FLORIDA FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/29/07
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
Christmas week was a good one with three trips with great customers and good fishing. And, the weather was fantastic!
The week began on Monday with Sam Crosby Jr. and his beautiful wife Amy, who are recently married. Sam's family is from Foley, Alabama, and Sam is in med. school. Sam's family was referred to me by Dr. Andy Smith, who I had a wonderful trip with back in April. Sam Sr. is his uncle.
At the ramp that morning I heard tales of how the fog had altered everyone's trip plans for the past few days, and I wondered if it would delay our trip. We had light fog when Sam and Amy arrived, and I opted to skip trying to catch bait early, and go with artificials. That would allow us to get up to the area I wanted to fish before a big fog could set in and trap us at the ramp.
We had a wicked winter low tide that morning, and those tides certainly limit your fishing options. The proliferation of senseless manatee zones that have been jammed down our throats over the last decade also limit our winter fishing options, as much of the water we'd like to fish is up the river where most travel is at idle speed. So, to fish the Sound on such tides you have to have a boat that will practically run on wet grass. The Talon is such a boat!
At the first spot I wanted to fish we were greeted by hungry noseeums. Of the biting and flying insects we have, they are the worst. You can't see them with the naked eye unless they're well back-lit. The deposit an acid on your skin that dissolves your flesh so that they can then eat it, and that creates a terrible burning sensation that lasts well after you've gotten away from them. There's no fish worth enduring that agony over.
We moved to a nearby spot where we were protected by a slight breeze. That's about all it takes to keep the noseeums at home base. I rigged us all with Exude RT Slugs on Cotee jigheads, and we went to work casting to the edges. We got into some fun grouper action, and caught a half dozen or so. Amy bagged a 7 pounder that gave her a real tussle, and got hung in the rock once. After I managed to get it out, she finished the job.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
Once the tide was in it's last outgoing stage we took off for a favorite grouper hole of mine hoping to find both grouper, and bait. While Sam and Amy were catching a few more grouper, I was on the lookout for passing schools of shiners. They soon showed up, and once I knew they were there, I got out the castnet. One throw loaded the well with beautiful bait, which opened up some new options for us.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
On the slack of the tide we visited a trout hole, and the bite was on. It was full of nice trout. Once Sam got the hang of it he was catching trout on nearly every cast. Amy sat out for the most part, as she was now enjoying what had turned into a Christmas Eve day that most folks can only dream about. As the tide came to rest, we made a moved to what I hoped would be lots of snook action and the last hole of the day.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
I brought the Talon to a stop right at the edge of the hole using the motor skegg as a brake, as I have done so many times before. It was a perfect approach, but if the fish didn't cooperate we would have some time to wait. We were hard aground. Not even close to floating. Sam was amazed. It was time to burn some live shiners.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
Fortunately, the snook were willing to bite, Sam had fun catching upwards of a couple of dozen. Usually, by the time the Talon is floating the bite is about over, and that proved to be the case. It was time for lunch. We took off for the Waterfront Restaurant. The food was fabulous, and was the perfect ending to what had been pretty much a perfect day with a great young couple. I just hoped it had lived up to the billing from Dr. Andy!
After a couple of days off over Christmas I was back on the water again. This time with Sam Crosby Sr. and his son-in-law Dan. Dan had minimal exposure to fishing, and had never fished the flats. Sam quickly told me this was a no pressure day; that he just wanted to have an enjoyable day on the water and catch a few fish. H was more interested in Dan having a fun day, and I think hoping he'd catch the fishing bug.
We had one problem, though. The fog had come floating in at around 6:15, and it was thick. We would have to stay in port at least until it was light to reassess the situation. And, of course by the time it was light things weren't any better. I decided to use the time to see if we could catch any descent bait on the A Span of the new causeway, which is straight in front of the ramp. Once out there I turned the helm over to Sam, and while he maneuvered me around the big bulkheads, I threw the net. We got plenty of bait, but it's still all very small, and most of it gets gilled in the net.
Loaded with bait, I slowly followed the causeway out to the B Span, and under. There the fog got much thicker, and I parked us at the edge of the flat so that Sam and Dan could at least be wetting a line. I tossed out some live chum, and one of them was immediately blasted on top of the water. We put baits out and quickly Sam found that it was a mackerel. But, most of the following bites were outsized lizard fish, and a trout. I was concerned with the fog delay, but Sam and Dan were happy to be catching something. They weren't too concerned about what.
Finally the visibility increased to perhaps an eighth of a mile. I decided that if I could just find the first island out there, I could then navigate my way along the shoreline to where I wanted to begin the day. I almost pulled it off! I got all the way to York Island and knew exactly where I was, but once I had leave York in the fog and try to guess-timate where the narrow Mail Run Cut might be, I got into trouble. The fog had once again gotten heavy, and I couldn't see anything, including into the water. The water as well as the sky were just one big white glare.
I had the Talon trimmed for very slow speed, but up on step, or planeing. It can stay up at around 12 knots! The problem is that at such a slow speed, you can't run very shallow, and don't have the momentum or time to do anything about it if you do touch bottom. Yep! I stuck it! With the tide just blowing out of the Sound I knew, and warned the boys we had only minutes to try to push the Talon back to floating water. We all bailed out, and were able to move her, but not without some ado. After pushing her dragging for about 60 ft., she broke free. We were not going to have to spend the next ten hours aground waiting on the next high tide!
