This is Chris reporting on the latest from our little corner of paradise. I can hear some of you saying, here we go again, more tales of screaming reels, hooped rods, fish caught etc. Well just to show that it ain’t necessarily so, here is an account of a blank. It does happen, even here.

We have gotten into the habit of taking our rods with us when we drop the boat back at its overnight mooring in the secret lagoon. That way we can troll slowly up Black Creek about a mile or so to our mooring. Then it’s a five minute walk up the path to Steppingstones. We do this several times a week. Back to the story.

The lure of choice for this game is a 4 inch Storm Swim Shad. Colour does not seem to matter. Regular readers of our blogs will know we have had tarpon, jacks, snook and blue runners with tarpon predominating in this lagoon. There are other species present but not caught as yet.

I had decided to experiment with some other soft plastics without great success. However Sue fishing alongside me had decided to stick with the Swim Shads and she had not had a hit either. So the jury was still out. We trolled all the way up without any sign of interest, save from a smug looking vulture staring down from his lofty perch on a dead tree. We saw two tarpon roll in quick succession and braced ourselves for action. It did not come. The boat muttered on, cutting through the flat calm water with barely a sound. We always watch out for bird activity, notably pelican, but today nothing apart from a young tiger heron who totally ignored us. Usually we do two passes, up then back down to the creek mouth and then same again before a final fast run back up to our mooring to charge up Patience’s battery before leaving her there over night. Today we had decided on just one pass up and down. Things just did not feel right. On the way back down I switched to a 5 inch Swim Shad (in desperation) and almost immediately had a tentative sniff. Not enough! Another 300yds further on I had a vicious take which nearly took the rod out of my hand, but that’s all it was, a big hit. The hook evidently missed its hold. Sue had not had anything so we decided to call it a day, commenting yet again that we must bring some bait down and fish in the deep water right under the mangroves.

We suspect that, like everywhere, the fish feeding pattern is determined by rainfall which in turn affects water temperature. The lagoon drains the surrounding swamp land to our west and at times has a pronounced flow. The water then is pretty opaque. In the dry season, the water clears and the bottom is clearly visible. As this lagoon is not fished much by the locals, the fish can be very spooky, especially tarpon. Furthermore, being connected to the sea via Black Creek, the lagoon is tidal and salt water comes and goes with the tide. Different species of fish react in different ways to this movement, and if bait fish run up Black Creek, or are chased up Black Creek which we have seen happen, that may further compound an already complicated pattern of feeding behavior. So all we can do is watch, experiment, and try to learn. It’ s exactly what we spent hours doing on our beloved River Thurne back in Norfolk (UK), where many of the above features also applied. So back to the drawing board!