I was to fish with my life-long friend Don McDaniel and his grandson, Kyler, on Sunday, but as luck would have it Kyler had an accident and broke both (yes, both) of his wrists, and was not expected to be healed in time to fish. Actually, as you will see, it was just as well. Memorial Day weekend is one of the worst times of the year to being out there trying to catch a fish.
So, after Sunday off, my crazy buddies Terry and Bill met me at the ramp Memorial Day morning at 6:30, as the boats streamed in and launched. I had been in the water a long time, already, just making sure I didn't get caught up in the morning madness.
If you're a regular reader, you know that Terry and I have been fishing together for years with both his lovely wife Michele, and ole' Bill. And, you know that Terry is crazy as hell, and a barrel of laughs, and that we have about as much fun as you can have in public with your clothes on.
Now, with that in mind imagine the laughs that ensued when Terry and Bill showed up with a cooler that was sporting a life preserver strapped around it! You see, back in August of last year when Terry, Bill, and I fished, I managed to sling their cooler full of adult beverages and lunch out of the boat making a "bat turn" in the Talon as we made the approach to our fishing spot. We didn't realize we'd lost the cooler until some time later when we saw it float by us a couple hundred yards away. By then, we were on a hot redfish bite. A flats boat ran our cooler down and picked it up while we watched from a short distance away, but we weren't about to ruin our redfish bite, and stayed put as the guys in the other boat scooped up the cooler and drove away. So, it was in the spirit of that event that Terry wrapped up their cooler in a life preserver for this trip. We all laughed like hell as he brought it on board.
That set the tone for the day, as Terry usually does. We headed out under the A Span to the Punta Rassa flats for bait. We anchored in about 4 ft. and chummed, and soon had bunches of bait in front of us. We loaded up, and were soon on our way to what we hoped would be the first great spot of the day.
Actually, I had considered two strategies for what is the busiest day of the year on the water. One was to just go camp on a spot where I knew there were fish, and hope that we could catch them. The other was to go somewhere deep in the back country in hopes of getting away from all the traffic, and then catch some fish. We opted for option two, but I can tell you now that neither worked!
We headed to a spot pretty far north in the Sound, where I figured we'd not have to worry about boat traffic if we went way back in the back country. It's an area that gets full of redfish, but I rarely have to travel that far north to get into fish. As we made our approach into the area, it was obvious that it was full of redfish, as they were pushing all over the place!
Knowing we had lots of redfish in the area gave us hope of catching them. We fished our way down a long shoreline using both live shiners and cut ballyhoo, and couldn't buy a bite. Eventually, we ran into other boats, and then decided it was time to go to plan B. And, as we left the area we saw even greater numbers of redfish!
We made a major geographic change, opting for places where I'd been catching plenty of snook, and some redfish. Terry and Bill fished hard. We worked a large area very well, and all we could come up with was lots of scaled shiners, and two snook. The fish just wouldn't eat, much to our chagrin!
Finally, at around the noon hour, we decided we could have more fun at the Waterfront Restaurant eating a great lunch. The question was, "Could we get in?" I was shocked to find the answer on Memorial Day was a resounding "yes"! There was plenty of dockage, and plenty of tables. The economy seems to have left no one untouched!
After a fantastic lunch, we decided to head on in instead of hitting another spot or two. The handwriting certainly seemed to be on the wall. We'd had a great time. Well, I certainly had. But, it's impossible to be out with Terry and Bill and not have a fantastic time.
I was to fish on Tuesday with my old friend Bruce Miller, from here in Cape Coral. Bruce and I have been friends for many years now, and enjoy getting together for breakfast or lunch every month or so, as well as fishing. But, after I saw how tough the bite was on Monday, I called Bruce and recommended we postpone our trip, knowing it was going to be more of the same on Tuesday. After all, he's local, and has the luxury of picking his days. We rescheduled for June 4th.
And, that was it for May. Here comes June and hurricane season. Let's hope it's a quiet one in Florida.