I managed three days on the water this week. However, only two were for fishing.
The week began on Monday with my first trip with Charles "Chuck" Bradford, of Macatawa, Michigan. It would prove to be a tough, but great day with a super guy.
We began with a trip to the B span flats to see if there was any bait. After all the weather changes and record temps, I really didn't expect to see any, and in that respect, I wasn't disappointed. Chuck and I chummed and tossed the net, and could only dig up pinfish. There were a number of other boats on the flat, and I didn't see anyone else pull up anything looking like whitebait. We resolved ourselves to do the best we could with pinfish, lures, and hopefully a few ladyfish.
After a quick cleanup we headed back out under B span to the Punta Rassa flats in search of ladyfish and whatever else might want to bite. Almost immediately, we were all over the ladyfish. We were having our TerrorEyez eaten on nearly every cast. I took Chuck a few fish missed to get the hang of it, but once he did, it was Katie bar the door. He was all over those ladies! We kept four for potential redfish bait later on the tide, and I lost one TerrorEyez to a big mackerel with sharp teeth. We were ready to look for trout.
We headed up into the Sound intent upon fishing one of my favorite winter trout spots. I've already been there since the big front and caught a ton of trout. But, guess what! Once we got there all we could catch on our jigs was more.......ladyfish! Geez! They seemed to be everywhere. We did that for a while, and while it was fun, we were looking for other species. We moved on.
The next spot or two yielded us goose eggs! Zip! Zero! Nada! Man! This was turning out to be a bit tougher than I'd bargained for! I moved on, and was ready to see if we could come up with a redfish or two.
We settled on a spot that has been giving me great redfish action for some time. And, knowing redfish habits as I do, I knew they would be there at the appointed stage of the tide. I just didn't know it they'd be more interested in eating, or sunning themselves. But, we had ladyfish in the well, and I knew that if anything would push those reds over the edge, it would be those ladyfish steaks.
I went to work carving ladyfish and putting the baits out in the proper places. We didn't have to wait long before we saw the first action. And, over the next hour or so Chuck tangled with half dozen redfish and one nice speckled trout. But, only three of those redfish made it into the boat, along with the trout. They all swam free to fight another day.
Boy, when the tide is over, it's over. It's like throwing a switch. The beginning of an incoming tide is like turning on a switch. The end of a good incoming tide is like throwing the switch off! And, when our early tide stopped, the switch was thrown. It was "our" turn to eat.
After a great and unusual lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, Chuck and I headed home. Chuck was very pleased with the day, and the lunch. I had earlier apologized for what for us is a slow day of "catching". But, at the ramp Chuck said that if we'd had a hard day, he'd love to be with me for a good day. Thank goodness for customers like Chuck who truly understand fishing.
Wednesday was dedicated to my good friend Dr. John Hitt, of UCF. I had finally managed to get an appointment with Danny Fowler of Fowler Marine, to bring John's 22 Coastal up the river to the city ramp, where Danny would pick me and the Coastal up and take it to his shop for a 100 hour service, and to take care of a few items that needed attention.
As I approached the City Ramp, I was shocked that it was roped off, and there were pleasure boats and yachts parked everywhere. Uh-oh! This must mean a boat show. I surely didn't know about it, and apparently Danny didn't, either.
My cellphone rang, and it was Danny, who said he could see me, and that we had a problem. After some deliberation, he decided to call a nearby private marina which has a very small ramp, to see if they would allow us to pull the boat there. Thank goodness, the dockmaster agreed, and we had the boat on the trailer by 9:30 AM.
I'd brought along one of my HP zd8000 laptops, and back at the shop Danny gave me a space to set up shop, and stay on top of my business. By the time I got things running, I already had some 600 emails to wade through! By early afternoon, Danny had done a complete service on the boat, including compression tests, water pump replacement, troubleshooting and repairing the power-off bilge pump, repairing the trim/tilt sender, replacing all of the aging and failing batteries, and repairing the water pressure gauge, and much more. I had the old gal back on the lift and tucked in by mid-afternoon.
