I had two trips to report on this week. The people and the fishing were great on both
days, but the catching was great on one day, and tough on the other.
Monday I had the trip with Jed Horwitt and his beautiful girlfriend Dorota, of
Bridgeport, Connecticut, that we canceled for weather on the previous Friday. We still
had a pretty good incoming tide, but we'd have to wait until afternoon to fish it. The
downside was that after the front passed we would be fishing a high barometer and a big
northeast wind. Not good for catching.
We had a slow falling tide that morning until around 10:30. I sure didn't look for much to happen before it turned, so we'd have some time to kill. Catching bait would account for an hour or so. We headed to the St. James Creek flat, and with Dorota enlisted to
chum, caught great bait. We were ready to fish.
We headed to a spot that would give us some moving water on the falling tide, but it was to no avail. We worked a large area that is full of fish, but couldn't draw a strike. I felt sure that we'd catch some snook with our shiners once the tide turned, and figured we could not be catching fish at the spot I wanted to be in when the tide turned as well as we could not catch snook where we were, or someplace else.
So, we made the move and waited. We kept baits in the water, chatted, and had a snack. The big wind seemed to be pushing the water back, and had our tide coming later than
predicted by NOAA. But, when it did turn it was like flipping a switch, and the action
began. We fished that spot from one end to the other, and when we were finally ready to move on Jed and Dorota had tallied 22 snook, 1 nice trout, and 1 flounder. We needed a
red for the Slam!
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
We moved on in search of redfish, and fished a couple of my favorite redfish haunts on
the east side. But, to no avail. They just weren't eating. At this point I figured we had
some water filling up the first stop we'd made that morning on the falling tide, and
decided it was a good bet to finish up the day. Jed and Dorota managed 5 more snook
there, and we went home with a total of 27 snook. Dorota had the biggest count for most of the day, but Jed pulled it out at the last minute with 14 snook to Dorota's 13.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
It was a long day, but it sure was a fun one with a great couple. Jed and Dorota were as nice as could be, and we had lots of laughs. By the end of the day, I felt like I'd known them a long time, already.
Come Friday, I had my second trip with David Twigg, from Shawnee, Kansas. Dave and
I fished together the first time back in November of 2002. The Talon was only a year
old, and I felt a lot younger! Dave looked exactly as I remembered him, and has a
million dollar smile that he really should be famous for!
I reminded Dave that we had an awful crawling sixteen hour incoming tide to fish. Any
experienced guide or angler knows before he leaves the dock he's going to struggle to
catch anything. But, Dave quickly reminded me that this was a spur of the moment trip,
and no matter what happened it would be way more fun that sitting in his office back in
Kansas. Nuff said! We were off to catch bait.
We headed to St. James Creek where the bait has been thick, but go blind sided. After
some chumming, the first throw yielded a lot of pinfish and about a dozen shiners. It
went quickly downhill from there, as we never saw another shiner, and the pinfish
thinned out, as well. There were several other boats already there working on bait, and I knew from the chit-chat I could here, they were all having the same luck. Knowing there were some baits around, I stayed with it for a while. After all, we did catch a dozen. But, when it refused to come, we began a search for bait in earnest. We hit the Picnic Island flats, the B Span flats, the tripod marker offshore, the Tarpon Bay flats, all without so much as one shiner, and very few pinfish. I couldn't believe the last big front had blown the bait out, but that and the slack tide seemed to have done the job.
As we worked the bait at Tarpon Bay, my gut kept telling me, "Go back to St. James! Go
back to St. James. You know there's bait there!" I told Dave what my gut was saying,
and he agreed we should go back. After all, time wasn't an issue on a 16 hour tide. It really didn't matter what time we got to fishing. And, we were already working on three hours and thirty plus throws of the castnet. At this point I was drowning in bellicose
determination. I was going to catch bait, or else.
