By Rich Doherty

https://www.fishresponders.com

I’m fishing a skiff and my Dad is running a pontoon boat. The night before, while both of us are sitting on the couch, he looks over at me and says, “Ya know live bait out-fishes artificial any day”. This is a tactic he’s used for years. He already knows my position on this topic but just wants me to bite. A few minutes lapse and he says it again just in case I hadn’t heard it the first time. So just like in fishing you throw the bait or lure and you wait then set the hook. Like a hungry fish I jumped all over the bait! “I’ll tell ya what. I got a few hours tomorrow morning, let’s take the pontoon over to a trout spot. You fish cut bait, I’ll fish artificial.” He had this look like the cat who just ate the canary. He got his way,
he’s going fishing with his son. That morning I could cut the competitive tension in the air with a knife! I loaded
the pontoon with our gear, his cut bait and a handful of lures, and off we went. Father & son heading into battle, sun coming up over the Gulf. Running at a blistering 18 mph. Thirty minutes later we’re at one of my trout spots. An abundance of healthy grass with sand dollar spots throughout, making for perfect ambush points for these trout. So again, my dad is throwing cut mullet and I’m
throwing a twitch bait with a contact retrieve. It wasn’t two casts when BANG! “Trout on! Big fish!” | yell (aren’t they all). Ten feet from the boat the fish pulled the hook. I could hear my Dad smirking behind me. For hours he would throw his cut bait and just sit back and bask in the Florida sun. This spot was like many in Florida with pink spoonbills hanging in the dark green mangroves, an occasional visit from a manatee lifting their heads out of the water to get a glimpse of us and
to let us know they were there. ALL was right in the world. As the morning progressed dad just kept on baiting his hook and casting, while I caught my limit of trout. I smugly said, “Still think cut bait out-fishes artificial?” Dad laughed and in a commanding voice said, “I never
really thought that! I just wanted to fish with my son!”