Friday morning I meet a couple of my dearest fishing friends and long-time customers Dr. Alan Kingston and John Bond, for what I was concerned may be another very tough day of fishing. It had been blowing out of the north/northeast for most of the week, and there was another front on the way. It had been gradually warming, though, and I had hope that we could find some bait, other than the tiny net-plugging stuff under the causeway.
We loaded up and headed to B span, where the outgoing current was so strong it turned the Talon to the tide against quite a brisk wind. I mixed up some chum, and Alan set about putting it out around mid-ships, in an effort to get the bait to where I could catch it with a throw straight down the wind. It was still dark, but dawn was breaking.
The first throw or two gave us only pinfish, croakers, and a trout. But, afterward, we managed to catch some very nice bait, as I tossed the net into different parts of the chum line. But, once the sun cracked the horizon, the shiners disappeared. Poof! They were gone. We had enough to fish with, but no extras to chum with. We also had plenty of pinfish. And, the next thing would be to catch some ladyfish. We headed out to the Punta Rassa flats once again.
We spent the better part of an hour drifting on the already brisk east wind without a hit. I couldn't believe it. There had been so many ladyfish there! I moved a couple of times with the same result. Then, I spotted a slick some ways downwind from us, and explained to the guys that a slick more often than not indicated a school of fish tearing up bait. I took us to the slick and we went to work on the upwind side of it.
At first, it was more of the same. But, once we floated into the slick things began to happen. Suddenly, we were on a ladyfish bite. Quickly, we had several very nice ladyfish in the livewell. We caught a few more, and opted to head out in search of snook, trout, or redfish.
The tide was still in the last throws of going out when we arrived at our first spot. The wind was howling. I was not pleased with the conditions. On that last part of the outgoing tide, ladyfish were all over the baits, but nearly impossible to catch. The spot was over run with small baits. There were millions of them everywhere; presumably glass minnows or small threads. They were too tiny to castnet, but the fish were sure enjoying the easy feeding.
Finally, after several attempts, the tide managed to overpower the brisk wind, and began to come in. And, as soon as it did, me and the boys were treated to one of the coolest things in snook fishing; tens, if not hundreds of snook blasting bait consecutively! Over and over the snook came up to the top chasing the small bait, and wrecking it. It was the kind of thing we often see on the beaches in the summer time. Raiders of the lost bait! The snook were everywhere putting on quite a show, but do you think they'd eat one of our much larger shiners? Hell, no!
Alan, John, and I threw everything but the kitchen sink at those showoff snook; shiners, pinfish, jigs, Rattletraps, Mirrodines, etc. Nothing but subtle hits and scaled baits! Finally, after reaching maximum frustration, we moved on.
At our next stop we were looking for snook and/or grouper. What we found was jack crevalle, grouper, and snook. We managed several jacks, a few small grouper, and John got the first snook of the day. But, ultimately, the combination of raging tide and strong southeast wind made it impossible to stay anchored on the PowerPole, and we moved on.
Accessing the situation, I decided we had enough water to make redfish a possibility. I took us to our first redfish spot, and began preparations. Our redfish assault would consist of steaked ladyfish and live shiners. Our first red or two came on the live shiners. Then a few on ladyfish. John caught his second snook there. And, the hardhead catfish were a real nuisance, even on the strong tide. I thought that quite odd. But, we met our objective and more than limited out on beautiful redfish before the bite stopped as quickly as it had begun. I guess we caught 6 to 8 redfish. But, the invisible hands were writing on the wall, and we moved on.
The next couple of stops made it more than clear that the fish were done. By this time it seemed obvious that the wind was going to come around to the south before it was over. And, that being the case, I didn't want to be on the Pine Island side of the Sound when it came time to go home. I headed across the Sound, with some pretty ugly stuff coming at the port side. We fished a couple of spots, but the wind and total lack of visibility made it impossible. It was time to head home.
The wind had indeed come around to the south, and I was glad I'm decided to come across the Sound. The ride home would be much more pleasant. The ride home wasn't bad at all, and Alan and John always seem to be amazed at how well the Talon eats up the nasty waters compared to their own boats.
It had been a tough, but great day with my favorite fishing duo, and they at least now knew where they could go the next day to catch some redfish. They would be fishing Friday and Saturday before returning home to the east coast. I hope they did well.