It was my first full week in a long time. And, I mean full. Six days! Boy, am I out of fishing shape! It was the first week of good weather following the big cold spell we had, and we had pretty good tides to go along with the weather.
Monday brought my first of two trips with Carl Huber, of Woolford, Maryland. I knew from emails and talking to Carl that he would be great to fish with. Carl was staying on Sanibel, and had brought his 18 ft. Maverick so that he could spend plenty of time on the water. Carl had asked me to guide him in his Maverick, so I met him at his place Monday morning. Carl was set to go and ready to learn.
His Maverick was very nice, and fairly new to Carl. It had a nice Minn Kota trolling motor mounted that had a remote control, and could be set to follow a shoreline. I don't recall the model number. As we left his canal Carl was extolling the virtues of the trolling motor, to which I responded I'd never been able to keep a trolling motor with remote steering, etc., working for very long in saltwater. He was also equipped with trim tabs with a cool Lenco LED position display on the switch panel. Pretty slick. But, his Maverick had two character flaws that could be easily remedied. The biggest was that he didn't have a Power Pole. The second was that he only had one 3-rack of vertical rod storage on the port side of the console. The under gunwale racks are a pure PITA to use. They are in any flats boat. He also had an anchor and chain that was rubberized, and it wouldn't even bite into the soft mud on the flats. Of course, I didn't know that when we left the dock, and we left behind a really cool stake-out pole that Carl found on-line. It's about 8 ft. long with a handle on the end, a piece of rope, and a float to keep it from sinking should it get away from you. He said it had cost about $90.
We had an extreme -1.0 low tide coming at us first thing, and the first place we were headed was real tricky to get in to. I wanted Carl at the helm so that he would have the feel and confidence to go there again without me. Carl followed my instructions and took us on a wild ride that he later told me told me required a change of undies!
We put the trolling motor down to make our final approach, and don't you know it didn't want to work. It was doing a lot of beeping, and responding to his commands when it felt like it. We had to laugh cause that's what seems to happen when you brag on how good something is.
Well, we managed to get ourselves into our spot, and that's when it suddenly became Power Pole appreciation day. Carl had already asked me about the Power Pole, and I had given him Danny's number at Fowler Marine, so that he could see about getting one. It's amazing what a pure hatred and contempt you quickly develop for anchors once you start using a Power Pole. They should be required equipment on all shallow water skiffs. They don't do any damage whatsoever to the flats, so the tree-huggers should be all over that one!
Well, we had a hell of a time trying to fish in this tight place, and wound up in the mangroves several times when we tried to go in to retrieve lures, and the trolling motor decided it would keep on going when Carl of trying to stop it. We had some laughs, and miraculously, managed not to break several very expensive rods. The fish weren't eating, although there were lots of big snook there. So we decided to get to fishing grounds that would be a little friendlier to a bellicose trolling motor. Carl wanted to bring as much fish home as possible, as well as learn, and the best way to do that is with big, fat winter trout.
Our second stop was a good one. We tied on Exude RT Slugs and Rattletraps and went to work, and caught plenty of trout. We put some nice keepers in the boat, and were more than half way to our limits of trout before we left. And, I was having fun with Carl. He's quite a fisherman.
We made a quick move to another hole not far away once the action slowed at the first stop, and were again back in the action. We easily filled our limits of trout, and caught some ladyfish as well.
Once that action slowed, as it inevitably will, we moved on. Carl had asked me about the grouper fishing inshore, so we headed to the closest grouper hole to introduce him to that. Unfortunately, the grouper were on strike, and not striking! Explain that to a union man! It was time to call it a day.
It had been a day of great fun with Carl, and quite a bit of frustration with his non-anchor. And, Carl had become exasperated with his trolling motor well before we were done, and we quit trying to use it. Of course, I kept ragging on Carl about getting a Power Pole at every opportunity. Before long, every time I'd begin to speak he'd say, "Oh, hell. Is this going to be another damned Power Pole commercial?" And, of course it was! He had to sit through a lot of them that day.
He promised to take care of the trolling motor before our Friday trip, and I got in one last commercial when I told him I fully expected him to have a new Power Pole on his boat by then. I left that day knowing I'd made a new friend.
Tuesday was my first trip with Martin Wenick, of Washington, DC, and his good friend David Fisher. As soon as I met Martin, I knew it would be a fun day no matter how the catching went. I wasn't wrong, either. We had a front approaching, and I figured this could be the last nice day for a few.
We got up into the Sound to our first spot, and I put the trolling motor down to make my approach, and don't you know the damned thing didn't work. I couldn't believe it. I had just replaced all the batteries last week! I couldn't find anything obvious like a loose connection wrong with it, so that meant we'd be making all of our final approaches on the Yamaha. That's not something you want to have to do in shallow water fishing! Well, that spot proved to be a dud save for one mangrove snapper. The fish there definitely seemed to be shut down since the big cold front the previous week. The odd thing is that it's a place that is usually on fire after a big cold front when most everything else isn't working. We moved on.
