It was a pretty good week of fishing, but as the tides grew weaker, so did the fishing. I managed to get in three out of four trips.
First up on Monday was a trip with Bob White, of right here in Ft. Myers. It was a reschedule of a trip we canceled based on the weather forecast calling for big wind, which ultimately didn't materialize until late in that day. That happened again this week on Wednesday. This was my first trip with Bob. His wife Karen had purchased this trip for him as a birthday present. Now, there's a great gal. And, I knew from talking to him, Bob was going to be great to spend the day with.
We began by stopping at the B span flat for bait. It was the place to get bait this time last year, but for whatever reason hardly anyone has been getting bait there this year. With Bob chumming, it didn't take long for us to catch enough bait for a day of fishing. We had plenty of shiners and pinfish. Next, we'd go for ladyfish.
We headed up into the Sound and stopped at the power lines on the Sanibel side. There's usually all kind of stuff there, including trout, mackerel, ladyfish, pompano, and right now, tarpon. On this day we had lots of nice trout biting, but we managed to get our ladyfish as we fished. We now had a well rounded well full of bait, and I felt sure I could get the redfish to eat something we would be offering. And, now the water was getting about right to fish.
We headed to our first spot of the day, and got to work. We didn't find the hot bite I was looking for, but managed a dozen or so redfish and one snook on both shiners and ladyfish. They were favoring the ladyfish steaks, though.
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
Once the action slowed there, we moved on is search of bigger redfish. At the next spot we found them. Bob had a big time catching five big redfish, there. That was all we got, though. When the tide slowed, the catching was over. We'd caught all five of those fish on ladyfish steaks. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant with the Slam in the bag. It was our turn to enjoy a meal.
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
It was a great day with Bob. It was fun to have someone my age who also spent his whole life in Florida, in the boat. We had a lot in common and Bob told some great tales.
Tuesday, I had my first trip with Pedro Rodriguez, of Overland Park, Kansas. Pedro was great company, and we had an interesting day. It was a day with a few surprises, and a tough bite.
We headed back to B span for bait, and were loaded up and ready for the ladyfish portion of the trip in an hour. Once at the power lines, we began casting our TerrorEyez, and on the second cast I jumped at huge tarpon of probably 150 pounds about 30 ft. from the boat. Pedro said he thought jaws had him for a split second. He'd never seen anything like that, and at first didn't even realize that I had hooked the fish. He though it was just jumping out of the water toward him! Quite a sight for a fella from Kansas that fishes crappie!
After that excitement we did manage to catch a half dozen nice trout, a mackerel, and four ladyfish, which went into the well. We were ready to go chase redfish.
At our first stop we did have a bite, but it was off the previous pace. The reds weren't interested in our shiners, either. We caught several reds and a snook on the steaked ladyfish before moving on.
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
At our next spot it was again a slow bite. We were on the fish, for sure. But, they were not in much of an eating mood. We stayed with them, and caught a few nice redfish, but never got the big bite going on. I decided to spend the first part of the now outgoing tide trying to catch snook for Pedro. We moved on the trolling motor to a nice cut between two keys a short distance away. We had several baits scaled by the attendant snook, but they wouldn't eat one. Finally, we decided to call it a day, and head home, and probably because we hadn't run the motor in hours, I managed to flood it.
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
I cranked and cranked and it didn't even make a sputter! I guess Pedro was getting worried, but I figured it would eventually crank if I didn't run out of battery. We put baits back into the water for a few minutes. I tried cranking again. She wouldn't lite. I called a friend of mine who I knew was fishing. He'd just gotten off the water, but said he'd come get us if it came down to that. But, a short time later, I tried cranking the Yammie again, and as soon as I choked it, it lit. Go figure! I guarantee you there's no more wonderful sound than that of your outboard motor cranking. That is followed closely by the sound of a screaming drag. Well, at least that was the last surprise of the day for Pedro and me. It hadn't been an easy day, but it was a fun day with a great guy, and Pedro got his Slam.
Wednesday morning I got up at my usual 0 dark 30, and checked the weather. I was concerned about the wind forecast. The past two days had been plenty windy. There in front of me was a forecast for wind gusting to 25 MPH! I had a trip scheduled with Lew Joseph, an old friend that I haven't seen in years, and who has had health issues. He's getting on up there in years. He had a couple of friends in from out of state, which meant a party of three, and I was concerned about taking them out in that much wind and beating them up. I called Lew and canceled. I hated to do that, as I was looking forward to spending time with Lew. And, then of course, most of the morning looked quite lovely out of my office window. The wind did kick in the early afternoon, however, and we would have still been out there on the late tide. Still, I had mixed feelings as to whether I'd made the right call, or not.
Friday's trip was a lot of fun with a great couple. I had talked with Sheridan Mills quite a bit while working out the details of a trip for her and her husband, David, of Boca Raton, Florida. I knew from talking to her it would be a fun day. We had a very late tide that would force us to be out on the water for a long time in order to actually have much of a shot at redfish and/or snook. I told Sheridan we would have be begin early to catch bait, and then go to the power lines to catch ladyfish for later use. She had told me she loves to shell, so I suggested we throw in a shelling trip to North Captiva and/or Cayo Costa, and perhaps an early lunch at the Waterfront. We would spend the last two or three hours fishing. She liked the plan.
And, we followed it to the letter except for lunch. We got plenty of bait at B span, and headed up to the power lines for ladyfish. We again had a pretty strong northeast wind blowing that made our drift quite quick. But, Sheri and David quickly put two ladyfish each into the well, and we were way ahead of schedule. We also had three tarpon roll near the boat, but we couldn't get them interested in eating a bait.
We moved on and headed out of Redfish Pass and up to the middle of North Captiva, where I let Sheri and David out on the beach to shell. And, although there were shells, Sheri was looking for bigger shells than what she was finding on that beach. I did see one large tarpon cruise right by me in the gin-clear water. Unfortunately, I was looking, and didn't have a rig in my hand!
We headed on up to Cayo Costa, which is the best remaining shelling beach in the area, because it gets the least pressure. Again, I let them off the bow in knee deep water, and they went shelling. I decided to see if I could find some early season snook on the beach, and I did. I managed to catch four snook while they were shelling, and could have caught more. Sheri called me and said her bucket was full of nice shells, and they were ready to go fishing. I went and collected Sheri and Dave, and their bounty, and we were off to the fishing grounds. With the wind still howling, now out of the southeast, and the tide now running in through the pass, it made for some very choppy waters. There's just not a good way to negotiate the sharp chop we get in shallow water under those conditions.
Once we got to the area we were going to fish, we were greeted with redfish lockjaw. We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them, and they just wouldn't eat! So, after giving them plenty of time, I turned my attention to snook, hoping they wouldn't be locked up as well.
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
Fortunately, we did manage to catch a dozen or so snook as we fished a number of places. Certainly not a good bite, but at least we got some fish, and we also had a five pound trout in the well that Sheri had caught earlier. So, the day was a success from beginning to end. We might have been able to catch more fish, but Sheri and Dave, both very fair skinned, decided they'd had enough sun for one day. Well, it had been a pretty long day!
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
IS IT REALLY SPRING?
But, it had been a fun day with great folks, and I look forward to their return. In fact, it was a great week of great new customers. That's what makes this such a great business to be in.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!