Fishing Report for Week Ending 8/16/2009
After having a benign growth removed from my back a couple of weeks ago, I finally got back to work last Sunday. The rest of this month is quite busy with trips, which is unusual for August. But, as I sit here beginning this report, I wonder what this coming week will bring, as southwest Florida sits smack dab in the center of the cone of uncertainty of what will likely be hurricane Fay.
This week was a classic lesson in how much tides affect the fishing. We went from really poor tides beginning on Sunday, to good tides later in the week, and the fishing just kept improving. Of course, weather was a big factor for the first few days, as well.
The week began Sunday with Craig Morris, his dad Steven, and brother Scott, over from the east coast. I checked the radar that morning, as I do every morning, and there were scattered small cells of rain in the gulf, but nothing that looked troublesome. But, by the time I and the Morris boys left the dock, things were looking a bit different. Based upon the forecast I would have changed our trip to a different day, but the guys were only here for Saturday and Sunday. We had to try to make it work.
We went straight to the B Span of the causeway to catch bait, and got good bait including some ballyhoo. But, about half way through catching the bait, we had a large cell of rain on us from off the Gulf, that sent us packing to hide under the B span until it passed. That exercise certainly seemed a harbinger of things to come. Once the rain cell passed, we beat feet back to the flats to catch some more bait. It didn't take long before we were ready to go fishing.
We high-tailed it for our first spot. I instinctively knew by looking at the western horizon, that we were in for more weather. I really wanted to get some fish into the boat quickly in case the worst happened. Especially since Steven told me that his wife had put in an order for enough redfish to feed everyone! But, we hardly had time to find out if the fish were going to play before we were running from another large, ominous looking cell of weather. We ran to the Waterfront Restaurant and waited under the entrance along with some other anglers who showed up just before the weather hit.
After about an hour the weather finally cleared, and it looked safe to head back out. WE had big water , threatening weather, and an order for redfish! I decided to fish a favorite spot of mine that always seems to have fish on the really high tides, especially if the wind is south.
Once there and set up, it only took a minute to get the first take. It was a keeper redfish, and went into the well. Several others followed, and well as one that got away, and several blow-ups that didn't get hooked. And, then the weather blew up on us, again. I'm Florida born and bred, and I don't mess around with the weather. Especially, summer weather. It can turn nasty on you in a heartbeat. So, away we went back to the Waterfront. We got there right after opening time, and at least were able to have a fabulous lunch while we watched the radar attentively.
The storms were really firing now, and we decided collectively that we should get our butts to the ramp safely and call it a day. Although our fishing time had been cut short, we had met our mission objective; enough redfish to feed everyone dinner. By the time I got back to the boatyard the weather was getting ugly. With lightning around, the Talon only got a cursory spritz from the water hose, and I was headed to the camp.
Monday dawned looking like a carbon copy of Sunday. There were cells of weather scattered all over the gulf, but not quite as organized. WE had the worst tide of the week to fish, and it would only move a couple of inches over the time we'd be out there.
I had another two boat trip on Monday with my friend Capt. Marc Geldon. It was a two boat, two day trip that would involve some sixteen family members. My party consisted of John and Michelle, and their son Jayson, of Polk County, Florida. They were really nice folks. We were still in the very wet on-shore weather pattern, and we had an awful tide to fish. There would be almost no movement of water during the whole time we'd be out.
We all went straight to the B Span flats to catch bait, and again, before we were half way through the process, we were running from the first cell of weather. We just went the short distance to the causeway and sat it out. I saw no sense in starting off the day soaking wet. Once the storm was passed, we went back and finished up. We had plenty of bait, but only a single lonely ballyhoo.
We'd already had some storms with lots of lightning in them before daylight. With safety as my number one concern, I decided to begin the day in an area where I could hear the horn from the lightning detection system on the golf course on the north end of Sanibel. I like to do that when the weather is threatening.
We did make a couple of stops along the way while the sky was fairly clear, but couldn't draw any interest. So, we made our way to our safe area to fish. Once there and set up on the first spot, we had immediate action. Michelle scored a keeper redfish, and lost another one. John and Jayson both had numerous hits, but were a bit too anxious with the circle hooks, and couldn't get hooked up.
As we fished around the area we got wet several times. I was OK with that as long as there was no alarm from the golf course. But, we never had another hit for the rest of the morning. The dead tide just had the reds and snook in full lockjaw. Finally, at around eleven o'clock the weather seemed to be clearing out over the gulf, and we made our way a bit farther away from civilization in search of a bite.
Still without so much as a bite, I decided it was safe to head to my redfish hot spot way up in the Sound. It was late in the morning, the tide wasn't moving, and we had only one ballyhoo, but I figured it was worth a shot.
But, just before we got to Demere Key my motor went into alarm, and brought us to a stop. At first, I thought I'd picked up more of the turtle grass that has been a real problem out there, but that wasn't the problem. The problem appeared to be oil. John and I wrestled the lid off the Yammie, and sure enough, the on board oil tank was down to the alarm line. I had filled the main tank that morning, so I knew I had either had a bad connection or a bad oil delivery pump. We got out a gallon of oil and topped off the on-board tank. That would get us around for the rest of the morning. I asked John, who is a professional mechanic, if he wanted to continue on, or head back closer to home. John was all for heading back toward home.
We decided to make a pit stop at the Waterfront Restaurant, and then access the situation after lunch. After a great lunch it was God-awful hot when we got back out to the boat. I was ready to continue on with trying to find some fish closer to home, but my guys decided it was time to take it to the dock. Actually, it was a good decision. We'd had fun in spite of the slow bite.
