After five days of vacation, it’s five days of work. It was a pretty good week.

Monday’s trip was with one of my best fishing friends and longtime customers, Russ Hubbard, of Royal Palm Beach, and his customer Tim Rice. It was a still morning. No air moving. Slick water! We headed straight to Keesel’s for bait, and were quickly loaded.

Russ loves to trout fish, and I knew the trout were thick on the beaches of North Captiva. So, I took Russ and Tim straight outside to see if the trout were still there after my five day vacation. They were! They were there thick as thieves. We caught speckled trout two and three at a time up to four pounds, just as quickly as we could throw baits into the water. We didn’t keep a count, but we caught a boatload.

Once we bored with that, we headed inside to see if we could scare up some redfish. But, the conditions on the shallow, clear flats were tough with no air moving. There were reds literally everywhere! Hundreds, if not thousands of them! Yet, they were so skiddish we only managed to catch 4 of them.

We wanted to try for the Slam, so we headed to a great snook hole on the last of the tide, but we were apparently too late. We couldn’t get anything to eat. Curious, I went about checking the area out on the trolling motor. My God! The place was full of big snook. They were all over, and we had surely had baits in front of some of them. But, they weren’t eating.

We called it a day and headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and rehydrated ourselves. Life was good. Lots of trout, some nice reds, wonderful food, and great friends. Isn’t that what fishing is all about?

Tuesday was a very special day for me. I arranged to fish with my good, long-time friend Chuck Freeman, who has been a faithful friend, and my resident computer guru who has bailed me out of computer problems when they get over my head, for many years. Chuck and I are on the same wavelength, and have much in common. We haven’t fish together in some five years. Way too long!

Chuck told me he didn’t care about how many fish we did or didn’t catch. He was just in to enjoying the day on the water with an old friend. But, I wanted him to enjoy some great fishing action, so after catching bait at Keesel’s, we were off to the beaches of North Captiva. The trout were still there, and we caught them two at a time for the duration of our stay on the beach.

Later, and back inside, we couldn’t get the redfish to eat. Once again, they were thick on the flat, but just not interested in eating. Why? The full moon. Several days either side of the full moon, snook and redfish get tough to catch early in the day because they’re up all night eating on the light of the nearly full moon. In the morning we have great tides, and fish with full bellies. A tough combo. We did manage to catch a couple of snook on the beach, but weren’t able to complete the Slam.

No matter! We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for a great lunch once we’d decided we’d had enough of the intense heat. After lunch, we headed in and Chuck came by the fish camp for a visit before heading back to his home in Ellenton. It had been a great day with a long time friend.

My good friend Bob McGuire was back on Wednesday, this time with his dad, Bob Sr. I was really looking forward to getting Bob Sr. out for the second time. Our first trip with him had been on an awful winter day, and we were forced by weather to stay in the river close to the launch. We caught lots of ladyfish and jacks, but weren’t able go flats fishing.

The Wednesday weather was good with light easterly breezes. Bait was good at Keesel’s shack. Soon, we were off to the beaches of North Captiva in search of those pre-spawning trout. I wanted to get Bob Sr. into some good action and let him catch lots of fish. This was the way to do it. The fish were there, and we caught a boat load of them. Bob also managed one snook on the beach.

But, Bob and I both wanted his dad to catch a big redfish or two, and we were two thirds of the way to the Slam. We headed inside in search of reds. It didn’t take long to find them, and we were soon chumming and putting baits out. We didn’t get a great bite going, but we did get 8 big hits, and managed to get two redfish to 10 pounds to the boat. Bob Sr., who is 78, was amazed at how hard his big redfish pulled.

After catching bait at Keesel’s, we headed straight to the beach at North Captiva, to catch lots of trout for Carol’s dinner. But, the plan was frustrated when the trout didn’t eat. We were on the full moon, and I’m guessing the trout had spawned that night, and weren’t about to eat. We pitched baits along the beach as we moved slowly along with the trolling motor, bassin style. We never saw a trout, but Mike did do a great job of dragging 3 nice snook out of the cover. As we trolled along the beach, a manatee swam right by the boat, giving Carol a good, if not quick look. She did turn and say “hi” to us before moving on. So, although the trout didn’t cooperate, we had met two of our objectives on the beach. Now, we had to catch dinner.

The last trip of the week was with my good friend Dr. John Hitt. We’d had a great day last time out, and I was hopeful that we could do so, again. We headed to Keesel’s for bait, and were loaded up in a couple of throws. I wanted some pinfish to cut for redfish, but we didn’t get any there. I headed to Chino Island thinking I’d find some there, as I had the day before, but we only caught the little guys.

John loves to trout fish, but since they had disappeared the day before, I figured it would be a waste of time to go looking for them. Instead, we headed to a great snook spot, where it didn’t take long for us to get into the action. We saw something there that I hadn’t seen before. There was a large barracuda, probably 4 feet or more, following our snook to the boat. At first we thought it was a big snook, but I soon realized it was a cuba. Why he never actually slashed one of our snook is beyond me. He seemed more curious than anything. Well, they [are] known to be curious creatures.

Anyway, we had a great bite until around ten o’clock, and during that time we boated a good 30 snook. WE never saw the first trout there, either. It’s amazing how they just vanished overnight. We headed inside in hopes of duplicating the redfish action of the day before. I felt sure we could. But, we didn’t have the pinfish of the day before, and the reds weren’t buying live or cut shiners. A fellow guide, Capt. Bruce Ringsmuth, joined us on the flat and offered up a few frozen sardines. We figured that would do the trick, but the reds weren’t eating anything. We left without a red, but we’d still had a great day of snook fishing, and were happy with that. We did hit several spots along the way home, and had some kill strikes, and caught a trout, but no reds, and no more snook.

All in all it was a great week of fishing. The coming week brings with it some very poor tides, and for that reason is not booked out. We’ll see how it goes. Until then.

Tight Lines!

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.

Gamefish Diaries! You'll love these great fishing stories from my good friend Chic McSherry.

TRIP INFORMATION [Site Index] [Highlights] [Capt. Butch Profile] [About the Boat] [Kayak Fishing] [Customer Fishing Testimonials] [Booking Tips] [Weekend Policy] [Great Rates] [What to Expect] [Cheap Accomodations] [Send Email] [What to Bring] [Directions to the Ramp]

WHAT WE CATCH [Snook Fishing] [Fishing Redfish] [Tarpon Fishing] [Trout Fishing] [Jack Crevelle Fishing] [Chasing Tripletail] [Customer Tales]

THE CAPTAIN TELLS ALL [Florida Fishing Reports] [Fishing Reports Archives] [TV Quality Video Clips] [Articles] [Newsletters] [Hurricane Fund] [Angler of the Month] [Angler of the Year Awards] [Manatee Zones] [Sell Your Gear Here!] [Tackle Service Center] [Shop the BarHopp'R Tackle Shop!] [Hot Links to Cool Sites] [Send Email] [Back to Home]

LOCAL DESTINATIONS! [Fishing Sanibel Island] [Fishing Captiva Island] [Fishing Pine Island] [Fishing Sarasota]

OTHER FUN STUFF TO DO! [Shelling & Sightseeing Trips] [Dolphin/Manatee Watch Trips] [Lunch & Bar Hopping Trips]