There have been nonetheless a number of hours of daylight left when the ultimate bell rang at Alabama’s Elberta Excessive College final Tuesday. So, Gardner Love, a 17-year-old pupil there, hurried residence, grabbed a fishing rod, and hopped within the household boat.
“Our 20-foot [bay boat] was tied at a dock we use close to my home, so I went there and began fishing in Soldier Creek off Perdido Bay,” Love tells Out of doors Life. “I used to be in search of seatrout or redfish. However there are some small tarpon round, and I assumed I noticed a snook one evening a yr or so in the past, in order that’s all the time one thing to attempt for.”
Love had by no means caught a snook earlier than, however he knew he had the appropriate gear for it. A component-time deckhand for an area constitution boat, he was utilizing a spinning setup with 8-pound braid and a silver-chartreuse Devil Soft Bait.
“It’s sort of a bizarre gentle plastic jerk bait, however it’s nice for shallow water fishing,” says Love. “I used to be going manner up the creek the place it’s weedy and filled with snags, in order that lure is ideal.”
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He fished his manner up the creek, catching and releasing a number of small seatrout. Then, round 5 p.m., he headed to a knee-deep space filled with marsh grass and shoreline cowl that regarded prime for redfish.
“I made a solid and the lure hung up in a tree,” he says. “I jiggled the rod a pair occasions and the lure fell out and hit the water. As quickly because it landed there was a giant explosion from a robust fish. I assumed it was a tarpon from the best way it hit and pulled.”
However shortly into the combat, the fish jumped. Love had seen sufficient photographs of snook that he simply acknowledged the darkish lateral line alongside the fish’s flank. The snook jumped a number of extra occasions earlier than Love was in a position to work it near the boat.
“I noticed that it was barely hooked, and I didn’t have a touchdown internet,” he says. “So, I stepped overboard into knee-deep water, grabbed the fish, and put it on my boat deck. Then I hopped again into the boat.”
After touchdown the fish, Love instantly known as his dad, who informed him he’d meet him again on the boat dock. Snook aren’t widespread in Alabama waters, and his dad was desperate to test it out.
“We have been each excited and figured it may be a report as a result of they’re so uncommon to see in Alabama,” Gardner explains. “We put the snook on a fish stringer to maintain it alive, then took it to a close-by marina to weigh it.”
The marina’s licensed scale registered simply over 7 kilos, which is sort of 2 kilos heavier than the current Alabama record. That fish additionally was caught from Soldier Creek, in line with James Swarthout, the state fisheries biologist who formally weighed and measured Gardner’s fish.
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The snook was placed on ice till the next morning at 8 a.m. when Gardner met Swarthout on the state’s marine assets workplace in Gulf Shores. Swarthout licensed the snook’s official weight of 7-pounds, .4 ounces. It was 26.49 inches lengthy with a 13.14-inch girth.
The fish remains to be frozen and can stay on the workplace for about two weeks, Swarthout says, in case extra info is required. He explains that though it may take a month or two for official certification, Love’s snook will virtually actually develop into the brand new state report.
“I’m fairly stoked about the entire thing,” Love says. “I by no means held a snook till that one, and it’s a state report. It’s fairly superior.”
