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As I mentioned in last week's report, I was on a short vacation this week. But, I did come back to Ft. Myers to run a trip with an old friend, Dave Adair, of Cincinnati, and two of his friends Paul and Jeff, of Cisco Systems, from Colorado. I wouldn't miss a chance to spend a day on the water with Dave. We've known each other for ten years now, and he's a great guy, a laid back but passionate angler, and always fun.
Our day was Wednesday, and we had a descent tide with about a week to go to the new moon. But, it was full high at 9 AM. I figured our best fishing would be before the full high, and that proved to be the case. Word at the dock that morning was that bait had disappeared from the Punta Rassa flats, B span flats, and Picnic Island. So, once Dave and the boys were aboard, we took off for Chino Island, where I had last gotten great bait.
Once there, Dave took over the chumming duties while I threw the net. Bait wasn't as easy as it had been the week before, but it was beautiful bait with some net pluggers mixed in, as well as plenty of ballyhoo and relatively few threadfins. We'd begun the morning with a southwest breeze, and once we were loaded with bait, it will still with us. Actually, it was around to the west. So, going outside to put the boys on a bunch of snook would not be an option. We'd have to get 'er done inside. I've yet to get outside this summer.
We settled on a small mangrove key on the east side of the Sound. After immediately making two adjustments for the wind, we got into some fish. Dave and Jeff got several snook, including a double, and a nice mangrove snapper nearly 13 inches long. The end of the tide was fast approaching, so once things slowed I wasted no time in getting to the next spot to see if we could coax a redfish into eating.
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Once there, we anchored and began chumming with shiners and cut ballyhoo to see if we could draw a hit. We had no visibility between the high, tannin stained water, the chop from the west wind, and the glare from the sun in our faces, so we'd have to find them with bait. I didn't want to just go roaring in on the flat and risk spooking the fish. Our first attempt was met with no interest. I made a move of several hundred yards and began anew. It wasn't long before we had something wiggling a couple of the rods as it nibbled at our cut ballyhoo. I instructed Jeff to pick up one of the rods and crank like hell at my command. He did, and stuck what turned out to be his first redfish. Man, was he excited, especially once he got a look at that fish. It was beautiful, and gave him a fit. Finally, he brought her to the boat, and I got the Boga around her lip. She pinned the Boga, so we don't know what she weighed. But, it was a beauty for Jeff's first red. He talked about fighting that fish for the rest of the day. After that red all we could catch was catfish. We moved on as our tide ran out of gas.
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We settled on another small mangrove key that almost always has snook and redfish present on the higher tides. But, again. All we could catch was catfish on our cut and live bait. We made a short move to another small key, where we were back into the fish for a while. The boys caught 2 or 3 snook and 2 nice redfish, one of which went into the well for my dinner. Jeff lost probably the fish of the day when he hooked a big female snook right up on the mangroves. I knew he only had a few seconds to win the battle in the mangroves or loose the fish, and went into the coaching mode. But, Jeff had already broken the first rule when he struck the fish long before he was tight to the fish, even as I continued telling him, “Reel, reel, reel!” He kept the fish on for a while, but I knew it was inevitable the snook would win the first time Jeff dropped any slack at all to it. And, when it did Jeff proclaimed, “It broke me off!”
“No, it didn't! It spit the hook!” I retorted.
“No, it broke me off!” claimed Jeff.
But, once Jeff got reeled in, there was his hook and leader in tact, and I explained to him what had happened. Dave, Paul, and I had seen the big snook as she tried in vain to jump. What usually happens is that they get their head out of the water and rattle their gills, and sometimes managed to roll the back out of the water much like a tarpon does. She did that, and showed us that she was big. But, as with so many snook, she was big and free!
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Once the action slowed there we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, where we all enjoyed a fabulous lunch. I had the Calamari, that is absolutely world class, served on a bed of greens with EVOO and fresh garlic. JD knows I'm a major garlic lover, and really laid it on. That garlic was really hot, and worse, my wife could hardly stand to be in the same room with me for the rest of our vacation!
After lunch we decided to fish some more. We found the spot full of 4 ft. long snook, but they were not about to eat. There were probably 15 of them bunched up in the hole, and they didn't even want to move as the boat encroached on their space. They were just laid up chilling out in the intense heat. One of the guys managed one more fat mangrove snapper for the well, but that was it. We headed home.
It had been a brutally hot day that just kicked my butt. I could hardly go the next day. It hadn't been an easy day with the fish, but we'd had fun and caught some nice fish. And, any day on the water with Dave is a good day. One of these days I'm going to sneak up to Cin-Cin and get in some striper fishing with him.
I've got three days on the books next week, Monday through Wednesday. But, currently the forecast is for morning storms, again. So, who knows what the week will bring. We'll have good tides on the new moon, so if we can get out there and survive the heat maybe the fish will choose to participate.
Be sure to check out www.BestFishingBooks.com, Books and gifts for fishermen from my friend Jim Dicken!
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