My old bait bucket finally died from sun rot. Used it as an excuse to go grab one of those neat $125 Yeti LoadOut bucket kits. Had some ***** and giggles with the guys a Sodium and they were glad to have me back forking over all my dough. I also picked up some saltwater baitfish flies for the 8wt.

That was last night. I worked on assembling the bucket. After which, I figured I’d go test out the bucket.

fast forward to today and it’s 2:45 am and I. Awake for god knows what reason.
was showered and loaded up to fish by 4:15 and parked at my spot by 4:45. Was still pitch black as I grabbed my kit and walked off, down the pathway into the dark and dense Florida estuary jungle.

I get there and it’s low tide as I planned. Not even grey light yet. I yank out the cast net and bag two 12-14” live mullet. Threw in bucket for fresh cutbait. Walked around a tad, cast my net, get it stuck.
wade to other side of Chanel without being eaten by alligators. Unstick the net. Make another cast.
bam 20 baits in the net. Bingo!

cross channel. Load baits into bucket. Forgot new bucket doesn’t have bubbler yet pack everything up. Fill bucket with water from the estuary deprived of oxygen. Hopes fishes would survive the 1/4 miles trek with the water and tool full bucket.

get to the hot spot of the fishing hole. I see activity as I’m walking up. I smile. Always a good sign!
gray Light is come on while I tie up a circle hook flyline on 20lb test and load a 4” Chubb nose hooked onto the hook. A small lob to the middle of the hole...