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After marking this week off my calendar for vacation, then finding late that I had the wrong week marked, it was impossible to fill it on short notice. As a result, I only ran two trips.
The first trip was Thursday with my new friends Roland and Shannon Hartich. I though I would do something different, and give them a chance to see a different part of the Sound, so after catching bait at Chino Island, we headed way north.
We had a slow moving tide, which in itself, makes for tough fishing. But, it didn't take us long to notice that we had virtually lost our breeze than had been around for some time, keeping us relatively cool in this hot weather. With the air still, we just cooked in the heat. Roland commented that he didn't know how I could possibly work in such heat every day. Sometimes I wonder, too, and sometimes by Wednesday, I can't hardly go!
Long story short, three snook were missed, and Shannon landed the only snook caught that morning. I have a feeling she'll be reminding Roland of that for some time. By around eleven o'clock, both Roland and Shannon had had all the heat they could stand, and when I asked them if they'd like to run to the Waterfront Restaurant for drinks and lunch, they were very quick to agree. They just don't see weather like ours in Berlin! The heat seemed worse than it was because with no fish biting, there was only to stand there waiting, thinking about how hot it was! A tough day!
Friday was a totally different scenario. We had a little breeze back to keep us cool, and the tide though not great, was quite a bit better for my old friends Stew, Lucy, and Morgan Evans, of Denver. I picked the Evans up at North Captiva at the end of the runway, and we headed across to Cayo Costa for bait. There was plenty of glass minnow and pinfish activity, but we caught no shiners in two places. I headed down to Fosters Point, and within two or three throws, we were baited up and ready to fish. The bait was beautiful, and plentiful.
In all the times that we have fished together, I couldn't remember taking the Evans fishing in the mangroves, and Stew agreed that it sounded like fun. With the manatee zones everywhere changing the way we're fishing, I have a renewed interest in fishing in the Sanctuary. It offers lots of opportunities in a relatively small area. Of course, fishing the mangroves has it's own share of problems for the inexperienced. To quote Jessie Jackson, you have to, "Stay out da Bushes!" Stew, Lucy, and Morgan did pretty well for their first time fishing the bushes, and by morning's end they had boated 3 jacks to 4 pounds, 2 nice 16 inch trout, one keeper redfish, and more than 20 snook. Stew seemed to be pretty amazed at all the fish hiding back in the mangroves. It was hotter than blazes, and I think I let the heat get to me, but we had a good time and had some food for their table.
We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant. Stew requested a visit there, as he's heard so much about it, but wasn't sure where it was or how to get to it. It's a bit out of the way for a North Captiva trip, and that's why I'd never taken them before. As you might guess, Stew and Lucy just raved about the food, atmosphere, and service, and I know they will be back. It was about a 25 minute run back to Safety Harbor.
It was a short, hot week! I could tell from those two days that it will take me some time to reaclimate to summer this year. The tides next week are much better, so I expect to see an improvement in the fishing.
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