First up on Tuesday was my old friend Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania, and his Dad "Pop", who is a wonderfully spry 83 years young. Bob and I have been fishing together for more than ten years, and have had Pop out twice before. But, it's been years since Bob has been able to get Pop down to visit, as he just doesn't like to fly. When they arrived at the dock that morning, Pop just hopped down on to the boat like a guy half his age.
It was already blowing, and we would be plagued by gusts over 20 knots. I'm sick of the wind, already! We headed out to the B span flats to catch bait, and there were lots of boats already there. Bob and I went to work, with Bob chumming. He's a veteran of many bait catching adventures. There was plenty of bait, and it didn't take us long to load up. We even got some ballyhoo to work with.
Our brisk wind was southeast to south. We hugged the Sanibel shoreline as we made our way toward our first stop, a beautiful snook hole in Ding Darling. But, once we were in there we were really sheltered from the wind, and within fifteen minutes we were being eaten alive by the noseeums! We had bagged one nice 4 pound trout, and had a good chance at some nice snook, but there's not a fish on this earth worth the misery of being eaten up by noseeums. We were out of there.
With the prevailing wind from the south/southeast, I figured it would be prudent to stay on the Sanibel side so that the ride home would be much less bouncy. And, I fully expected the wind to gain intensity as the day progressed. It usually does! So, with the bugs so bad, we would be forced to stay out in the open. Also, we had no moving water until late in the morning. It wasn't going to be easy.
We settled on our first spot and went to work. I was surprised that we had some action pretty quickly. Bob and Pop caught several snook there. Bob landed a nice 28" fish that lived to fight another day. Once we'd worked that over pretty well, we moved to a series of potholes a mile or so away. I was already getting frustrated with the conditions; wind, so much snot grass suspended in the water from weeks of constant winds, and half starved turns and gulls that would not only steal my chum, but steal the baits away from the fish as soon as they came to the top. When you put all those conditions together, it makes for some hard fishing, and even harder catching. Somehow, we managed a couple more snook, but the birds just wouldn't let me chum enough to try to turn the fish on.
We made another move, less than a mile away. The wind wasn't right for the spot, but I figured we could make it work if we were careful. Besides, with the wind up like it was I didn't really want to do a lot more running further north. We made it work, and managed a hand full of snook there.
I wanted to take our ballyhoo and see if we could turn some of them into redfish before the day was over. The wind was strong enough that it kept the small ballyhoo "Slim Jims" from sinking quickly, and the starving winged rats were right there to pluck them out of the water. Very frustrating!
After trying to get a bait in front of a redfish for a while Bob said he thought Pop had had enough, and it was time to go home. It had been a hard day. Bob and I have had some awesome days together, and very few stinkers. We'd managed to catch 7 or 8 snook and the big trout, and I was thankful for that. We'd had fun, and Pop really enjoyed being out. He said he hadn't been fishing since the last time the three of us went, and that was some ten years ago. But, I knew that we could have caught a lot more fish if it weren't for the snot grass fowling up our bait, and the gulls trying to steal them.
It was more of the same, but worse on Wednesday, for my first trip with Jim Anderson, who lives in Cape Coral, and his son Kyle, who is home visiting from overseas. Jim wanted to get out fishing with Kyle, and also wanted to learn a little bit about the fishing here. The wind forecast was about the same as the day before, but we soon realized that we'd be dealing with more wind. A steady 25!
We headed straight to B span again for bait. I was surprised to see much fewer boats there than the day before. With some quick instruction, Kyle took over the chumming duties, and we were quickly into the bait. The snot grass was terrible, as it has been every day no matter where you go to get bait. It makes the net very heavy because it holds so much water, and it's virtually impossible to clean out. It also make the net much harder to throw and open. I was feeling my back protesting already! We were loaded up within an hour, and ready to go tackle the conditions, once again.
But, I decided that I would stay on the east side of the Sound, in hopes that the snot grass suspended in the water may not be as bad, and perhaps the birds either. And, with the wind still south/southeast, there are more places to fish.
By the time we got to our first spot, the wind was really howling. I knew it wasn't about to get any better. We worked the area over very well, looking to catch some of the tons of snook that live there, but we only managed a snook, and one nice trout. But, practically every bait we tossed came back scaled by persnickety snook!
We moved on to another spot that's full of snook, hoping for a bite. Bait after bait was scaled, and both Jim and Kyle missed their share of real hits. It's hard to keep newcomers to this kind of fishing from striking the fish when the line moves, but it just won't work. It's even worse when there is so much wind blowing. The bite is hard to feel, and there's always going to be lots of slack in the line, and it is imperative that one reels and reels until tight to the fish and on the drag before striking. Sounds easy, but it's very hard to do. Through it all Jim and Kyle managed two snook and a keeper snapper.
I could go on telling you about all the scaled baits at each subsequent stop, but there's not much point. We also tried to catch some redfish in several places with out ballyhoo, and all we could catch was catfish. The water just wasn't moving, the fish weren't biting, and the catfish tend to be most active when the water is laying stagnant.
It was the hardest day I've had in some time in terms of fish caught. Yet, Jim, Kyle, and I had a great time. They were fun to share the boat with and get to know. And, Jim said he'd picked up a lot about how we snook and redfish here in the Sound.
The forecast for Thursday was live from Emeril! It had been kicked up a notch, and the forecast was for 31 knot winds from the south/southeast. That's the breakpoint for me. In my opinion, no one should be out there in that kind of wind with customers in the boat. It's nearly impossible to deliver any kind of quality trip, especially with the other prevailing conditions we have right now. I was supposed to do my first of two trips with Bob Bilsbury, of Lynn, Massachusetts. We'd fished together back in February of 2007. But, I canceled the trip Wednesday evening, as it was going to be borderline unsafe, and the fish very unlikely to bite. We will try again next Thursday.
I'm sitting here right now looking at the forecast for this coming week, and it's more of the same. Monday gusts to 25 knots, and a 30% chance of rain, and gusts over 20 knots Tuesday! Enough, already!