FLORIDA FISHING REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 2/02/08
by
Capt. Butch Rickey
I had a pretty full week scheduled, but by the time it was over it wound up being two trips.
Monday brought my first trip with Dan Pease, of Elkhart, Indiana. It would go down as a tough, good, and fun day with a great guy. We had a funky, slow moving outgoing tide in the morning, so we elected to get started at eleven o'clock to fish the incoming tide. We would fish lures.
We headed off into the Sound hoping to find a bite somewhere. At our first stop we caught several nice trout. But, the potholes we were fishing were full of beautiful trout, and they weren't eating well at all. We should have worn them out!
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
At our next stop Dan missed several nice fish, but the spot we were fishing is full of stick-ups and snags and it's easy for the snook and grouper to quickly get the best of even the most skilled anglers. We moved on.
We settled on a flat that most always has big redfish on it. It's just a question of whether they'll eat, or not. We did get eyeball to eyeball with several nice fish, but we couldn't get any of them to eat. Time for a move.
At the next spot I felt very confident that not only would the redfish be there, but that we would manage to catch a few. Anytime this area is covered with enough water to make food available during the winter months, the reds come prowling. The fish were there, all right, but they weren't easy. Dan managed to catch four redfish and missed several others before the tide shut down the bite.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
We made another move in a direction that would hopefully give us a last bit of moving water at our destination, giving us one more shot at some redfish. The plot worked, and Dan hooked four more redfish on spoon, but only managed to boat one of them.
Dan was a very skilled angler, and great to have in the boat. But, he was less than thrilled with his performance. He felt he had let too many fish get away after they were hooked. In his defense, we were fishing with barbless hooks on our lures. Much better for the fish, and much, much better when Butchie finds one implanted in his more than ample body. Toward the end of the day I figured out why Dan missed a few fish. As do almost all anglers from the north country, he would hesitate and watch the fish after pumping the rod. This would allow slack to fall into the line, and makes it easy for a twisting, thrashing redfish, or a wily snook to get away. Once I made my observation, Dan agreed that he had been doing exactly that. It's a case of the old "It works back home, but won't work here!"
All in all, as I said at the beginning, it was a great day with a great guy, and I hope Dan enjoyed the day as much as I did.
Tuesday was to be the first of two fishing trips, and perhaps a shelling trip with Roger and Vicki Cantlon, of Boise, Idaho. But, as things played out, it didn't work out that way.
Because we had a late incoming tide that would run into late afternoon, and a very poor outgoing tide in the morning, we opted to meet at 10:30 AM, go to lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, and then hit the water at around noon to fish the incoming tide.
But, by the time we had lunch Mother Nature had stuck her nose into our plans. We had a big south wind that was feeding an approaching cold front; a front that would take a long time to actually get here. We made our way from the Waterfront up into the east side of the Sound. Normally, we'd expect a good bite on a south wind, although it is dependent upon the barometer falling. But, to my surprise the fish didn't eat. We didn't catch a thing on the east side.
With the wind gusting to 25, and threatening to go higher, and the fish not eating, I decided it was time to get to the west side of the Sound for two reasons. First, if the wind got even worse, the ride home would be much easier. We could ride in the lee of Sanibel for most of the way. Second, a south wind blows the water higher than it would be without the wind, and any time we get enough water on the shallow flats that are normally dry this time of year, the redfish come to look for treats.
I steered the Talon to the narrowest part of the Sound for the crossing, which also allowed me to get most of the rough water coming in from the port side. Much better than having to head straight into that kind of wind and water. But, even with the wind at our port, there's still a lot of movement in the boat. Water can move mountains, and certainly has no problem tossing even the best riding boats around when it gets nasty. And, that's when I found out that Roger had just ten days before our trip had several discs fused in his lower back!! Roger was OK, but definitely hurting, and I wanted to make sure he didn't hurt any more than he already did.
Once at our destination we began working gold and silver spoons in 1/4 and 1/2 oz. sizes. It took a while, but the fish finally ate, and we bagged a dozen plus redfish and one nice snook. Once we were sure the bite was over, we began the trip home, glad that we were on the Sanibel side, and in the lee of the wind most of the way.
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
WINTER FISHING IS HERE!
I knew it would be a repeat of Tuesday's weather on Wednesday. I was very concerned for Roger's well being, and told him that he didn't have to feel obligated to fish the next day. There's no fish worth winding up crippled over! Roger said he'd call me in the morning and let me know if he was up to it, or not. Being a sufferer of back problems myself, I figured that if he was hurting badly already, he'd be even worse in the morning. And, he was. He called and said that he was in a lot of pain, and at that point I wouldn't have put him back in the boat if he'd begged me.
So, that was the week. We took on an ugly day and made it work, and my back was also sore then next morning! I had greatly enjoyed the day with Roger and Vicki except for the scare with Roger's back.
You may be wondering why I'm a week behind with the fishing report. Well, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail other than to tell you that my future son-in-law, Joe Weaver, passed away unexpectedly in a horrible incident on January 31st., and in addition to suddenly getting busy, it has been a very sad and hectic time. I'm making every effort to get caught up.
Next week is a busy week. Hopefully there will be plenty to talk about. Until then, tight lines!
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!