snagged you can lose the lure and worst yet....lose the fish. Do my advice is this...use the teaser whenever looking for fish but if you're on a hot Toro bite take it off and fish normal or you're going to have trouble, for sure. Here's a matched set both on the teaser.

So it was still dark that morning when I stashed the Snappers on the deck to clean later and headed up the beach to get my 10,000 steps started. On the way I ran into sardines in the surf and caught maybe 15 Toro before I got this bonus Snook.  Shortly after I landed him I had another bigger one that spit just as hit the beach and then I had ANOTHER come off so close to me that I actually kicked at him to try and get him up the beach away from the surf. Those Robalo, the creme de le creme of surf fishers are darn tough to land. They have a kind of paper like side of the mouth and they really don't bite to hard, So far I've landed 6 and lost about 6....Now those Snapper are a different story, they know how to bite and never spit the hook.  It's like they fight with their mouths shut and most generally after you land one you have a hell of a time getting him to open his mouth to get the hook out.

That fish is soooo good to eat, especially the Snook. MP brought down a new batter for us called ' Pride of the West ' and used seltzer water instead of beer and for the first time ever the fish had a really good crunch. Keith introduced me to ' Shore Lunch ' batter many years ago and it has always been our standard until we found this new stuff...or maybe I just finally learned how to cook it after all these years , ya suppose Keith ?

On Saturday it was blowing and low tide but the beach was deserted so I put Pandora on the Red Dirt sound station and pulled up my gator and went fishing. Walla, I landed these two Snook in the first 1/2 hour and then played with the Toro's until they sawed my stuff of in the rock. I was using a feather jig so no biggy but you gotta be smarter with the Krocidiles and Mirro Lures. Not only are they expensive but they're hard to find here which is really not that big a deal as we're always looking for something to do.

Monday is always a tough day to get my fishing time in. Our maid Lorena comes at 9:30 so I have to be home to pre clean the house and hide all the fishing tackle so she doesn't get a hook in her. Then we have to go somewhere so it's usually off to the grocery store for protein and liquids....So I didn't get a real chance until late afternoon when I hoofed it up the beach thinking I had a pattern going...well I did, I caught Toro after Toro until something really heavy hit right next to the beach. I pulled in this nice snapper and had a small Grouper on the teaser. I kinda got a freezer full of fish so I was half way to releasing this guy when an old friend came along. Arturo is a vendor I first met at the Mayan Palace years ago. I used to give him Toro' s so I decided he'd like a good fish and boy howdy did he. I asked him if he new how to clean it and all and he said that he didn't...." but my wife does and I'm going home right now ". Years ago I gave Arturo an Ugly Stick and a Daiwa reel and I had the feeling he needed $$$ and sold it so it felt good to be of help again.

So today at low tide when the walking is easy me and MP go a couple miles up the beach for a hand holder. I always take the rod just in case I see something but today we mostly just talked and walked. A guy approaches me and asks if  I'd caught anything and I said no and  he says " a local guy caught 2 huge Snapper here just a couple of days ago, you gotta have a feather looking thing and cast into that white water, the fish are really close to shore ".....Man oh man, that's our fish culture, add 5 pounds and pass it on just like everywhere ! 😎