The tides this week were generally poor for most of the week. I always tell my prospective customers about how the tide affects the fishing, and how I see the catching prospects for their chosen day. That often costs me business, but it's the only way I can do business. It also pretty much weeds out the pure meat fishermen! There are very few of us left here who endorse meat fishing. Under current Florida fishing regulations it's very difficult to do serious meat fishing, anyway. So, if the prospective customer is looking to fill a cooler with fish, or to just catch, catch, catch, this policy discourages them.
So, after juggling a couple of days around that had been booked, I wound up with my only trip on Friday, with my long-time friend and customer, Bob McGuire. Bob and I have been fishing together for ten years, and as we rode to Tarpon Bay chatting I told Bob that I couldn't recall one day that was a stinker. He assured me that we hadn't had one.
We were in the second day of pre-front conditions. The wind had turned out of the south on Thursday, and oddly the reports at the dock were mixed. A few had put together good days, but most had struggled. I would have expected everyone to bang ‘em, but there has been no such thing as a sure thing with the fishing. I warned Bob that if the fish had gorged Thursday and were full, we could be in for a tough bite. Bob didn't care. He was just happy to be on the water after having not been for most of the previous year because of shoulder surgery.
With the south wind already up, we caught great bait at Tarpon Bay. And, it didn't take very long. We were the last in and one of the first gone. We were ready to find out which way it would be.
It started off pretty well. We didn't get the big bite that we normally see on a big south wind, but we had a bite. And, at the first stop Bob caught several snook and a redfish. But, the wind was strong, as well as the tide, and the fish were soon out of there headed for shallower haunts.
We moved on. We couldn't buy a bite at the next stop, although the place is loaded with snook and other fish. After giving it a reasonable time, we moved on. We stopped along the way to see if the grouper would play, and they did. If memory serves me, those fish were all 19 and 20 inches. Great light tackle grouper action, for sure.
We turned out attention back to snook and redfish. Our next stop gave us a goose egg! Oh, the fish were there, but weren't interested. We made a change of neighborhoods. And, after a little poking around at some different spots, we found fish that would eat in a couple of places. Bob had a great time catching snook. I forgot to count, as did Bob, but he caught quite a few before we were done.
WINTER FISHING FUN!
We'd had the first band of showers come through early that morning, and just missed them. I could see another band of weather on the radar that I calculated would be on us by early afternoon. As Bob and I fished that last spot, we could see the weather deteriorating. I had one more thing to do on the way home, and we wanted to have lunch at the Waterfront, anyway. I met an old customer of mine, Art Lewis, whom I hadn't seen in some time, and delivered a beautiful Stella 2500FA/St.Croix Legend Tournament combo to him. I know he will love fishing with that. By the time Bob and I had lunch and got back to the ramp the weather was about on us. I cleaned the boat in the rain.
It had been great to spend a day with Bob, again. He's one of my all-time favorites. He's easy going, fun, and just loves to fish. And, I love putting him on them!
I've got a full week next week, but by the time this front gets through here I expect it will wreck the already difficult fishing for a few days, at least. We'll soon see.
