The Arthurs are from Plantation, Florida, and I first fished with them in October of 2008. We had a great time catching lots of beautiful redfish and some snook, and I took Jen's talking about how good they were and how fun they were to catch as my mission for the day.
After getting over the shock of how much Ted, now eleven years old, had grown since we last met, we headed off to the B Span flats at around 7 AM for bait. There was plenty of bait there and I may have been able to catch enough without chumming, but putting food in the water makes it much easier. Problem was, the bait was small. There weren't too many net pluggers, but just not a lot of nice, big shiners. And, very few pinfish. As we chummed the bait in there were nice trout busting bait easily within casting distance of the boat. So, once we were finished with bait, we put out some fresh shiners and caught some trout, and a small gag grouper. We didn't find any keepers, as several were just short of the 15" mark, and after an hour or so moved on to see if we could find some willing redfish.
I figured that with it being a holiday three day weekend, and with several tournaments held on Friday and Saturday, fishing was going to be tough. Sometimes it takes a couple of days for the fish to recover after a busy holiday weekend. Still, I figured we should manage a redfish or two.
Thankfully, it was an overcast day with a nice breeze to help with the evaporative cooling. I had spent the previous two days in the heat working on the kayaks, and allowed myself to become very dehydrated without realizing it. The conditions were a real blessing for me.
Well, we fished spot after spot on both the east and west sides of the Sound, in places I've fished for years that are always populated with redfish. We caught catfish and ladyfish. I also rigged a spoon rig and a topwater rig. Dave did get at least one hit on the spoon, but didn't realize it until I showed him the bent weed guard. Never saw a snook, which is not surprising given the recent report from FWC that said their measurement methods indicate our population down around 85%!! That's a hard number to fathom, and I find myself wondering if the snook just aren't where they're striking their nets. The point I guess is that redfish have been hard all year, too, and I'm not aware of any mortality from the freeze.
Fortunately, I had wonderful people in the boat. When discussing the holiday situation Dave and Jen assured me that catching wasn't the focus. Rather, they wanted to spend a day away and on the water with me, and just enjoy being out. I guess in retrospect we could have spent the day trout fishing and put some meat in the well, but we all had a great time in spite of no redfish or snook. And, of course a slow bite day is always best capped of by a trip to the Waterfront restaurant, where the bite is always great! I was thrilled to see JD's awesome black bean soup on the menu. I raved about it to Dave and Jen, and they took the bait. And, then they raved about it as well. It's the best I've ever had, and a meal in itself. We left with smiles on our faces.
The sun had finally burned through the cloud cover, and the heat was on. But, the ride home was nice. I'm looking forward to doing a kayak trip with the Arthurs next time. I'm betting Ted will really dig being the Captain of his own boat!