|
I saw red all week long; redfish, that it! But, with each day that passed, I had more company on the flat.
After having Monday off, I was on the water Tuesday with my old friend Harold Tollrian, and his son Daniel, who were back to visit from Germany for the first time in some three years. Harold didn't look a day older than when I last saw him, but Daniel at 13, had grown about a foot!
We headed to Tarpon Bay for bait, and it didn't come easily. In fact, it seemed to get tougher each day of this week! Once we had enough to fish, we were off to the first snook hole of the day. The snook didn't want to cooperate, but the boys did manage to catch several nice speckled trout. At the second stop we saw lots of fish, but caught none. The third stop was the charm. Harold and Daniel caught about 8 snook, including 3 keepers, and Daniel got the best one at 30 inches.
Once the snook slowed down we went in pursuit of snook and redfish in a different area. Harold caught a beautiful 5# speckled trout, and both Harold and Daniel caught keeping redfish to 26 inches. Both the boys got their Slam! As fishing here goes it wasn't a stellar day of catching lots of fish, but it was a good day of quality fish, and we had a ball. We fish again next week.
 |
Wednesday, it was my old buddy Bill Meyer, of Centerreach, New York, back for some "hopefully" great action. Last time or two I was booked and had to arrange for Bill to fish with friends. I hoped I could give him a trip as good as our first one, which was an awesome redfish day. But, we began with having a hell of a time getting bait. With the spring break and Easter weekend upon us, the flats at Tarpon Bay looked like a Disney parking lot every morning. I think all that chumming and pressure on the bait is simply taking it's toll. Anyway, after a lot of work, and way longer than I wanted to throw the net, we had enough to fish with, and were off.
The tide was already coming in, and the low had not been very low, at that. I decided to go and see if we could get on some early redfish action. I think we actually got on the skinny water before the fish did, as it was slow at first. Then we managed to catch a few snook, then some beautiful trout, and then some redfish. Chumming seemed to really turn them on. The fish went crazy! We had an awesome bite, and by the time it was over Bill had caught 6 trout all over 4 pounds, 6 snook, and some 40 to 50 redfish! Slam! Slam! Slam! Once I knew I had the fish really going well, I waved a guide friend of mine in to join us, who was a couple hundred yards away having to watch Bill and I have so much fun. They also caught plenty of redfish. It had been an awesome day, and it was great to see Bill, again.
 |
Thursday, I decided to do something different for bait. It was my first trip with Mike Siegelski, his son Connor, and daughter Lauren, of New Egypt, New Jersey, and I didn't want to spend a lot of time catching bait. It was the first day of a big snook tournament, and there were 68 boats competing! Also, the Easter traffic was already horrific! I was concerned about finding descent places to fish that weren't already full of boats.
Bait was easier at Picnic Island than it had been at Tarpon Bay all week, but not great! As soon as I thought I had enough pins and shiners for a good redfish bite, we took off. My strategy would be to find a good spot and park on it, and try to make it work, even if it meant being there before the fish were ready to eat. Ultimately, it was a good strategy, even though we did have to wait a while for the fish to eat. Once we got them going Mike and the kids had a blast catching one redfish after another, often two and three at a time. By the time the tide was done the gang had caught 3 snook and some 35 redfish! The fish were eating everything we offered them, which was sliced and diced pinfish and live shiners. Great fun! And, the Siegelskis were just great. We have a shelling trip scheduled for next Monday.
 |
Friday, I met my good friend John Hitt at his dock at 8:30 AM, thankful that I didn't have to deal with the craziness at the local ramp on Good Friday. But, we still had to deal with all the traffic on the water. We began our search for bait at Picnic Island, again, but with little luck. We chummed several places, but had only pinfish and one shiner for our efforts. It was nearly the same thing at Tarpon Bay, but we did manage to catch some shiners. An absolutely flat tide was also hampering our efforts. Thankfully, we had stopped in the river and caught one big ladyfish, and knew we could turn that into as many redfish as we could cut steaks! We had gotten on the bait pretty late, and I think it was just tired of being beaten on!
The strategy for Good Friday seemed obvious; go back to the scene of the previous day's great fishing, and get there as early as possible and wait. Hopefully, we could be there long before the tournament boats or other guides. We were! We had to wait a while for things to happen, but as John learned long ago, patience is so often rewarded on the flats, if you will just exercise it. We had been catching reds and big trout for some time before several other guide boats showed up. Good news travels fast! The three boats that parked next to us literally chummed our fish away from us, but John and I had already had our fun, and were about to call it a day, anyway. We had a bag of frozen ladyfish steaks we could have used to easily foil their efforts, but there was no point in being greedy. We caught a few more big reds, enjoyed watching a very skillful lady angler catch some nice reds in the boat closest to us, and went home. John and I didn't keep count of what we caught, but John boated several big speckled trout, and plenty of redfish to 10 pounds. The day began slowly, but ended with a bang!
 |
Friday night we met Harold and his lovely girlfriend Karen, and Daniel for a wonderful dinner at the Prawnbroker. It's a wonderful place, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there. We had a great time rehashing our trip and just having fun eating and drinking the wonderful food and spirits. What a great way to end a great week! I just wish I could have gotten Harold and Daniel on the crazy redfish action we had for the rest of the week! Well, maybe next week.
There's a big front on the way, that could ruing things for at least the first half of the coming week. Time will tell. Stay tuned.
If you want to be able to continue to fish Florida waters please follow this link, "Manatee Zones: How You Can Help" and please take the time to become involved, even if you don't live in Florida. Let the politicians know WHY you come to Florida on vacation!
Go to NEXT
Go to PREVIOUS
Or, call 1-239-633-5851.[Site Index] [Highlights] [Capt. Butch Profile] [About the Boat] [Kayak Fishing] [Testimonials] [Booking Tips] [Weekend Policy] [Great Rates] [What to Expect] [Cheap Accomodations] [Send Email] [What to Bring] [Directions to the Ramp] |
[Snook] [Redfish] [Tarpon] [Trout] [Jack Crevelle] [Tripletail] [Customer Tales] |
[Fishing Reports] [Articles] [Newsletters] [Angler of the Month] [Angler of the Year Awards] [Manatee Zones] [Tackle Service Center] [Cool Fishing Stuff For Sale] [Hot Links to Cool Sites] [Send Email] [Back to Home] |
OTHER FUN STUFF TO DO![Shelling & Sightseeing Trips] [Dolphin/Manatee Watch Trips] [Lunch & Bar Hopping Trips] |
