There have been nonetheless a number of hours of daylight left when the ultimate bell rang at Alabama’s Elberta Excessive Faculty final Tuesday. So, Gardner Love, a 17-year-old pupil there, hurried dwelling, 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 Outside Life. “I used to be in search of seatrout or redfish. However there are some small tarpon round, and I believed I noticed a snook one night time a yr or so in the past, in order that’s at all times one thing to strive for.”
Love had by no means caught a snook earlier than, however he knew he had the correct 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 Satan Smooth Bait.
“It’s form of a bizarre mushy 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 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 believed it was a tarpon from the way in which it hit and pulled.”
However shortly into the battle, 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 capable of 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 advised him he’d meet him again on the boat dock. Snook aren’t frequent in Alabama waters, and his dad was wanting to test it out.
“We had been each excited and figured it may be a file 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 almost 2 kilos heavier than the present Alabama file. That fish additionally was caught from Soldier Creek, in accordance 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 sources 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 data is required. He explains that though it may take a month or two for official certification, Love’s snook will virtually definitely turn out to be the brand new state file.
“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 file. It’s fairly superior.”
