Monday was the only descent day of the week, weather-wise. It blew like crazy the rest of the week., and the only day I fished was Monday.
I stopped at Shack Baits Monday morning and bought a few dozen hand-picked shrimp, just in case the fish didn't want to eat plastic, again. I also decided to see if I could catch a few shiners at the causeway, even though I wasn't carrying the right net for the job. The bait is very small right now, and anything less than a 1/4 inch mesh will gill all of it. I had very little time to work on bait before picking up my customers at the Sanibel Boat Ramp, and didn't hit any bait in the short time I had available. Capt. Kelly Kiminski was nice enough to give me a scoop of bait, so I'd have a little bit to play with in addition to the shrimp and lures we'd be using.
It was already pretty breezy as I ran along the causeway to the ramp to pick up Rick VandeWater and his friend Tom, of Wexford, Pennsylvania. We were just ahead of the front that would cause all the wind for the rest of the week. I hoped we would see a good bite.
We headed on up into the Sound to our first stop. I was looking for snook, and the place was full of them. It always is. It's never a question of whether the fish are there, just whether they'll eat, or not. Of course, this great spot also holds inshore grouper and jewfish, winter trout, small redfish at times, jacks, snapper, and sometimes even small tarpon. But, on this morning it was the snapper that wanted to play. I didn't take us long to burn what shrimp we had, as well as some of our shiners, on the hungry mangrove snappers. I'd say the boys caught at least a dozen along with a nice gag grouper. We kept three, I think, as Rick and Tom wanted to feed three folks that evening. But, the snook just weren't interested, probably because of the slow moving falling tide. After working the area over really well, we moved on.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
It was time to see if we could catch a few redfish, and I knew just the spot to be on the falling tide. I had to maneuver against the wind to get to the part of the hole I wanted to fish, which is where the reds usually hang out. Once there, I saw a number of reds n the hole, and one even swam within 15 feet of the front of the boat in the tannin stained water. But, like the snook, they just weren't interested. I had two shrimp offerings out, and alternated with a live shiner. While the boys fished the live baits, I tossed an Exude jig. Oddly, I was the one that got the hits. I had three redfish and one snook hit my jigs, but they were not interested in eating. They were just curious, and wouldn't take well enough to get a hook set. They never even looked at a live bait. After an hour or so it was obvious the fish weren't going to eat, so it was time to move on, again.
Since Rick had really enjoyed the fight of that gag grouper, so I decided to go after grouper next. It was obvious the snook didn't want to eat, and we haven't seen much in the way of trout yet this winter, presumably because of the big kill from the red tide last year. But, much to our chagrin, the grouper were also lockjawed. We only managed to catch one. That was really surprising because they're usually one species that is willing to play when the others aren't. But, sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas, and doesn't care what you want.
Since I hadn't done so in a while, I decided to check on trout. I've kept hoping we'd get a good migration of trout in here to help us fill our winter fishing days. I decided to begin our hunt at what is normally one of m favorite spots. It's not a spot I particularly like to fish on a falling tide, but that's what we had. It didn't take long before we had our first trout, and it was a very nice one. A trophy! We caught two or three more, and then it was over. But, they were all nice fish, and very good to see.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
I moved to another spot not far away that is typically full of trout, though not as large. They have been nowhere to be found thus far this winter. But, they were there now. We caught trout after trout, all below the slot. We changed our jigs to Bass Assassins, just to match our baits to the size of our fish a little better. We didn't care the fish were small. We were catching on nearly every cast, and just having fun. We stayed with them until they were done.
With that we headed home. By now it was pretty windy as the front was approaching. We took the path of least resistance back to the ramp, and I was about to turn into the Punta Rassa ramp when Rick reminded me I had to deliver them to the Sanibel Ramp. cleaned the two nice trout and several snapper on the dock wile we waited on the wives to arrive. It had been a fun day. Although Rick has fished here some before, this was his first winter fishing trip. He learned that the fishing is quite different from the rest of the year.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
