The first hint of fall in the air combined with great new moon tides to make for an awesome week of fishing. In fact, the best fishing I've seen in a long time.
The week began on Monday with my first trip with Scott McBane, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, and his step-father, Dave Tamara, of Fort Myers. It seems that it's been windy here for weeks, and the weather boys had us down for another windy day. The problem is, they never seem to get close to the right numbers out on the water.
We headed out in the darkness for Picnic Island, where bait has been good all summer. We got there just before the crack of dawn, and got to work chumming. Bait came to us until the last of the falling tide, and then disappeared. We waited for the tide to turn, thinking the bait would come back, but it didn't. We didn't have enough for a day of fishing, so I decided to head back over to the B Span flat to see if we could top off the well there. It was already howling. We anchored on the edge of the drop off, and were able to get plenty of bait to top off the well.
We headed up into the Sound, and once I saw where the tide was, I pondered where we would begin our hunt for fish. I settled on a small mangrove island that has been good to me over the years, especially with redfish and snook. On the first part of the shoreline we managed a ladyfish and a couple of snook. But, we couldn't really get anything going.
I made a small move to the part of the island that usually holds the redfish. We were instantly in snook before we got to the patch of ground I was heading to. We caught a few more as we went. Once we got to the area I wanted to fish the action exploded with snook and redfish, but mostly redfish, along with the occasional trout. We caught fish right up until the tide quit running, sometimes two and three at a time. Scott and Dave were in fishing heaven, as was I. We caught most of our fish on live shiners. I did present a couple of pinfish right in the school we were fishing, but they wouldn't look at them. I cut up the one ladyfish we'd caught earlier and tossed a steak out to the fish. It was immediately inhaled by a nice redfish, as was every steak we tossed until it was gone. Finally, as the noon hour approached, the bite was over exactly as I had predicted. It had been a hell of a morning. The boys had tired arms. I had a wet butt and a hungry gut! We were off to the Waterfront for an awesome lunch. There's no better way to end a perfect day with a couple of great guys!fishing pole
I awaited my trip with Bill Blackburn and his best friend Burt, with eager anticipation that it would be another great day. I figured those redfish would be right back there where I'd left them, because that's the way redfish are. They're home bodies. Generally, when you find them on a flat on a given tide, they'll be right back there on the next similar tide.
With Bill and Burt on board, we headed straight to the B Span flats for bait. I felt sure I wouldn't need to go any farther. Once set up and chumming, the water seemed to be playing tricks on us for a while, but once the tide began coming in well, we really loaded the boat with beautiful bait.
I had discussed the prior day's trip with the boys, and wanted to make sure I got back on my spot before someone else did, even if I had to get there early and wait. They were good with that. As we rode along toward our spot, we ran across a lot of topwater action right at the southern tip of Chino Island. Figuring some of it would be ladyfish, we decided to turn around and catch a couple for bait. But, the splashing turned out to be a real potpourri of fish including jacks, nice speckled trout, ladyfish, and even grouper and snapper. After having some quick fun and putting a couple of ladies in the well, we were off.
We were early, indeed. The water was pretty low, and things were at least an hour from covering. We did manage to catch a few snook, but it was slow, and I felt confident that our redfish would show up as the tide covered things up a bit.
Finally, we got the first redfish, and I thought the big bite was about to begin. But, it didn't. Oh, the boys caught snook, redfish, and trout, and quickly had their Slams, but the big bite never materialized. But, we were catching, and Confucius says "Never leave fish to find fish!" Finally, as the tide was nearing full high, and the big day I had primed the boys for hadn't materialized, we decided to try another spot before everything came to a grinding halt.
Bill and Burt were happy, as we were immediately on a hot bite of mostly redfish mixed with a few snook. We knew that with the tide now falling it wouldn't last for more than an hour or so, but it was just the ticket to a great day. To the best that I can recall, the boys put 15 or more reds, a dozen snook, and a dozen trout in the boat, as well as the fish we'd caught earlier. We all left for the Waterfront Restaurant with smiles on our faces. It had been a good day, and I really enjoyed Bill and Burt.fishing pole
Thursday's trip was another great one with two of my favorite people, Drs. Alan Kingston and John Bond, of Apoka, Florida. We've been fishing together for many years, and always seem to pull off great trips, and have a blast.
We got bait at B Span, but it was tough. It came quickly, but once the tide slowed it got very tough. We decided to go with what we had, and not waste any more time with bait. I noticed as we traveled to our first spot that there was a lot of boat traffic. Never heard, but probably people prefishing a weekend tournament. We stopped to see if we could catch some ladyfish, but had no luck with that. My big school was gone. As we made our way on into the Sound I noticed there was a boat already camped on one of the spots I'd fished Monday and Tuesday, even though it seemed a good two hours early to be there.
We continued on north and settled on a key that usually has lots of snook, and generally offers up a real potpourri of other fish, as well. The tide was in its final throws of falling. My team caught 3 snook, 1 trout, and a bunch of mangrove snapper. Oddly, once the tide turned, things came to a stop.
We moved on north and settled on a small key that has nice holes around it that often hold nice redfish. Right out of the box Alan caught a big, beautiful 27" redfish that he was thrilled with. What a fight! John caught a snook, but that was about it as we worked our way around the key. We moved on.
At the next stop we had some good redfish and snook action for a while. We caught half dozen or so redfish on ladyfish steaks, and I think we also got a snook or two at that spot. We had a variable breeze that was light, but enough to mess with our fishing every time it shifted from east to north, and visa versa. With a limit of redfish in the well, John mentioned that we might turn our attention to snook. We had less than two hours to the top of the tide, so we packed up and got going quickly to our first snook hole.The guys caught several snook shortly after arriving, but nothing in the slot of 28 to 33 inches. I did my first chumming of the day. We had sometimes half dozen explosions on the chum at once, but we couldn't get the fish to eat a bait with a hook in it. We even had two big baits with hooks in them rolled up upon, but the fish didn't take. I could tell they were good sized fish by the amount of water they fished.
Frustrated, I told John and Alan I was going to show them a new trick. I explained that often when the snook are blasting the bait on top but not hitting a nose-hooked shiner, it's telling the angler that the fish want the bait right up on top. I theorized this was the case. We KNEW we had good fish in front of us! So, I tied on a small J-hook, and showed the boys how to tail-hook a large shiner.
We sent the first one on a mission. Before long, John's bait was wrecked! After a great fight, John had the beautiful 30 inch fish to the boat. I think Alan had a slight case of snook envy, but on the next round Alan's bait was wrecked, and he brought a beautiful 29 inch snook to the boat. It was his best in a long time.
With the tide nearly done, we decided there was no better way to end the day than on such a positive note with two nice keeper snook to the boat. We headed home. Back at the dock, Alan made my day when he used the "awesome" word when thanking me for the trip. That sure made my day! But, actually it's Alan and John who are awesome!
