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The big news here is still unseasonably cold weather, or perhaps I should say, unbelievably cold water for this part of the country. The water temperature here in Southwest Florida actually got down to 55 degrees. That's cold enough to make some of our species begin going belly up, and most of the others, including wade fishermen go comatose. It's cold enough to shut down the grouper bite. So, that leaves the main fishing for species that aren't as affected by the cold; ladyfish, flounder, sheephead, and trout. It also makes for somewhat generic sounding fishing reports, and not many days worked.
Of the four days I had booked for this week, I only got to fish two. Monday and Tuesday were canceled because of health problems, and in this slow season, didn't get filled. Wednesday, I met a new customer, Marc Denton, of Little Silver, New Jersey, and his friend Rod Diaz, at the docks at 10:00 AM. Marc has been coming to our area for many years, and has fished with some very good guides. Naturally, I wanted to give Marc and his friend Rod, a brand new angler, a great trip full of redfish and snook, but I knew it was not practical to pursue with the water as cold as it is, and the fish as lethargic as they are.
So, to put lots of pulls on the end of our new angler's line, we headed up the river to the ladyfish flat. The fish were there in huge numbers, and for Marc it was a fish nearly every cast. Rod quickly caught on to casting and jigging and getting tight on the fish, and was soon catching plenty of the silver leapers, himself. Once Marc and Rod had tired of the ladyfish, we headed up into the Sound to look for trout.
To my surprise, the water was cold enough to have the trout in a very lethargic mood. We could only muster 7 or 8 or the speckled beauties, and had no keepers. Although I knew it was futile, Marc and I decided to go spend an hour or so trying to find and catch a redfish or two. We did find some fish, but they were simply laying still on the now bare mud bottom of the flats trying to soak up some sun, and weren't the least bit interested in eating.
It certainly had not been a day to impress Marc with my guiding abilities, but being a veteran angler Marc seemed very understanding of the situation. Marc was a very patient, low pressure guy, and a lot of fun to be on the boat with, and I was looking forward to having a much better catching day with him next Monday.
Friday, my first trip with Jim Cowee and his friend, Don Miller, was pretty much a repeat of Wednesday's plan, except with much better results. There were tons of ladyfish to catch in the river, of course, but unlike Wednesday, the trout were much more willing participants. I wasn't able to keep track, but the boys caught plenty of them, all in the slot limit, up to nearly five pounds. We had plenty of action, which during a cold winter as we are experiencing, can be a big blessing to a guide. In my opinion, during winter it's much more prudent to fish for what is willing to bite in the cold water, rather than chasing fish that you know aren't going to eat. After all, action of some kind is what most folks really want.
The good news for next week is that we have a warming trend on the way. We desperately need our water warmed at least back into the sixties before we're going to find much in the way of snook or redfish action.
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