What was to be a four day work week, rare for August, wound up being a two day week. Monday, I attended what was the most beautiful funeral service celebrating the life of Capt. Sean Middleton's mother, Lynda. There were a ton of folks there, including lots of fishermen and fishing guides. Lynda was a water baby, and finally succumbed to a long, six year battle with cancer.
Tuesday, I spent a very relaxing morning with my good friend Dr. John Hitt, who was taking a little R & R away from his duties at UCF. Actually, John is always working, no matter where he's at. It's more of an environmental change.
We agreed to get right at it and use artificials instead of wasting time and energy catching bait. We left the dock shortly after 0600 hrs. and headed down the river to Miserable Mile, and up into the Sound. We were headed to a spot in the north end that has been full of snook that only want to bite on the falling tide. Our mission was to catch some snook on topwater plugs. I would toss a prop-driven Mirrolure with my Calais, and John would walk the dog with a silver Top Pup.
Once there and anchored, I had immediate action on my lure. The snook were boiling and blasting on it, but not getting hooked up. Oddly, John was not getting any interest on the Dog. I finally hooked up with a nice snook, but she immediately took me to a submerged tree limb, where I was immediately reminded of how much more durable Power Pro is than monofilament. The green Andy 12 pound line parted very quickly as the snook sawed it against the barnacle covered limb. )@&$_(*!
We had been delayed at getting to our spot by a large cell of rain that looked very ominous, and seemed to be on a rendezvous course with us. So, within a half hour of so of our arrival, the tide flipped almost immediately, and the bite stopped. We couldn't draw another strike.
It was time to do what John really loves. Fish for trout. We stayed with the topwater plugs for a while at the first stop, but the bite was tough. John showed off his topwater skills by catching both species of catfish with a Top Pup. He also got one nice keeper trout. But, the catch of the day for John was a trout head! Yes! Something with lots of sharp teeth ate a nice trout while on the line, leaving only the head cut off at the gills. Probably a barracuda, or possibly a large mackerel.
We moved on, hitting a number of flats that normally hold trout. As we fished John lost another nice keeper trout when it shook loose before he could get it over the gunwales of the boat. I had a great hit on my jig that turned out to be a nice bluefish. We caught lots of small trout and ladyfish, and John also got two or three jack crevalle.
All in all it was a fun and relaxing morning. We had rain cells all around us all morning, but never crossed paths with one of them. We settled for one trout to fillet, but that was OK.
Wednesday morning I was up at 0300 hrs, anticipating my first trip with Karen Lassiter and her son Will. I immediately fired up the computer and checked the NWS radar. It was clear. But, by 0400 hrs there was a tiny little line of showers developing to the south, just offshore. The last check before leaving revealed it had grown a little bit, but it didn't appear to be much of a factor. But, by the time I had gone through the normal morning ready routine and arrived at the Port Comfort ramp, I could tell it was about to rain.
Shortly after 0500 hrs the bottom absolutely fell out! I was shocked that the small line of showers could be delivering such a deluge. Capt. Rob Modys arrived in the middle of it. He was as surprised as I was. He queued up the radar on his cellphone, and we were shocked to see that our line of showers had grown into a large system of storms just offshore, and appeared to be headed our way.
Meanwhile, Karen and Will had arrived and had been sitting in the deluge for some forty minutes. Finally, as the rain let up a bit, we managed a soggy meeting, and decided that canceling was the wise option. Rob did the same. Of course, the weather moved offshore by around 0900, but the call was the right one.
Thursday morning was a replay of Wednesday morning. The difference was that there was much more weather brewing just south than there had been the day before. I called Rich Parisen several times to try to save him the aggravation of getting up and getting ready only to be rained out. I left three messages before I figured he must be out of service for some reason.
Finally, Rich called, but he was already on the way up from Naples with his wife, Lauren. His battery had indeed been dead, and it took a while to come back. We rescheduled for Friday, where the rain chances were negligible.
