On friday night Dave (bass assassin) and I decide to try something different and head to one of my spots under a skyway bridge. Usually you can get a variety of fish here or it sucks but we went.

Got there and there was a lot of people fishing the tail-end of the outgoing tide and wasn't much room but luckily these people fish from the bridge or on the corners and the snooky parts are open (btw on foot not boat). I hit first spot and threw about 5 times then decided to try my better spot since the people on the corner were fishing out and I went to fish under the dock, I woulda asked them if I could get in but they didn't speak english. So I get back behind pillars and whip a shadflash under the bridge and bringing it back and get thumped on first casts and reel starts singing and im thinking a good snook and have to climb down on the wet slippery rocks and after a decent find pull fish up wtf it's a red :) Whoo!!!! I've been snakebit for reds lately so glad to shed that crap but weird place for a red. Anyways soon as my reel started screaming the guys next to me start cussing me in spanish I believe and soon as I get off rocks they are throwing in my spot which didnt last long as I'm sure they lost their junk real quick.

After that I switched to doa shrimps and had a few good snook on but kept getting busted off. Finally I started probing between the pillars next to shore literally 5 ft away and I throw doa in one and miss a fish and throw it back and pull out a 18-19" snook. Of course both our cameras flashes weren't working so snook pix arent good.

About 2am the tide had turned to incoming and it was roaring in and and the fish came alive on top and under some parts (of course that weren't accessible) it was pure mayhem! I can't even describe the carnage that was going on it sounded like the bombing of Berlin in there! Some seriously big snook were exploding and some were so loud that it sounded like gun fire, was amazing but we didn't get anymore fish out of it.

That war zone effect is my favorite. Last time I was in one of those I didn't hook up either. When that's going on you gotta have the exact bait they're feeding on...and I didn't...

How much you wanna make a $5 bet those people who don't speak English don't speak regulations either.

Fun story to read. Reader can picture events in the mind.

If we want to stop an apparent law breaking willingness on the part of the immigrant community, we can do it one of two ways. The first way places more strain on law enforcement. It does not work. They do not come, they have enough to do, and they are too busy making sure I comply with UN rulings.

The second thing we can do is to bring these communities into our own. We are, in fact, one community. But eating fish and just catching fish for fun is part of both communities. And to a much larger extent than it is in the white-guy community. 31% of every Latin household has an angler in it. Did you know that? Thirty-one percent!!!

So let's teach them. When you see a bunch of Latinos, stop by. Ask them if there is one that speaks English. Ask him to translate, tell him you are an angler, and that we want to meet our fellow anglers. And members of our community right here are immigrants. Legal ? I do not ask people on the water for their papers. Licenses or otherwise. I wish they would follow our laws. If we approach softly and without fear, we can make that happen, we can,

You will not believe how cool they are. Do some Latinos and orientals kill more fish than they need to? Are they among the poachers?

Yes. They were taught to eat from the land, we were not. They live in fear, they came here the same way as my grandparents did. Running from corruption, bullets, and blood. They ran to where it is safe and free. Yeh, they filled out papers. Then were put into a warehouse where 800 "polocks" slept eight hours a day and worked 16. In the ghetto. So I know immigration, Legal or otherwise, none of us to the man can imagine being forced to pick our family up and run, not one of us. They are not immigrating, they are running for their lives. My grandparents married at 13. Running from Stalin. Towns were razed behind them.

I am on the opposite side of my conservative friends about immigration "illegal" or otherwise. They are anglers and they are human anglers, meet them. They are us.

You might stop one overfishing family from overfishing, meet them, teach them, and teach them the importance of our community policing itself.

What a beautiful fishy story. Mike Bryant - the guy responsible or ads on our site - is friends with the Mad Snooker. That side of the world is one of the places Dave takes his clients. That is a hot fishery and can really turn on.

The old bridge over Boca Ciega is a lot like that relative to how the water moves. Very cool. And fishing at night and hooking those snooookies is something you can tell stories about but until you are under there you cannot really share the experience.

A night fishing class would be a cool thing.

DavidT wrote:
It was awesome but maddening. The problem was most were just past the 2nd piling out so with a hellava cast you could get it in there but between the ripping current and piling and a big snook..... you'd be given the key to the city if you got one in but there were some closer in and I hooked those but...... lol

FishHawk wrote:
You mean they didn't know they could stick everything they caught in one of the gigantic coolers that each one was dragging behind them....

Happens almost every time I'm there and sad thing is when fwc comes around they don't even ask us for our licenses.

poyssick wrote:
When I do see them keeping something they shouldn't I do tell them but every time they claim to not know english... I hear what you're saying but only so much you can do sometimes and when it's snook-thirty this license holding citizen is going to get his snook on! But when FWC shows up they sure scatter fast, starting to think I should call fwc about an hr before I go lol jk

poyssick wrote:
a night class would be cool! I'm getting it figured out but so many different scenarios. I can believe the mad snooker goes to those places, I saw one of the snook that came way out of the water and it was an unimaginable size, you'd have to throw a lure on a wench to get that sob in.

Gary,

Thought your comments on helping immigrants was eloquent.

Legal or illegal? There's lots around here. I speak with them, actually have helped with their fishing equipment. There's a wall of distrust that keeps them away.

Their gear is often poorly constructed. I see a love of swivals and wire right to the hooks. If I fix their gear they might catch and keep more fish.

Only the shadow knows the right answer.

Since I do speak Spanish I do tell them if something is too small and the bag limit. Most of then really don't know., and if they are Mexican, chances are they don't even know how to read Spanish. No joke. I'm not trying to belittle them. Its the truth. 9 out if 10 they don't mind the education cuz its not about a fine, its about being deported. If you don't speak Spanish just point to the size on a . that they have to be.

Possick is right, we latinos for the most part are taught to keep everything. When its a matter of life or death you wouldn't care either. For the most here in FL the latino community is willing to oblige.

hookthis1 wrote:
If they don't know the limites then they shouldn't be fishing ;)

Most people are taught that you keep everything you catch and I'm from Colorado and a fly fisher and I was taught to let them go. The problem there is everything is stocked and say this lake gets 55,000 smallmouth bass and you have 200 people a day keep their 5 fish limit the fish are gone real quick and then they can't figure out why.

Unfortunately it's how it goes but what was said about fwc not having enough officers is right, while they are out chasing down boats with a few over/under slot gags or whatever and using all that gas when these bridges are full of people hauling out snook, reds or whatever each basically every night makes you wonder.

Wouldn't be so one-sided about this if every time fwc stopped there that they wouldn't all run for their lifes (while dragging coolers full of illegal fish). Maybe calling fwc before I go isnt such a bad idea after all.

If the immigrants are here legally and/or at least have a license (in their own name and not a stolen ss#) then I'm all for helping them.

I agree that they should know the rules knowing what can be at stake for them. And yes there should be more enforcement on bridges and piers. I just try to do my part as i'm sure you do when you can. it's just simply a matter of culture as to why they do what they do. Doesn't make it right though.