Our next stop put us in the action immediately. We were on a good trout bite, and put a lot of keepers in the well at that stop. I think we also had some ladyfish action there, as well. We were again tossing Exude RT's and Rattletraps. We were catching and having fun. But, eventually it pooped out, and it was time to move.
Our third stop put us on bigger trout, and we were able to finish off a well with three limits of nice trout right there. We also had some ladyfish action, and Martin managed to hook a sheephead in the anus with a jig of all places, and lost a nice flounder at boat-side. We'd caught a bunch of trout, and couldn't keep any more, and the water was finally getting right to give me access to some redfish. So, we were off to see if we could make it happen before the tide quit.
I didn't have a lot of faith that I could motor in to a redfish flat with my Yamaha blazing and still have a shot at a redfish. But, I didn't have any other option other than walking the boat in, and the water was a bit cold for that. I just hoped the fish I knew would be there would settle down after a while and eat a spoon or two. It took a while, but we did manage to loose one red and boat one on our spoons.
I had no trolling motor, and I asked Martin if he'd mind if we headed in a little bit early since I had to make a trip to Fowler Marine that would probably take an hour, and we were limited out. He was fine with that, so we headed home. It had been a great day with a couple of great guys, and Martin has since booked another trip for the 25th.
The wind had kicked during my trip with Martin and David, as the front had moved closer. The wind forecast was south at 24 MPH! But, if there's one wind I don't mind fishing, it's a south wind, because the fish are almost guaranteed to eat.
I met my good friend Dr. John Hitt, down from UCF for some quick R & R, at his dock Wednesday morning. It was a beautiful morning. The water temp was in the low 60's as we made our way down the river. John told me he was heading back to Orlando the next morning, and he wanted to get back early enough to clean the boat and get it completely dried before he put on the canvas. That changed my redfish plans a bit, but John absolutely loves catching and eating speckled trout, and had been waiting for the winter trout season. So, that was our target.
We made our way up into the Sound and went to work. John quickly got his cursory pinfish on a jig out of the way! I don't know how he does it, but he always manages to catch at least one pinfish on a jig. That's not east to do considering the pinfish isn't any longer than the jig. But, John does that with amazing regularity. And, he's also deadly with his staple, the white curly-tail jig. That's his confidence bait, and he's a master at using it. And, he put me to shame for most of this morning, as he caught trout after trout with that rig. The fish seemed uncharacteristically disinterested in my Exudes. That was OK, though, as I use the Exude to target trout that are well into the slot, and above the slot. It's the bait that catches most of those 4 to 6 pound trout we catch during the winter. John was catching mostly smaller trout, but having a blast. We also caught a few ladyfish.
We hung with it until the action slowed, and then moved to a hole that John and I have fished together for year for big winter trout. They were there, and we filled our limit order with ease. By the time the action slowed it was time to head home. We also had to stop for gas along the way. Back at the dock John cleaned the boat while I cleaned fish. It had been a good day, and although the wind did kick, I don't think it reached the forecast of 24 MPH. We were glad of that.
Thursday was certainly an interesting day. This was my second instructional trip with Mike Ripley, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Last year around this time, I did an instructional trip with him and showed him around on the eastern side of the Sound. Because he is usually busy until late in the morning, he prefers to fish from around 10:00 AM, or so, until late afternoon, and he also likes to stay close to home. When he's down here, home is on Captiva Island. So, he wanted to learn about fishing on the west side of the Sound.
But, when I got up Thursday morning, it was pretty foggy. Our fog usually burns off fairly rapidly, so I went ahead with trip preparations, and went to the ramp at Punta Rassa. I was to pick Mike up at his dock on Captiva at 9 AM. When I pulled into the ramp I could still see the treeline of Sanibel. By the time I had put the Talon in the water and parked my van, I couldn't see the top of the A span of the causeway! Man, it really came in heavy and quickly.
Well, no problem, I figured. I was at the ramp an hour and a half early, so surely the fog would burn off by 8:30, or so. WRONG! I called Mike and told him we could either reschedule, or I would come pick him up when I could safely run. He wanted to keep our date, so I waited on the fog to lift. It was finally safe to run at 10:04 AM. As I was about to leave, Capt. Skip Dunn, who had canceled his trip, asked me if I wanted a few shiners which had been caught out offshore by another Captain who had canceled his trip. It was only a couple dozen, but it would be nice to have a handful of live baits in the boat.
I made it to Mike's place without problem, and called him as I entered the channel. He met me at the dock, and after chatting for a while we headed to a spot in Ding Darling.
Once at our spot, we began working the mangrove shoreline with Exude RT's in Baby Bass, and Rattletraps. Mike caught several very nice trout on the Exude. I struck out with the Trap. So, I decided to pitch a shiner or two since I had some. I then caught a few nice trout, as well. I also had a close encounter with a big snook, when she blasted a big shiner, but did not eat it. She took a second look, but turned it down. We fished our way deeper into Ding, but never caught another fish.