I was off Tuesday, and watched the weather move onshore all morning. But, around noon all hell broke loose as a bad series of storms came ashore. I found out later that several guides had been caught out in it. That's not a place you want to be when it's popping and snapping!
Wednesday morning brought the first of two trips with Jerry Ream, and his sons Ben and Tyler, over from West Palm Beach. Jerry is the the brother-in-law of my old friend Russ Hubbard's fishing buddy Martin. Russ referred Jerry to me, and he booked the two days. Knowing Russ, I knew he had talked me up to Jerry, and I just hoped I could live up to the hype. Well, at least we would have one of the two days with a pretty good tide.
We began our day out at the B Span flats for bait. Bait was great, and besides lots of nice sized shiners, there were plenty of ballyhoo. But, those ballyhoo are hard to catch. I re-injured my lower back on Sunday on my first day back at work, and it may well have been trying to catch ballyhoo.. You have to throw the castnet right to the end of the rope, and you have to throw it very low to the water to keep them from running out from under it. It winds up being tantamount to line driving a shot put!
With a load of bait including plenty of ballyhoo, and vastly improved weather, I decided it was time to hit my redfish honey hole up in the north end of the Sound. I knew the fish were there. It would just be a matter of getting them to eat on the improved, but still slow tide.
So, off we went, hoping for the best. We had a wind forecast of gusting to 255 MPH out of the south/southwest. With a wind like that I much prefer to be on the west side of the Sound, but my gut was telling me to fish my east side hole. And, the wind wasn't up at all once we were done with bait.
Once at our spot we put out a combination of ballyhoo Slim Jims and live shiners. We had to wait on the tide to begin moving, and didn't have a nibble until it did. With the water not moving well, we had to take the good with the bad, which meant catfish, and plenty of them. But, the boys also caught plenty of mangrove snapper, and we did get some redfish.
But, the fish of the day came when Jerry got hammered by something really big on a live shiner. He had his hands full for a while, and we figured it was a redfish, but weren't absolutely sure. Finally, Jerry got it close enough to see, and it was a big red for the shallow waters of the Sound. Once it was in the boat she weighted in at 13 pounds, and was the biggest redfish Jerry had ever caught. The boys followed with some 7 and 8 pounders, but as quickly as the bite had begun, it was over. Jerry agreed the prolonged ride to the spot had been well worth a 13 pound red!
We fished a few more spots as we headed back south, but when it's over, it's over. The fish just weren't biting. But, we had put some nice fish into the boat.
The four of us were back at it again Thursday morning. It would be the best tide I'd fish this week. It was just enough better than the previous day that I knew it could make a big difference to our numbers. Bait was again great at B Span, and not only did we have a well full of nice looking shiners, but we had probably two dozen ballyhoo, all in about four casts of the net. We were ready to rock and roll!
After a ride of twenty minutes or so, we pulled into my chosen spot. I made a stealthy final approach on the trolling motor, and anchored us with the Power Pole. Time to go to work! I first rigged a shiner on a popping cork and launched it like a missile out to the edge of some movement I could see in the water. I wanted to have at least one bait in the water while I was cutting up ballyhoo to make redfish Slim Jims. But, as I placed the rod into Jerry's hands it got slammed hard. It was a hole in one!
In the same instant the whole school pushed as a porpoise moved onto the flat. As quickly as I could I got three more bally baits out, and they were all crushed within a second or two. I quickly put the fifth rod out, and it was also crushed. That redfish could stay out there until we had the other four landed, and would help hold the school in front of us. I also chopped a couple of ballyhoo into small pieces as quickly as I could, and launched them out to the school to help hold them. The plan worked, and we had a crazy bite going. For the next three hours or so Jerry, Ben, and Tyler caught triple after triple, double after double, and lots of singles, too. We tried our best to keep count, but it was just too fast and furious. And, as luck would have it the bite tapered off with the top of the tide, just as we burned the last of our ballyhoo. We had used every one of them, and they make on average three baits per fish! What a morning! But, we weren't quite done just yet!
We moved about a mile to a spot I love to fish at the top of a big high tide. And, darned if we weren't right back on more action for another half hour or so. Jerry bagged another two redfish and four snook, and Ben bagged a snook. But, the coup de gras came when Ben's rod went off and the line was peeling off that Stella 3000 so fast it sounded like a pig squealing. This was a big fish. I went into the coaching mode and got the anchor up. I saw that Ben was already into the backing that keeps the Power Pro from spinning on the spool, and I only put enough to cover the surface of the spool. That ain't 'much, folks!
But as I got the boat moving toward the fish with the Minn Kota, Ben managed to get some line back. Now, I had to get Benn to kick that fishes butt, before it rubbed through the leader or managed to pull free. He followed my coaching pretty well, and got the fish to the Boga Grip before something parted. But, as I pulled the fish over the side I gave the leader a pull, and it parted right above the hook. He was mere seconds from loosing that fish! But, the big female snook was in the boat, and it was a beauty. She weighted in a 13.5 pounds, and was the biggest snook Ben had ever caught.
Once the pictures were taken and the fish was released healthy, I told the boys we were going to end the day on a great high note right there, and go have lunch. Everyone was good with that, and soon we were at the Waterfront Restaurant for the boys' first experience there. Everything was great, and there's not a better way to top off a fantastic day of fishing than right there. And, it had been a fantastic day. By our best count we had boated 42 redfish and 6 snook. And over the two days we'd boated a 13 pound red and the 13.5 pound snook!
I have a full schedule next week. But, I find myself sitting here nursing my bad back wondering if everything will still be standing by the middle of next week. If you live in south Florida, say your prayers!