If you’re like me, you usually make a big production of going fishing. Check out the tackle, replace worn leaders, survey your inventory of lures to be sure you’ve got the variety you think you’ll need, get a thermos of coffee and a snack, load the boat, check for sunglasses, hat, sun block, make sure you have the right tackle box, etc. You can spend an hour just getting ready to fish.

While I’m all for a day offshore trolling for dolphin or digging for grouper, or for several hours of working the mangroves in search of redfish and snook, sometimes I just don’t have the time and energy to launch a real expedition. But I can almost always find five or fifteen minutes sometime during the course of the day that’s my time to do whatever I want. Usually what I want is to fish, so that’s what I do.

I’ll admit, I’m lucky to live in Vero Beach close to salt water. The ocean is a quarter mile away and our condo is on the banks of the Indian River. Not everybody is that close to fishable water. But if you’re visiting Florida and staying anywhere near the water, fishing is easy and fast if you’re set up to take advantage of a short break.

My favorite spot for a quick fishing break is my friend Bill’s dock a few doors away. It’s a big dock with pilings interlaced by cross-beams under the water. His sailboat is usually berthed at the dock and, lucky for me, he doesn’t have a diver clean the bottom regularly, so the boat’s bottom often is covered by a film of algae that attracts minnows and tiny crustaceans—food for bigger fish. I keep a stout spinning rig somewhere near the dock, rigged with a 60 lb braided line, a length of 60 lb fluorocarbon leader and a 4-0 circle hook. Live bait—specifically shrimp—seems to work best around the dock, so I keep a mesh bag of live ones floating under the dock. The mesh bags—you can order them from Bass Pro Shops under the name Team Numark Floating Livewell Bait Baskets—keep shrimp, pinfish or pigfish alive for ten days or more, a much better survival record than hard plastic bait buckets that don’t provide enough water circulation and turn into deadly hot houses in bright sun.

When I’m ready to take a break I stroll over to Bill’s, hook on a live shrimp and start dipping it around the dock. Usually it’ll be a small mangrove snapper that whacks the shrimp, but even when the mangroves are hungry I can cover the perimeter of the dock with only three or four shrimp. The fun, though, lies in the surprises. I’ve caught tarpon, snook and grouper under Bill’s dock and had several break offs that left me wondering just what I had latched onto. 

Fast fishing opportunities are there if you look for them. Most of the lawn maintenance guys in Vero keep rods, reels and cast nets in their trucks and turn lunch breaks into fishing breaks. I know guys who cross the Indian River going to or from work. All they have to do is leave home 15 minutes early and they can take a fishing break at the bridge. If you’re staying near the ocean, keep a rod and reel nearby rigged with a top water plug or a flashy spoon. Your morning constitutional down the beach can turn into a fish walk.

The point is that fishing doesn’t have to be a big production. Just take five and see what happens