We headed up to North Captiva to see if we could find some redfish, and show Mike the area. We tied on Bagley's hammer finish spoons and Mirrolure Top Dogs and went to work on our first spot. We were immediately in fish. The reds were hitting and swirling on the topwater plugs, but we couldn't get them to go ahead and eat them. It was very exciting, though. We hung a Dog in the wood and left it there for a while as we continued to fish. When we went in to get the lure, we came up on bunches of redfish, small snook, and mullet. They were panicked and scooting everywhere. We had forced them to leave their safehouse.
We moved back away from the spot the length of a long cast, but we now at a different angle because the breeze had changed. I felt sure the fish would come right back in there and settle down. And, they did. We switched to our spoons, and before I knew it Mike was catching redfish on nearly every cast. We were both catching fish, and having fun. There's nothing more fun than a redfish to me, and I think Mike agrees. They're just such pit bulls. Finally, it was over, and we fished other parts of the area to no avail. It was time to move on, and it looked like the fog was trying to come back. We stopped and worked another area, but the tide had pretty much put an end to any kind of action. With fog threatening, we headed back to Mike's dock. It had been a fun day with Mike, and we'd returned our catch to the waters.
It was Friday, already, and I couldn't wait to get in Carl's Maverick and take him to what I was sure would be a great redfish bite once again. It's the nature of redfish. Once you find them and catch them, they'll usually be right where you found them for some time, on the same stage of the tide. But, the tide was a bit later, and we had a while to wait.
As promised, Carl had dealt with the trolling motor, and all was fine. But, there was no Power Pole! You can bet we had that cool stake-out pole with us this time, and it really works great. I'm going to get one to serve as a backup to my Power Pole.
We headed north into the Sound, and stopped at a pretty spot in the sanctuary. We caught a few nice trout there, and put some in the well, but could never really get a good bite going. But, it was also about showing Carl the area.
We moved on, and settled on a pothole near Buck Key. There we found more trout, and although we caught quite a few, and got near our limit of keepers, it was a strange bite. The fish just weren't aggressive.
Finally, the water was getting right to go chase those redfish I'd found. As I knew they would be, they were there. But, they blind-sided us, and just wouldn't eat. We had the reds swirling on our topwaters, bumping our spoons and bending the weed guards, and all that stuff, but they just wouldn't eat. There were plenty of fish there, but they were giving us the fin!
We moved on to another spot where the reds I catch there are always bigguns! And, they were there as well. And, we almost caught a couple of them. Carl had a big red smack his spoon. He got to see the fish, and it was big, but somehow it didn't get hooked. I had the same thing happen, except that I didn't get to see the fish that hit me.
We had what appeared to be a major fog event about to happen. We decided it was time to head toward home, especially since the tide was done. Carl flew on instruments for a while, but once we got down to Sanibel the fog broke, and we had clear running. We'd had a great time. The redfish had managed to get the best of us, but it was still very exciting seeing them chase our lures. I resolved myself to try them again the next day.
I got to the ramp Saturday morning for my first trip with Dr. Burr Hall, of Rochester, New York, to find we were once again fogged in. Geez! This was getting old. I was very early, as always, but by the time Burr arrived not much had changed. We had to wait a while longer for the fog to lift to a safe level.
Finally, we headed out to our first spot of the day. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the fish to bite, and moved on. With the water temperature finally reaching 70, I felt sure there would be some snook that would bite, but it was not the case. We were on the move, again.
At our second and third stops we caught trout. We caught some nice fish at the first stop, and put a few in the well. We caught more at the second stop, but they were not slot fish. We didn't spend a lot of time on the trout, as Burr had told me he'd caught one redfish in his life, and we'd agreed to chase redfish.
We headed back to North Captiva to try those lip-locked redfish, again. And, again the fish followed, bumped, swirled, etc., on our bait, but we only caught one. Well! That was one more than on Friday. It was fun for sure, but frustrating to see fish swirling and hitting at your bait, and not eating it. We covered the area quite well, and moved on. There are many other great redfish areas.
At our next stop it was more of the same. The fish were there in numbers, and we actually managed to catch one more, but we should have been slamming the reds. They were all over. Once we'd covered those grounds well we hit three more area without a hit. Now, fog was becoming an issue once again, and it was time to get closer to the ramp. Actually, we went to the ramp, where the circus was about fire up all three rings. It was crazy, and I learned the next morning that if I had been 15 minutes later, I may have been socked in out in the Sound, as the fog got really bad, and the ramp even worse as everyone scrambled to the ramp the same time. Oh, what fun!
I really enjoyed the day with Burr. He's the kind of angler I love to fish with. He's an avid angler, and a very skilled caster, and great to be with. Actually, all of my customers this week were just great. I am blessed to have such great folks to fish with.