After being quarantined for the last month, not really able to leave my house due to the coronavirus, my family and I finally found an opportunity to leave, and we took it. I had planned to spend the day fishing at a new spot, the Rickenbacker Causeway, which is the bridge connecting Miami to Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. Next the the bridge is part of a bridge that was not completed. This section is now a fishing pier. I had wanted to fish at this spot for a while, as I had heard some good things from there. This would be my first fishing trip of the year. (Trust me, it's been tough.) I was very busy for the beginning of the year, and with the Coronavirus, I hadn't really been able to find time. On the way I stopped at a bait and tackle shop, and, with a mask and all, I bought two dozen live shrimp for the day. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots more people out then I expected. When I arrived at the pier, however, I found that both the parking spaces and the pier itself were closed because of the pandemic. I then checked, just to be sure, whether Bill Baggs State Park was closed, and it sure was. It was disappointing, but it was understandable. We had to move on. We still had to find a way to kill some time, so we went north to pickup some food and to find another spot. Both the Haulover jetty and the Newport pier at Sunny Isles were closed. By now we had just decided to go home and fish across the street. Again, I did not expect to see so many people out. But the time it was much more reasonable; all were on boats heading out of the canal, away from people, and I'm sure that they, too were anxious to leave the house. Jacob and I faced a few challenges. The bigger fish were only around for a few minutes at a time. Then they would suddenly vanish. Another was the constant threat of Puffers coming in to steal our baits. I like to catch all fish, and I appreciate each fish I have the opportunity to catch, but Puffers can be quite the nuisance when targeting other fish. Jacob caught three nice fish: a small Blue Striped Grunt, an 8 inch long Mangrove Snapper, and a Puffer fish (he enjoys the Puffers more than I do. I have grown rather weary of them.) I, on the other hand, had only managed to catch an unavoidable PUFFER. I've had better results. Welp, it was a nice day of fishing anyways, even though we only managed to catch 4 smaller fish in total, and missing many bites by bigger Snapper and such. Regardless, it was great to finally go outside and enjoy the beautiful Miami weather and waterways.