Well, back at the St. James Creek flat the bait came fairly quickly, but it was from a
different hatch. This was small bait, but it was bait, and would get us through with the aid of popping corks. Unbelievably, it was dead calm! We would need help pitching
those small baits.
Even though we'd burned three hours on bait, the water was still very low in spite of thefact that it had begun coming in at around 4:00 AM. We were six hours plus in to the tide. We headed to a favorite spot of mine on low water. I knew the fish were there. The question would be, "Could we get them to eat?"
The answer: Sort of! Dave and I threw the small shiners, the larger shiners, the pinfish, freelined and under popping corks, and the Rattletrap. Actually, we caught more fish
than I would have bet on. First, we had action from some large ladyfish. The first one that hit convinced us he was a snook until we got him closer to the boat and he jumped. We caught a few ladyfish, and I was happy to see them on the tide we had. Dave also
caught a few trout there. But the coup de grace was when Dave asked me something
while I was fishing a Rattletrap. I turned around to talk to him, and as the hard plastic lure laid on the bottom, it was inhaled by a beautiful snook. I was startled by the pull on the line as I talked to Dave. I spun around just in time to see about 10 pounds of snook jump toward the mangroves and spit my Rattletrap back at me. Dave saw the whole thing! And, if he had doubted there were snook there, he didn't now.
Dave and I had a fantastic trip back in '02. He and his wife caught so many snook and
big trout that Kristen complained of her arms hurting. Dave had caught several keepers
then, and knew what a nice fish and fight that snook would be. We doubled our efforts to get that fish, or one like it, to eat. Dave did catch a couple of snook, but not that big one. But, he did get eyeball to eyeball with lots of snook in that spot. He was able to see for himself that the place was full of snook, and there were lots of big ones. They just weren't interested. We stayed with it until the "action" slowed down, and moved on.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
We turned our attention to redfish, fishing several spots that always have redfish in them. Always! But, we couldn't get the redfish to turn their attention to us. I decided to move to the Sanibel side, just for a change of scenery, and perhaps a change in odds. As we worked our way toward the potholes we were going to fish, we were pushing a lot of redfish. We got into position so that we could fish potholes and put out cut ladyfish rigs to try to bring the reds in.
The plan worked flawlessly! On trout. On catfish. Not on the reds! But, we caught
some beautiful trout in the 20 inch range that were running about 3 pounds. And, that
took care of the dinner that Dave promised the folks back home.
I wanted to get Dave on some reds, but the water just wasn't moving. I tried to get up to some structure, but there was barely enough water for me to float. The tide had actually been going out for part of the day that it was supposed to be coming in. With the sun getting low on the horizon, we headed home.
It had been a tough day, and I was exhausted. But, it had been a fantastic day with Dave. We'd had fun, and rekindled a friendship. And, then back at the ramp late on a gorgeous Friday afternoon, I was snapped back to reality. It was amateur hour at the ramp. Lord have mercy. I can't believe how thoughtless and inconsiderate some folks can be. I had to council one elderly gentleman that he was not supposed to have his boat staged in the launch lane until his trailer was in the water. We had cars and trailers backed up all the way down to the street, and he's plugged up one lane. I politely explained that if he didn't move it before he went to get his car and SIT IN LINE, I would cut it free from the dock and wave goodbye to it and his wife. He explained that it was his first time at this ramp. Well! What in the world does that have to do with anything? What happened to courtesy and common sense?
Another gentleman put his trailer in the water in front of me, and did a magnificent job of taking up the whole two-lane ramp. I got out and explained that it was a two lane, not a one lane, private ramp. "Oh, I'll be just a minute while he drives the boat on." He said. He was still there diddling with the trailer fifteen minutes later while the cars backed up behind me.
OK. I feel better now that I've vented. It was a great couple of days on the water withgreat people, and I guess that compensates for all the ramp woes!
The tides are improving into next week, but we've also got another strong front coming
on Monday. That doesn't bode well for my Tuesday trip. Hopefully, things will be
settled down for Thursday and Friday.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!