I met Nick Georgiades at 0700 hrs. Friday morning. He'd driven down from Sarasota for his first shot at flats fishing from a boat, and his first time ever shiner fishing. We'd just had our first early season cold front push through, and the overnight temperature got down to about 67! It was brisk, after being in the low 80's most mornings. As we left the dock with dawn just about to break, it was already shaping up to be a beautiful day.
The brisk ride through dawn's early light landed us on the flat in front of Kiesel's shack, where bait has been great. Today was no exception. I mixed up the chum, and gave Nick some chum tossing techniques and we went to work. Almost immediately there were ballyhoo leaving their little trails on the surface, and they weren't to bashful. I made a throw just off the top of the water, and bagged enough ballys for a morning of fishing, plus some beautiful shiners, threadfins, and pins. I threw the net two more times, and had the big console well in the Talon loaded so tight that I couldn't see the bottom. We'd never make a dent in that much bait!
With the boat cleaned up, we headed to the first stop in hopes of finding some early snook. But, the tide was just crawling along almost imperceptibly, and the snook didn't want to play. Nick had several baits scaled by snook, but not eaten, which gave me a chance to teach him about how a snook leaves his signature on a bait. Once the tide began to move a little better and the fish still wouldn't eat, I began to think we would indeed be fighting the post front blues, as well as the full moon full bellies.
We settled on a spot I love for redfish, fully expecting to beat up on them. There was life and activity everywhere you looked, and the fish were there, but they weren't having anything to do with us. I gave it some time, knowing I was fighting full bellies, but the fish just wouldn't eat.
We moved on north to another spot I love, and along the way we pushed redfish all over the place. But, they were not schooled. Rather, they were scattered out pretty well, and although I felt sure we might be able to catch a few, I didn't have much hope of catching a bunch, and kept moving.
At our next stop we stumbled upon snook all over the place before we even got into position. There were some nice females mixed in that were definitely slot fish. We stopped a threw baits all over them, and they just ignored us. I chummed them with livies as well, and they just weren't interested. We pulled anchor and moved on it to position to try for redfish.
I got out the carving table my old friend Jeff Stevens built for me years ago, and went to work doing a bit of pinfish and ballyhoo surgery. When I cast the first pinfish out, it hit the water and just kept on going. A big redfish crushed it the instant it hit the water. Nick now had his first redfish battle, and I could tell by his deleted expletives he was shocked at how hard the fish fought, and that he was loving it.
That was the start. I kept pinfish fillet mignons, ballyhoo Slim-Jims, and a live bait out, and we caught redfish after redfish, all on the pinfish and ballyhoo. We also had three snook pick up our pinfish fillets while we were busy with redfish. They came tight to the rod, got on the drag and jumped, but for whatever reason the circle hooks didn't find home before they were able to spit out their stinging morsels.
Perhaps the most exciting thing that happened during that redfish run was when a big red, the one just above I believe, slammed a cut bait so hard that it literally ripped the middle rod holder off the console rack. If it hadn't been hanging by the bottom screw, which was almost pulled out, that fish would likely have swam off with my expensive Stella/St. Croix rig!! Fortunately, when I heard the snap, bang, rattle it made, I grabbed the rod before it could come out of the rod holder.
After a couple hours of constant redfish action, I ask Nick if he wanted to leave 'em bitin, and go chase snook. We'd had a great day, had our two fish limit, and I wanted to get him on some snook. He was ready to go.
After a nice cool-down ride we were at our next spot. There were mullet everywhere. That's a good thing! And, there were plenty of redfish. In fact, on several occasions we had big redfish lollygag right pas the boat within a few feet, just like we weren't even there. Of course, we were very quiet, and not moving around much, and the fish just didn't feel threatened. Our first patches of shoreline gave up no snook, and I asked Nick several times if he wanted to go back to redfish. But, he was good with staying after snook, as was I.
We'd been on fish since our arrival there. Had some blow-ups and a couple of hits, but had not converted them to fish. We made a minor move, and got on some new fish. It was now later in the tide, and I figured we were going to have the late tide snook bite that is so customary on full moon days. And, the first bait that hit the water was crushed. The thing that put the snook over the top was tail hooking them, which allowed me to stay off the fish, and kept the big shiners swimming along right on the surface. Casting the livies had been a problem all morning because it was glass slick like a June morning, and there was no air moving. You don't realize how much a 5 to 10 breeze helps get distance with live shiners until you don't have it. Then it's like trying to cast a kite!
Well, the strategy worked and it didn't take Nick long to catch a few snook. It was nearing noon, and I was hungry, soaking wet, and my knees were bothering me. We decided we'd had a great day by any standards, and with the AC on cold, headed to the Waterfront Restaurant. At the restaurant, my hands and feet began to cramp, and I realized than even with the low humidity, I had been so busy with fish that I had not hydrated at all until we were about ready to leave the flats. I was actually to overheated to eat much.
It was a great first trip with Nick, and I think he earned his redfish wings. We are kindred spirits and share a lot of views, and he's pretty much like family. It was really fun to spend the day with him on the water, and he let me know that anytime I need a fishing partner, he's do the drive time to join me. I think I see some more fishing with Nick on the near horizon.