I decided to sit and wait on the fog to lift some, telling Sam that I figured I was probably within a hundred and fifty yards of the small channel I'd tried to find. It's marked by three white PVC pipes, which quickly disappear into the fog. Well, don't you know that a few minutes later the fog began to lift, and there we were no more than 200 yards from the markers.
We now had visibility to run, and headed to our first stop, albeit a bit late. We were again tossing Exude RT slugs, which are a great bait for our winter fishing. Sam struck first blood with a snook. Dan was doing his best to put into practice what I'd taught him, and was having fun. We managed a couple of snook, a couple of gag grouper, a snapper, and a passing trout or two as I recall. But, even with a later tide, our fog delay had caused us to missed the best of the fishing there, and it quickly tapered off as the tide slowed. We moved on.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
We headed to my favorite trout hole to catch the last of the outgoing tide there, hoping the trout would bite. They did. It wasn't a rabid bite, but Sam and Dan caught a bunch of trout before it was over. I don't think anyone was concerned about counting.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
To my chagrin, Sam had told me he needed to be back at the dock by 1:00 PM. At this point we had about two hours of fishing time left. I wanted to get the boys on some snook action if possible, so I headed down to my grouper/bait spot in hopes that the boys could catch a few more grouper while I stalked bait. As it turned out the boys caught quite a few gags, mostly small but feisty, and I found and caught the bait I wanted. Dan did break off one big one in the rocks. We were ready to go snookin'!
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
The tide wasn't nearly as low as it had been on Monday, and we were down to little more than an hour of fishing time. But, it worked out, as the boys managed to catch probably a dozen snook before the alarm went off. We headed home. Sam and Dan were happy, but it was such a beautiful day, the fish were biting, and I had great guys in the boat, and did not want to go home. For me, it had been two great days with the Crosby family. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
Things were quite different on Friday for my trip with Wayne Wulff, and his son Tony, and his daughter's boyfriend, Jeff, who just finished a four year tour in the Marines. Our low tide would not be nearly as strong as was earlier in the week, and would be right around noon. And, the fog was gone.
I decided to catch some bait at the causeway, again, so that with three anglers instead of two, we'd have more options right from the start. Wayne took the helm, and with him rowing and me throwing, we quickly got bait. I still had plans of catching bigger bait up in the Sound if I could find it.
We were at about a half-way point with our falling tide, and I knew it wasn't yet low enough to have the fish stacked in the places I wanted to fish them. I figured we could jig up some grouper, though, and hopefully at the same time I could find some bigger bait. So, we went straight there. The grouper were biting well on the jigs, and the trio caught quite a few. Jeff hooked a big one, which quickly dispatched him in the rocks. The hardest thing to teach about snook fishing in the mangroves or grouper fishing in the rocks is the sense of urgency one must have when first fighting the fish. The battles in the trees and on the rock are all won or lost in the first several seconds! Jeff had lost his first.
I did eventually draw a bead on the bait, and overloaded the Talon with huge bait. Much of it was actually too large for the winter fishing. We took off to see if we could find some snook and trout with our new bait.
At our next stop we did find some snook, gag grouper, and snapper, and caught several of each, including a big mangrove snapper. The best fish we caught in that area was a beautiful 3 pound trout that inhaled one of Tony's shiner. We aren't seeing a lot of those outsized trout, yet, but they are coming back.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
From there we went to another low water snook spot. Although it wasn't a hot bite, the boys did catch some snook and trout on the last of the tide. I felt sorry for Jeff, who'd already lost more fish than he'd caught, tangled with a BIG snook a long way from the boat. This was his shot at bagging the big one and getting the pictures to prove it. The Stella 2500FB screamed with delight as the snook stripped line from her bowels. It was teaching time, as Jeff wasn't quite there with the pump and reel concept, and still didn't understand the urgency required when fighting big snook on light tackle around heavy cover. But, with coaching Jeff had the fish close to being whipped. He was only about 30 feet from the boat, but still within easy running distance of a mangrove head, which I had earlier told the boys had claimed a lot of big snook in my career.
It was then that Jeff made his fatal mistake. He relaxed a little. He let up on the pressure. And, as soon as he did the snook dashed for the mangrove roots and cut him off in the wink of St. Nick's eye. It was over. Jeff was totally bummed. I think he would have rather been water-boarded than to have lost that fish! But, that's how you learn. He had at least had the opportunity to feel the power and speed of a good snook, and had almost won the battle. We could only hope he'd get one more shot at the monster.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
But, we were running out of tide. So, in order to keep the boys on fish, I switched gears to the speckled trout mode. That kept Wayne, Tony, and Jeff busy catching for a good while, until the tide totally expired.
It was time for lunch. My plan was to have a great Waterfront lunch, then take the boys back out to burn some of those big baits we had. The lunch part of the plan was flawlessly executed, but the catching afterward wasn't. Although the snook had a big time pinning my chummed shiners along the mangroves and sending them to heaven, they wouldn't eat one with a hook in it. The best we could do was a snapper or two. We moved on to one more spot, but the result was the same. It was clear the fish weren't going to eat, for reasons unbeknownst to me. We called it a day and headed home.
Back at the ramp I talked to a couple of guides who'd had the same experience. Everything had shut down once the tide changed. God only knows why! It hadn't been as good a bite as the two previous days, but the boys had caught plenty of fish, and had been a real pleasure to spend the day with. And, I think Jeff learned something about urgency he didn't learn in the Marines!
This is the last report of 2007. For most it's been the toughest year in memory. I'm glad to put it behind us, and begin a new year. My prayer is that 2008 will be a better year, and that God will bless all of you and keep you safe until we meet again. Happy New Year!
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!