There have been nonetheless a couple of hours of sunlight left when the general bell rang at Alabama’s Elberta Prime College remaining Tuesday. So, Gardner Love, a 17-year-old scholar there, moved quickly house, grabbed a fishing rod, and hopped within the circle of relatives boat.
“Our 20-foot [bay boat] used to be tied at a dock we use close to my area, so I went there and began fishing in Soldier Creek off Perdido Bay,” Love tells Outside Lifestyles. “I used to be searching for seatrout or redfish. However there are some small tarpon round, and I believed I noticed a snook one evening a 12 months or so in the past, in order that’s at all times one thing to check out for.”
Love had by no means stuck a snook sooner than, however he knew he had the suitable tools for it. An element-time deckhand for a neighborhood constitution boat, he used to be the usage of a spinning setup with 8-pound braid and a silver-chartreuse Satan Cushy Bait.
“It’s more or less a peculiar cushy plastic jerk bait, nevertheless 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 trap is highest.”
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He fished his manner up the creek, catching and freeing a couple of small seatrout. Then, round 5 p.m., he headed to a knee-deep space filled with marsh grass and coastline duvet that seemed high for redfish.
“I made a forged and the trap hung up in a tree,” he says. “I jiggled the rod a pair occasions and the trap fell out and hit the water. As quickly because it landed there used to be a large explosion from a robust fish. I believed it used to be a tarpon from how it hit and pulled.”
However in a while into the battle, the fish jumped. Love had observed sufficient pictures of snook that he simply known the darkish lateral line alongside the fish’s flank. The snook jumped a number of extra occasions sooner than Love used to be ready to paintings it with reference to the boat.
“I noticed that it used to be slightly hooked, and I didn’t have a touchdown web,” 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 in an instant referred to as his dad, who advised him he’d meet him again on the boat dock. Snook aren’t not unusual in Alabama waters, and his dad used to be desperate to test it out.
“We had been each excited and figured it could be a report as a result of they’re so uncommon to look in Alabama,” Gardner explains. “We put the snook on a fish stringer to stay it alive, then took it to a close-by marina to weigh it.”
The jetty’s qualified scale registered simply over 7 kilos, which is just about 2 kilos heavier than the present Alabama report. That fish additionally used to be stuck from Soldier Creek, in step with James Swarthout, the state fisheries biologist who formally weighed and measured Gardner’s fish.
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The snook used to be 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 qualified the snook’s legit weight of 7-pounds, .4 oz.. It used to be 26.49 inches lengthy with a 13.14-inch girth.
The fish remains to be frozen and can stay on the workplace for roughly two weeks, Swarthout says, in case additional information is wanted. He explains that despite the fact that it might take a month or two for legit certification, Love’s snook will virtually indubitably change into the brand new state report.
“I’m beautiful 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 beautiful superior.”