Friday morning brought with it clear radar for my first outing with Rich and Lauren Parisen, of Aqueboque, New York. Rich is a Captain and guides as well as sells boats. He proved to be a very interesting guy. This was his first trip to southwest Florida, and he was interested in getting a good look at the area and learning a little about our fishing. He is also a big fan of plug fishing and topwaters, and we decided to go with lures. We were ahead of schedule, and it was still dark, so I opted to head on up into the Sound to see if we could catch a redfish on topwater before the water disappeared on us.
Boy, it was really blowing out fast! We stopped at a favorite spot of mine that most always holds snook and redfish. I figured that if we couldn't get a red to take, perhaps a snook would find our topwaters irresistible. But, trying to catch fish on the flats after a big high tide that was incoming all through the night, is trying to catch fish with full bellies! It ain't easy. We couldn't draw a strike, but did see some fish push in the low light of early morning. Dittos for the second spot. It was time to change strategy.
We headed off to the same snook hole John and I had fished a few days earlier. There was no doubt the place is full of snook. We just had to try to trick them with our lures. The current was raging out of there, and we opted to make drifts while casting. It wasn't easy! We never got a snook to eat, but did catch several jack crevalle. We worked another spot not far away with the same result. We just couldn't get the snook to eat our plastic. And, I must say it wasn't because we weren't getting the bait to the fish. Rich was undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best caster I've ever had in my boat. It was obvious he was a seasoned and skilled angler.
We moved on, turning our attention to more general fishing. We stopped at a beautiful flat looking for trout action, but we mostly found turtlegrass that quickly fouled our plugs. A change of location was in order.
As we rode along I spotted a school of fish working bait, and of course the birds were working the bait from above as well. The first thing we saw was what appeared to be a tarpon rolling right in the middle of all the action. We were still far away making our approach, but I couldn't imagine any other species it could have been. Once we got close and began casting, we answered both questions. The fish working the bait were ladyfish, and the fish working the ladyfish were indeed tarpon.
I had given Lauren the quickie BarHopp'R casting clinic early that morning, and it was now beginning to pay off with much longer casts as her timing came back. But, it took her a few minutes to get the hang of hooking the ladyfish and keeping them hooked while fishing barbless. She did, though. She was having fun.
Meanwhile, we put several small ladyfish in the baitwell, and I rigged a 4/0 Owner Muto circle hook so we could put one of those ladyfish out for the tarpon we knew were around. We followed the school for some time, catching lots of ladyfish, but never got a tarpon to eat. Interestingly, a porpoise showed up and kind of broke up the party.
At the next stop we were looking for some of those hard pulling grouper and jewfish, but what we found were some trout that were willing to bite. We played with the trout until they quit, and never did get a grouper to the boat.
We moved on to what would be our last stop before the tide quit just before noon. It was getting pretty late in an August dog day to catch anything, but I hoped to find someone hungry in the deeper holes we were fishing. We did get a couple of hits, but no commitments. It was time for lunch.
We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, where we had an awesome lunch. They serve the best conch dish you'll ever eat, and it's tender as can be. We enjoyed talking over lunch, as we put the finishing touches on a great day on the water. Rich and Lauren were just as nice as you could ever hope to meet, and by the time the morning was past I felt like I'd known them for years. The catching wasn't easy, but the fishing was great, and Rich and Lauren were awesome.
That's how a full week turns into a short one. But, the two days on the water were just great!
I apologize for not taking any pictures this week. We kept saying we'd take pictures later, but never did. To continue with the angler submitted pictures this week, I have a series of awesome pictures taken of an approaching school of big redfish, and the ensuing frenzie. The worst part is that I don't remember who sent them to me. If you recognize your pictures, please let me know who you are so I can give you credit. Enjoy!
FROM MY FRIENDS!
Last for this week, my old friend Mike Howard sent the following photos of a recent striper trip back home in New Hampshire. These are beautiful fish.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
