Since he was on Captiva, we opted to fish from Castaways. The area if full of fish. We were blessed with a steady breeze that fired about the same time we got on the water. It was a God-send in late July, believe me. This was also the first trip with my newly installed and not yet tested Mantis sunbrella. We had a great new moon tide, so I expected at least a descent bite in spite of the heat, especially early on.
But, Mother Nature threw us a curve ball. The fish weren't much interested in eating. And, I mean that literally. From the start we had lots of hit. The water was again full of floating turtlegrass and other debris, and it was practically impossible to get a clean retrieve for more than a crank or two of the handle. So, we were tossing gold and silver spoons. They have been very effective in these conditions. But, on this day they were often hitting hard and deep enough to crush the weed guard flat against the spoon. Getting a hook in them was really tough. I'd parked Mike on a great hole for reds and snook, and he had the same experience while I was a short distance away. We did catch two redfish at the first spot, but based on the non-connected bites we should have caught a dozen.
We moved on with the tide to another great redfish area. There it was more of the same. Weeds, bent guards, and only one redfish actually to the boat. Although it was very hot, our breeze was keeping us quite comfortable. Around 9:30, as the son got higher in the July sky, I deployed the Mantis for the first time. Pretty cool, and easy to use. I didn't notice any difference after putting it up. Probably because of the evaporative cooling from the breeze. But, later that day, as we prepared to head home, I realized how much difference it had in fact been making, as soon as I put is down. Amazing.
At the next area we were looking for reds and snook. We worked the area over well for some time without any action. The shore fishing this year for snook has not been good. Mike had been at it, but without any luck. And, he's been doing it for a long time, and knows how to do it. I've heard similar reports from lots of others. So, I really wanted Mike to tangle with a nice snook or two. It was beginning to look like it wasn't going to happen.
We moved to what would be the last area we'd fish. We both got some bumps without a hookup. Non-committal male snook, I guess. Finally, Mike stuck a small snook, and the ice was broken. A cast or two after than Mike connected with a great fish, that turned out to be a snook of 8 – 9 pounds. I had taken my Kodak PlaySport camera out to video Mike catching his snook. I thought I had it all recorded. When I switched modes to take a few still shots, it told me I was out of memory. Only then did I remember that I had taken the SD chip out of it to try out a new Cannon I had bought for home use a week earlier. I thought, "No problem. I'll just grab a couple of stills from the video. But, back at home that evening I was very disappointed to find that I only had a short video clip of Mike. The video mode had quickly eaten the on-board memory! I'm sorry, Mike. That's my bad. Please forgive.
With a nice snook to cap off a tough day, we headed home. Mike assured me that he had indeed enjoyed the kayak fishing, as well as the serenity of it, and the closeness to nature. I couldn't explain why the bite was tough. That one caught me with my pants down. But, one of the things I've always admired about Mike is that he's an easy going, no pressure angler. He enjoys being out there no matter what. We'll catch up on the fish next time he's down.