First up on Tuesday, was Greg Eason, of Fairport, New York. Greg was staying on Ft. Myers Beach, and wanted to fish somewhere close. I elected to fish Estero Bay. Greg had kayaked before, but had not fished from a kayak, or from a kayak such as the Native Ultimate. We'd had a big front pass Monday which brought lots of wind at 30 MPH, but only a spritz of rain. A front is a front. I didn't know what to expect, but a good cold front will usually shut the shallow water fish down for at least a couple of days.
We met at the ramp at around 9:30, and got the boats into the water. We were on the low tide, which was supposed to be a 0.4 ft. But, with the northwest wind blowing, it appeared to be somewhere below the mean low water mark. There wasn't much water out there! There was lots of land and oyster bars sticking far out of the water. The plan was to fish for trout early on the tide, and then switch to redfish and snook later on the tide when things began to cover.
It was quickly obvious that Greg knew his way around a fishing rod, and quickly took to the kayak. He was amazed at how comfortable and roomy it was. We stayed within talking distance most of the time, and used the radios when we weren't. Greg found the first hungry trout. I spent some time fishing and trolling deeper edges looking for trout and other surprises. I found some trout, but nothing to keep.
After a couple of hours we made the move up to the mangroves and bars. It was slow at first, but all of a sudden Greg and I were catching redfish. Later some nice trout. I had several redfish get away, and lost a very large trout. I had a lot of redfish hits that didn't connect. Right toward the end of the day Greg radioed that he landed a snook. Since he didn't comment on the size, I figured it was a small one. But, as we rendezvoued to head in, he told me it was a 26 inch snook. Nice fish on a tough weather day. It had blown 15/20 all day out of the north.
So, we ended what should have been a tough day with half dozen trout, 9 redfish, and Greg's nice snook. He got he West Coast Slam on his first kayak outing on a blustery winter day. We had a good time.
Wednesday, I was with my old buddy Martin Wenick, for his first of what will be three kayak trips while he's down this year. I had been tempted to reschedule this trip because although we'd caught fish on Tuesday, I figured surely the bite would be shut down by Wednesday. Martin was game to fish, and we met at Castaways at around 10:30 AM. Looking out from the ramp there was very little water and lots of exposed land everywhere.
We got the boats into the water, cars parked, and departed on the leisurely mile ride out to the fishing grounds. The wind was again up. We would begin the day by fishing the numerous potholes that dot the flats for outsized winter trout.
What I had expected had come to past. The bite was non-existent. And, the holes were full of seaweed that rolls on the wind and currents with the fronts and falls into them. It makes them hard to fish. The wind was howling, and giving Martin a hard time trying to stake out his boat. There's not a lot of hard bottom out there, but he seemed to be finding it. I also realized that he was not stopping his boat before trying to stick the anchor. That was his biggest problem. It was muche easier after that.
The other handicap Martin had was that he was not wearing polarized glasses. They are a must for seeing into the water on the flats. And, at the low angle of vision from a kayak, it's even more important. I had an extra pair that I keep in the mothership bad. The polarization wasn't that of a pair of Costa Del Muchos, but it certainly beat none at all, and he could now see the holes I was pointing at.
We fished hard, and only had two trout bites. One got away. Wanting to find fish, I left Martin working holes and went off to see if I could find some snook trout nearby. Nothing doing! Finally, as the water was covering things up, it was time to see if we could find a hungry redfish or two to save the day.
Finally, we stuck paydirt and got four redfish right at the end of our day. The last one was a fat, broad shouldered 30" brute. That was 3 just under the slot, and 1 over the slot.
I was sorry and apologetic for the very tough day of fishing. The wind alone made it a day that was hard for someone their first time in a kayak. But, Martin is always easy going and upbeat, and took it in stride. The upside is that the next trip he won't be a beginner. And, if we can catch a weather break, we'll catch some fish. Martin is a great guy, and lots of fun. I can't wait for out next outings in March.
