I hadn't been there in all those years, and I was shocked at how much hurricane Charley had changed the landscape. Except for some of the outside keys, the interior looked completely different, probably because with everything beaten down, you can see things that weren't visible before the storm. There is short new growth mangrove everywhere, but it has an erie quality about it. I felt pretty useless, as there wasn't much I could recognize from the old days.
We were tossing lures only, and started our day around the mouth of Alligator Creek and worked our way south. I was tossing a gold spoon, which back in the old days was the only thing needed to catch 25 to 30 reds or more in this area on a good tide. Bubba was tossing his favorite Gulp baits, and Scott was tossing his favorite jointed hard plastic Sebile bait. What a good looking bait!
I struck first blood when a mangrove snapper jumped all over my gold spoon. Of course, I thought I had a puppy red until I saw it. I haven't seen that many mangrove snappers attach a gold spoon like that guy did.
Bubba struck redfish pay-dirt first, and eventually boated a 33 inch, 12 pound red which ran out from under the mangroves to chase his Gulp down in pretty close quarters. But, Bubba knows all the tricks, and put that beautiful fish in the boat. But, as tournament fish go, it was way out of the ball park.
We kept moving south, and all of us had hits that didn't convert. I had my weed guard mangled several times the way only a redfish can do, and caught a couple of small snook. Dittos for Bubba and Scott. The fish were making it all to obvious they weren't much interested in eating. At least not artificials.
As we were approaching mid-day, the guys decided to head down into the Sound. As we made our approach with the trolling motor, we noticed activity on the surface out ahead of where we'd landed in about 5 ft. of water. We quickly realized they were tarpon playing on the surface, rolling and splashing in the mid-day sun. Happy fish! They were much smaller than what I am used to seeing in that area, but I also haven't seen the fish in there in several years. These fish appeared to be 20 to 40 pounds. Perfect for light gear. We decided to forget the redfish for a while.
We carefully and quietly moved into casting range, as we were about 1.8 casts away when we spotted the fish. It didn't take long before I had the first poon on, but he went airborne before I could ever catch up with the slack, and soon threw the suspending Sebile I'd tied on, back at us.
Shortly after that, Bubba struck pay-dirt on his Gulp bait, and managed to keep the line tight through several nice jumps and runs, and eventually brought the fish boat-side. It was a beautiful 22 pound tarpon. The hook was not stuck in the fish's jaw, but rather just around the inside of the bone. If Bubba had dropped the fish one inch of slack it would have been long gone.
We stayed on the fish for quite a while, and had many fish roll up on our baits, but not connect with them. Finally, at around 2 PM we headed back up toward Punta Gorda to where we'd launched. We were in Scott's boat, a beautiful Hewes 22' Redfisher with a 250HP Yamaha Pro-Max beast hung on the back. A very fast boat. That was the fastest I'd ever made the trip from Punta Gorda to Captiva by land or by sea! It was hard to tell how fast we were cruising, as my eyes were bleeding and my eyelids fluttering like palm frawns in a stiff wind, and causing me to see 3 and 4 digits on his speedometer. I know we weren't going 600, so I'm guess it must have been 60!
It had been a great fun day with my buddy Bubba, and was great to get to fish with Scott for the first time, and get to know him. What a great guy to fish with! They're fishing the tournament as I write this (Saturday), and I wish them great luck.
