As I mentioned in last week's report, my one trip this week was a donated trip to Operation Open Arms, an organization formed by my friend Capt. John "GiddyUp" Bunch for the benefit of our soldiers returning home or coming home on leave from Iraq, Afganistan, and other theaters. We donate a day of our time and take them out fishing. Its just a way for the fishing guide community to say "Thank You!" to the brave young men and women who are overseas protecting our country.
My customer was a very nice young man, Army Specialist Daniel Snurdkowski, and his fiancee Tiffany Coffee. Daniel is home on leave and will be returning to Iraq soon. They met me at the ramp at 0630 hrs., and were also greeted by my good friend Bruce Miller, of Cape Coral, who is himself a Veteran. Bruce had asked me to let him know when I was doing trips for OOA, so that he could come down and greet them at the ramp. Bruce and I were both early, which gave us a chance to chat. I think Daniel and Tiffany were a bit surprised to find another Vet there to greet them, aside from myself. After chatting for a few minutes Bruce thanked Daniel for his service, and we got rolling.
I headed straight up to the flats south of the power lines, where I had gotten great bait the week before. But, boy were things different, now. We chummed and threw, moved, chummed and threw, moved, and chummed and threw, and had maybe three dozen shiners of assorted sizes. There was bait there, obviously, but we couldn't get it chummed up in any quantity. It was one or two baits per throw.
Finally, in desperation, I moved us up to the flats off of Captiva hoping to find more plentiful bait. It wasn't. It was the same thing we'd seen all morning. We had already spent more than twice the time I normally allot to catching bait. We had enough to fish for the remaining time, but there would be no live chumming on this trip.
By now it was after nine o'clock. We had a falling tide, which I strongly dislike fishing for the most part, and the water everywhere is coffee black from the fresh water invasion from the dumping from Lake Ockeechobee. Aside from the other problems the dumping is causing, it usually also screws up the fishing and the bait for at least two or three weeks.
I decided while we were in that general area to fish a favorite spot of mine that can be quite good on falling tides. I was surprised to see the water as black as pitch so far north, and even more surprised that we couldn't even draw a strike. We moved on.
I decided to move back closer to the ramp where we could take advantage of more of the tide. Since the water was so black everywhere, I figured it wouldn't make much difference. At the next two stops we again couldn 't buy a bite. Frustration was setting in. Again, we moved on.
Although we were having fun, we had not yet caught any fish. I wanted Dan and Tiff to catch some fish, not just go for a boat ride. And, at the next stop we found what we were looking for. I was looking for some big jack action to give Dan and Tiff some arm burn. And, the jacks were there. Even without chumming we had them blowing up bait off the corner of a small mangrove key. They were big fish! But, those jokers would eat. They went so far as to blow some of our baits right out of the water with big topwater hits, and also chased a couple right to the boat and then rolled on them, but they never ate one of our baits. I couldn't believe it.
In frustration I moved a short distance away to another piece of shoreline that usually has lots of snook, snapper, and jack action. Pretty soon, we had what we were looking for; interested fish. Tiffany struck first blood with a snook. She had repeated hits and fish on, but managed to let most of them get away before getting them to the boat. Snook are masters at getting away, especially when the angler is inexperienced at snook fishing.
SUMMER FISHING FUN!
Meanwhile, poor Dan is throwing his baits in the same water, and not getting bites! I'm sure he was wondering what was going on, and why he wasn't getting hits. But, as any avid fisherman knows, sometimes a particular person, or rod, will be hot, for no logical reason. Tiffany's rod was hot!
It was getting close to time for lunch when I saw a big blow on one of the get away shiners from Tiffany's escapades. I knew it was a big fish, and probably a snook. I quickly pitched a bait the long distance to the blow, and dropped it right on ground zero. I handed Danny the rod even as the fish was blasting the bait. It was now up to Danny to get this scaled Houdini to the boat before it could escape. I knew from Danny's early comments that he had never tangled with a snook such as this, and immediately went into the coaching mode. Everything had to happen right, plus there would be a lot of luck involved. That's snook fishing.
And, Danny being a well trained soldier listened to his Captain and put a whoopin on that snook, and in a few minutes a very excited Danny had a beautiful 11 pounds 34.5 inch snook in the boat. And, the luck was apparent. This was one of the rare times when the fish had taken the circle hook deep, and was on the leader. But, because Danny had followed my instructions and gotten the fish to the boat fairly quickly, she had not had enough time to rub through the 40 pound leader.
It was Danny's biggest snook, and biggest fish ever. He was thrilled. I was proud of him. This was the perfect end to a tough day. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to celebrate over lunch. The folks at the Waterfront were happy to comp Danny a great meal, which is very nice of them. So, what had begun as a tough day (fishing wise) had ended as a great day for Dan, and that's what it was all about, as he was the star of the day!
SUMMER FISHING FUN!
Things get a bit busier next week, as we see a hint that things might be beginning to return to normal. Two notes of interest. First, I am this weekend installing an on-line booking calendar for a trial run. It allows the user to see what days are available and then make an on-line reservation. It then sends me an email notifying me of the reservation, and puts the customer information into a database. I then contact the customer for confirmation. If I am pleased with how the system works, and if more importantly, you the customers are pleased with it, I may opt for the full system, which would allow for on-line payments of deposits, or paying of the trips in full. We'll see. I'm not sure I like the idea of technology that removes me from having a dialog with, and getting to know my customer before I get to me him.
Second, gas prices are coming down. If this trend continues, and I believe it will, I will soon roll back my rates to remove what has been a fuel surcharge. I'm not exactly sure when that will be, but if the trend continues and the adjustment is made, I will make the adjustment retroactive to this date for anyone who has booked a trip beyond this date. So, if you are thinking about booking a trip in the near future but are sitting on the fence, fear not. I will honor the new rate.
Until next week.....Tight Lines!
