Well, another full week was punctuated and reduced to two days on the water this week. That's all to common this time of year.
Monday's trip was from my new friend Wayne Wulff, who I fished with back during Christmas week. Wayne had his good friends John Hill, of Nashville, and Rich Watkins, of Indianapolis in town, and wanted to get them out on the water for the full southwest Florida flats fishing experience. John and Rich are ministers, as well as having other careers, and I believe Wayne is, as well. As it turned out, it was a tough, but really fun day with a couple of great guys.
We had a slow crawling outgoing tide that morning until around 10:30. What to do? Well, first we went and caught bait. Word at the ramp was that bait was so thick you could walk on it at Tarpon Bay. Humm! Well, if there's that much bait, that's the place to be. So, once we got John and Rich loaded up, and said good-bye to Wayne, we were off to catch a bunch of easy bait. Not!
There were several boats there when we arrived. All of which had been there for quite some time. I didn't see hardly any bait being caught. We worked at it hard, and I threw the net way more than I cared to, or that is prescribed by my exercise regiment. But, we eventually got enough bait for a day's fishing.
We hit a few spots while waiting on the tide, without results. But, I fully expected things to begin popping once the tide turned. But, the only thing that popped was my bubble. We were looking for reds with a snook and trout chaser, but the first spot came up empty. The second stop yielded 1 snook and 1 nice trout. The third spot gave up nothing! The fourth stop was a dud. The next hole gave up 1 snook. The next hole, nothing! You get the idea! At this point we had two ordained ministers and one guide who spent a year in seminary praying for something to happen. I just couldn't believe we couldn't get anything to eat, but in spite of what the tide charts showed, the incoming tide was just crawling along.
Well, along the way one of the guys had caught a small ladyfish. As the day was wearing thin, the water was getting thicker, and our prayers were as yet unanswered, I decided to take our one ladyfish and hit a redfish spot I hadn't been to in a long time.
Once there I steaked up the ladyfish, and baited three rigs. And, shazam! It wasn't long before we had our first redfish on and to the boat. Then we had another. And, another. And, after the fourth red, they quit! We had managed to recover most of our steaks, and kept trying, but the fish just weren't interested. We moved on, and knowing we were now at the top of the tide and that it would soon be over, we tried one more spot for some redfish. We managed two more, for a total of six. Prayers answered. It was a great day of fishing, but a tough day of catching, that we sort of ended with a quick bang!
WINTER FISHING IS ALMOST OVER!
Our mission was accomplished, though. The boys had plenty of fish for the gang to eat that night. Wayne met us back at the dock that evening, where I delivered him a new G. Loomis rod his wife bought him for his birthday.
Tuesday, the forecast was not good. We had a big front approaching, and the wind forecast was for nothing less that winds gusting to 30 MPH! That's more than my old friend Dr. John Hitt or I wanted to be out in, in spite of the promise of excellent fishing ahead of the front. We canceled. A couple of days later I did talk to a brave couple of guys who fished, and as expected, the fishing was awesome.
Dittos for Wednesday and Thursday, as we now how the same big winds from the north along with a big barometer, and lows in the 40's! A sure recipe for lockjaw! By Friday, little had changed except the temperatures. We were a good 10 degrees warmer for the overnight low, and the daytime high was back near 80. But, that wasn't enough to get the fish to cooperate for my first trip with Steve Dammers, and his son-in-law Bill.
Talk about a tough day. It made Monday seem like a piece of cake. On top of the effects of the front, we had a horrible 16 hour tide to fish. We had elected to launch at 11:00 AM, and not waste time trying to catch bait that was probably blown out by the front. That was a good call. And, also. By launch time the day had turned quite beautiful. It was windy, but a gorgeous day. Steve and Bill were thrilled just to be out on the water on a beautiful day, and although they weren't overly concerned with how many fish they caught, they did have an order for fish for dinner from the women-folks! We had to put food in the well.
The easiest way to put food in the boat this time of year is with trout. And, at our first stop we actually caught quite a few. But, only one was keeping size. In a hole that usually gives up nice slot fish, there was only the one. We moved on to the next hole, where we got only one trout, but it was a keeper. From there things went downhill.
We fished up and down the east side of the Sound without so much as another hit. Well, that's not exactly true. We had turned out attention to redfish, and were tossing spoons, jigs, and Mirrodines at them. And, we saw lots of fish, actually. And, I had two definite hits that bent my weedguard down, and saw the fish as well. But, I guess they were curiosity strikes, as we never got one to actually eat.
It was time for ladyfish! I figured a ladyfish or two would be our ace in the hole for some reds, just like it had been on Monday. We went to a hallowed ladyfish spot near the powerlines, and quickly put a couple in the well. One was quite large. In retrospect, we should have stayed right there and caught the willing ladyfish, but once we had our two, we went off in pursuit of redfish. It was now late in the day, and we were running out of tide, as if we'd had any in the first place.
We arrived at our redfish spot, and I quickly re-rigged with three 3/0 circle hooks and steaked up a ladyfish. Cannonballs away. We waited, and waited. Finally, a bump. A fish! It wasn't a redfish, but it was a beautiful trout that went around 4 pounds. That went in the well with the others, and the boys said that would feed the gang. We had at least made the girls happy. We fished the steaks for some time longer, and then moved to another area. The only life we saw was catfish.
Finally, certain it was over, we headed for home. I would be cleaning the boat in the dark, but that was OK. Although it had been windy, we had been blessed with a gorgeous day, and I had been blessed with great guys. They were very patient with the slow bite, explaining to me that they'd been there all too many times in their fishing careers.
Although the week had served as a reminder as to how we guides are so at the mercy of the weather, it had also reminded me of the fact that fishing isn't just about catching. In two trips that by our standards were very tough as catching goes, we'd had a blast. I guess we need days like these to keep us humble.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!