I woke up Thursday morning to a radar picture full of storms and rain coming our way. But, it appeared to be weakening and falling apart as it approached us. I went ahead and made preparations for my trip with Neil Conklin, of Rockville, Maryland. Knowing the front was coming, I had changed our fishing destination to the waters around Fisherman's Key, out of B Span of the causeway. It was a much shorter run, and we could keep ourselves occupied while we waited on the weather, and could return to safety quickly if needed. I was early to get the boats ready to launch. I had turned on my lightning detector, and it was beeping and flashing constantly, indicating lighting strikes 12 to 24 miles offshore.
Neil arrived at around 11 AM, and after some conversation and showing him around the Ultimate, we were off. I suggested we troll to the first spot. It's funn. I never enjoyed trolling from a boat, but it's totally different in a kayak. It's very relaxing, and because the kayak is so quiet, it's very productive even in waters of 4 to 6 ft. deep. It's a great way to find fish, as well.
We were only underway a few minutes when I got a big hit. But, shortly after the hit, as I stopped to fight the fish, Neil ran over my line and wrapped it up in his trolling motor. Now, that was a real mess. It was beyond unraveling, as when I pulled one end, it was winding up more line from the other. It was time for surgery. There we were. Two kayaks huddled up with Neil and I bouncing around like to corks in the chop, trying to clear this trolling motor. But, we got it done, and continued on.
We did have a few trout biting to that point. Once we got the trolling motor line problem cleared, we were blown almost to Fisherman's Key. We picked up some more trout there, and wound up with another line in the trolling motor. This time it was more serious, and I couldn't even begin to untangle the mess. Even after I had cut every piece of line I could reach I couldn't pull it off the prop shaft. We were going to have to remove the prop, clear the line, and put it back together while bouncing around like corks, without loosing any parts.
I used my pliers to break loose the prop nut, and carefully unscrewed it. It was in the boat safely. I removed the pro slowly, revealing to wades of PowerPro wrapped all over it. I spotted the key just as it was about to fall out of the hole. Another second or so and it would have been in the drink. All parts safely in the boat with me, Neil and I endeavored to clear the line and return all the parts without dropping anything in the water. I asked Neil to reach back and cup his hand under the motor where I would be working, so that if I dropped the pin or nut, we'd have a shot at saving it from being lost at sea. I managed to get it back together without dropping anything, but if I had I think Neil would have saved it. We were again in business. All's well that ends well. I suggested that Neil work the long mangrove shoreline, which is full of reliefs, dead stumps, and encrusted hangdowns. I suggested he work those kinds of areas well. I only had to watch Neil cast his fly for a minute, and I knew he was very good with the long rod, and would not have a problem rolling a loop behind him without hitting the water with his fly.
While Neil was working that shoreline, I went to see if I could find some redfish. I told Neil I would call him as soon as I knew I was on some. But, before I had time to do much exploring, the rain came. It rained hard, but not for all that long. Once it was over, it was over. I moved on, and, it wasn't long before I had the first redfish. He hit on the second cast after I began fishing this spot. Ah ha, I thought. I've found 'em. But, they had other ideas. I fished that area hard, knowing there were other reds to catch. There always are. But, they never ate, and I never called Neil.
Eventually, I went and worked the shoreline, myself. I worked each area over with jig, spoon, and topwater. I did manage to get 8 or 9 good redfish strikes that mangled the weedguard on my spoon, but they just weren't hitting with any commitment, and I never got one hooked.
Finally, as the day was growing short, I moved back out to the deeper water and set about trolling for trout, again. There were plenty of trout to catch, but most were just under the slot limit. Once Neil appeared he told me he'd caught a couple of trout on fly and one on jig.
I guess that if we'd just wanted to catch, we'd have stayed with the trout in the deeper waters. But, we went for the shallow water action and the fish just didn't want to eat. But, we had fun, and recorded a couple of firsts. This was the first time that I'd had lines tangled in a trolling motor. Neil loved the Ultimate, and said that it was the first kayak he'd been in that had a clean floor area in front of you that made flyline management easy. He said he'd probably have to buy one for himself.
