Marvin and I had been scheduled to fish the week before just before Christmas. But, as the date approached, I wasn't thrilled with the wind and weather forecast, and we decided to try to catch a good day during the following week. We got lucky, and Thursday morning dawned with the temp in the 50s, and by the time we met at Castaways at noon, it was a beautiful day, if a bit breezy.
I left for Sanibel early, and it was a good thing I did. As soon as I came off the Sanibel side of the causeway, traffic was bottle-necked and not moving, or barely crawling. Cars were jumping into holes they had no business trying to get in to, and making turns across the traffic that at times seemed suicidal. It took me fully forty-five minutes to get to Castaways, and Marvin was only a couple of minutes behind me. It took us about twenty minutes to get the kayaks loaded and ready to launch, check out the radios, adjust the PFDs, and go over things with Marvin, and we were ready to take off.
One of my 18# thrust Watersnake trolling motors had gotten dunked on a previous trip, and when I function tested everything, it no longer worked. Being a motor short, I had asked Watersnake some time earlier if they could build me one of their 30# thrust motors in the same shaft length as the 18. They were happy to oblige, and this was the first test of it on the 14.5 Ultimate. It's a little bit heavier than the 18#, but probably not more than five pounds total weight. It has five speeds as opposed to two, and one is much slower than you can go with the 18. That I like, for slowly moving along a shoreline and casting. What was nice was on the one time I needed it, when I put the motor on speed 5, and really took off. I think that as I need to replace motors, I will do so with the 30# motors.
After a relaxing ride of about a mile to our first fishing spot, Marvin and I were ready to see if he'd be able to fly cast from a low-slung kayak. I had warned Marvin that he may not be able to roll out a tight loop on his back cast and keep the line or fly out of the water unless he was a very good fly caster. Well, Marvin was a pretty good caster, and sometimes he was hit the water on his back cast, and sometimes he made beautiful casts. I thought that was pretty good for his first time fly fishing from a kayak. Picture yourself sitting out in your back yard on the grass, trying to cast a fly. Not easy.
With little in the way of rain we now had gin clear winter water, and I was shocked at how much colder the water had gotten in one week during the last front. I recommended Marvin try to go with something in whites and light greens to try to match the water color, and he chose a Clouser Minnow that fit the description. I positioned him on a known great winter pothole, and moved down to the next one. Marvin caught a first-time flounder on the fly. I was almost immediately on a very good winter trout bite, and they were running 3 to 4 pounds. I was not happy that I couldn't take a couple home for dinner.
I was using an Arkansas Shiner CAL jig that glows in the dark. It was very overcast and cloudy for the whole day, and it seemed a good choice. Besides, since I have been using the CAL baits, it has been one of my favorites, catching fish in nearly any condition. I told Marvin to come over and fish my hole, but he wanted to give his spot and fly a little more time. Finally, watching me catch trout after trout, he agreed to come fish my spot, and I passed him my rig in the interest of not wasting time rigging a new rod. Marvin caught a trout or two there, but perhaps we had gotten the best of that spot by then. I moved down to the hole he had been fishing, and caught nothing. Hmmm. Perhaps they weren't there, or had already moved on from our activity.
I came around Marvin to the next hole in the series, and again was back on trout. But, not like earlier. I was amazed at how the time had just flown by. We were having fun, and it really flew. We had seen some pretty good tide movement, and I asked Marvin if he wanted to go and see if we could find some redfish. He was all for that. We huddled, and I gave him a spinning rig with a gold spoon ready to go. I took the silver. Although redfish usually prefer the gold spoon, I like to mix them up. You never know what they might eat, and snook rarely eat a gold spoon, but will jump all over a silver one. Not that I expected to see any snook in that cold water!
We proceeded to stake out and fish, stake out and fish our way across a beautiful flat which nearly always had redfish present if there's enough water. There was, and soon I had stuck a beautiful redfish that gave me fits. I just love how much harder the fish seem to pull when you're right down at their level. Finally, at the boat, I got the dinner guest for that evening safely secured on a stringer and back into the water.
One redfish on a flat means there are almost surely plenty more around. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to catch any more, especially in tough conditions, but you can be confident they are there. We made our way across the flat, and managed to catch two more reds before we were ready to head in and get to the ramp before they put the chain across it. My dinner guest tagged along behind, seeming to instinctively know this would be his final journey. He would occasionally pull hard to the side, and was strong enough to change my course while motoring along on the Watersnake. We got back to the ramp just after five. The was a teenage boy on the first dock fishing, and he was impressed with the redfish I had in tow.
I tied my stringer to a cleat on his dock, and made the block long walk to get the van. Marvin stayed at the ramp chatting with the boy. When I returned with the van, the boy was gone and there was a nice looking couple on the dock chatting with Marvin. They left as I came down to start breaking down the kayaks and get them on the trailer so that Marvin could take off. Meanwhile, Marvin's lovely wife arrived to pick him up. It didn't take us long to get the kayak sitting on the trailer so that Marvin could take off, and the chain across the ramp hung low enough in the middle that we could safely step over it with the kayaks.
Kayaks trailered, Marvin and I said our goodbyes, and they took off. It took me another half hour to get everything unloaded from the boats and back into the van. I was nearly ready to take off, and it was nearly dark, when the boy returned and asked me how big my redfish was. Whereupon I told him to pull the stringer up and take a better look at it. The boy said, "The stringer and fish are gone!" I was shocked and frankly, in disbelief. He had to be looking at the wrong cleat. I went to the dock, and sure enough. There was no sign of my redfish or stringer. It had either been stolen during the short time I was gone, or someone, perhaps had thinking they were doing a good deed, unfastened the stringer and let the fish go. I'm guessing it was the couple that were leaving the dock as I arrived, but can't say that for sure. I can say for sure the fish couldn't get away without help, and that with a stringer dragging along eight feet behind it, it was sentenced to a slow death of starvation once it got tangled in debris on the bottom. What a waste! I don't mind taking a redfish to eat once in a while, but wasting one of those beautiful fish really rubs me the wrong way.
But, for the redfish mystery, it was a wonderful afternoon on the water with Marvin, who's company I greatly enjoyed. And, Marvin was very impressed with the Ultimate. It had lived up to the promises I'd made him of being extremely comfortable and stable, and he was talking about buying one for use on his lakes back home.