That night as I was cleaning up, I realized that the reel I had been hit on and tangled in the trolling motor, had been laid to waste. The force of the motor snatching line off it tore up something inside. Then I found that the collar on Neil's trolling motor was broken, and it was nearly impossible to put up and down. Not sure how that happened. Turned out to be a tough day on equipment, but it was fun nonetheless.
From what I could see on the radar archive, it rained nearly all of Thursday night and Friday wee hours. It was still raining and foggy as I was prepping for my trip with Suzanne King. But, the weather folks were saying that it should be blown through before noon. It rained until I was almost out of Cape Coral on my way to meet Suzanne at Tropical Point Road on Pine Island. Then, as the rain moved out the northerly winds blew in. So much for catching a break from the wind. Susan was there in her car when I arrived. She's down from Hockessin, Deleware, and is just a stunning gal.
I'd told Suzanne that I wanted to take her to one of two places. I said that if she was feeling adventurous, I'd like to take her to fish out of the little ramp there at Tropical Point. I'd never fished that part of the waters in Matlacha, and was looking for the opportunity to do so. Well, as I soon learned, Suzanne being a skier, camper, fishergal, etc., she is definitely up for an adventure, and was fine with that. It saved her a bunch of driving as well. It's only 30 miles from my place to Tropical Point, but it took an hour and a half to get there in the traffic.
While we were getting the boats ready to launch, a nice gentleman about my age drove up and got out. He came over and was excited to see the kayaks. He told us that he'd been to Florida Paddlesports and looked at them, but had decided not to buy. But, now that he was able to see a Native Ultimate rigged and ready for fishing, and talk to someone besides the salesman about how great they are, he was going to go right back and buy one. He even helped me put the boats into the water. We chatted for a while, and once he took off, Suzanne and I did, too.
While on shore, Suzanne didn't seem to see the value of the trolling motor. But, one of the first things she said once we were out, and she put it down to troll, was that it was a pretty cool deal! And, it is. It was really blowing, and that one situation where you can immediately see the value of the motor. The other is trolling. It allows you to work your bait, instead of putting your rod in a holder and paddling.
We made our way out to an oyster bar I could see exposed. I had researched the area well on Goggle Earth, and had a pretty good idea of he lay of the land, even without my GPS. It didn't take us long to get into fish. We were catching outsized ladyfish and trout. Suzanne realloy enjoyed the ladyfish acrobatics, as she had never caught any Florida species before. Believe it or not, Suzanne and I got a line in her trolling motor. I had to cut it out, and we went on our way.
I wanted to find some fish that we could work on at anchor, in some calmer water. The large oyster bars in the area were just submerged, but they knocked the tops off the chop, and made smooth water on the lee side. There were plenty of fish to catch there, again big ladyfish and trout. We also got a mackeral, a silver trout, and Suzanne caught something that was kind of brownish yellow, that she couldn't identify. Might have been a whiting or silver trout.
Suzanne adapted quickly to kayak fishing, and loved the boat. At one point I pulled anchor a short distance away, and eased over to her with the motor in reverse to give her some DOA swimtail jigs that I had been catching on nearly every cast with. It wasn't until I spashed with the paddle to dock next to her that she realized I was there. It startled her. She had figured out that the seat will move and adjust, and she was stretched out relaxing and patiently working her jig. We sat and chatted for a while and had a snack, and then went back to fishing. That sure illustrates the stealth a kayak offers for shallow water fishing.
We continued to catch fish for most of our trip. I'd told Suzanne that winter fishing, especially behind a cold front, is about figuring out what will bite, and then catching that. It gave us plenty of action, and those 2 ft. plus ladyfish are real fun from a kayak. Suzanne told me she'd had a blast on her first trip, and vowed to come again next time she was down to visit her parents. I look forward to her return, and getting her out on the skinny water in good weather for some redfish and snook.
That was it. I was supposed to be working today, Saturday, but because of a delayed flight that trip didn't happen. We'll be out there tomorrow, though.
