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There are three trips to talk about this week.
The first trip was a short fun trip with my good buddy Butch Boteler. He had been on a great snook bite the day before, and wanted to take me back to the scene of the crime for more action. He thought he'd found the promised land. I knew that it was nothing more than the great bite on an approaching front, and now that it had passed through and the wind switched to the north, there would be no bite. I explained the mechanics of weather to Butch, and we decided to go anyway. It was blowing like hell, and I figured we could give it a shot to make him happy, and if the fish predictably didn't bite, come back home and watch football.
We gathered bait and headed to his spot. It is a beautifully snooky looking place, but it would only give up a couple of reluctant hits, one snook and one jack on this morning. Butch just couldn't stop talking about how many big snook he'd caught and broke off there just a day before.
Thursday was a research trip to find redfish for my long time customer Dick Witherow on Friday. I invited my old friend/customer Lew Joseph, and of course, Butch Boteler. Lew was interested in getting his first ride in a Talon. I met Lew at the ramp, and we headed to St. James City to pick up Butch at his canal home in Cherry Estates. Since there is a route out of there that dumps you at the second set of powerlines near Chino Island, I elected to head to Chino for bait. Small threadfins and pinfish were thick, and made a real mess of the net.
We first headed up to North Captiva to check out the two new passes that were cut through the island by tropical storm Gabrielle. They're about a block apart, and littered many fallen Australian Pine trees on the Fosters flat inside, and in effect, created three islands. There were a lot of boaters and jet skiers around, so we didn't hang around or attempt to fish. Instead, we headed south to check out Blind Pass. Mother Nature has indeed done what man and his $300,000 couldn't, or wouldn't do properly; open Blind Pass. It is shallow, but it is flowing water once again. We couldn't get through, so we headed back around inside so we could come in from the Sound side and get a closer look. The tide was still fairly low, but incoming, and we were able to navigate almost up to the rocks before running out of floatable water. We anchored and tried to drown a few baits, but never had a hit. I, as I'm sure do others, just pray the pass will stay open and continue to deepen itself. If that happens, it will once again be a great snook fishery during the summer months.
From there we went in pursuit of redfish, and found them. We didn't have a spectacular bite, but we were certainly on the fish, and they were eating our pinfish baits. We caught about a dozen nice reds to 28 inches, and a jack crevalle. I felt very confident the fish would be right back there on Friday on the same tide for Dick.
I met my old friend Dick Witherow, of Upper Arlington, Ohio, Friday morning at 10:00 AM. We would fish the full incoming tide. It was good to see Dick, as I hadn't fished with him in at least a couple of years. Dick usually doesn't have the luxury of much advance notice as to when he will be able to come down and fish, and I have been booked every time he has called me in the last couple of years. I've had to refer him to my guide friends. I assured him that would probably not be the case in the economy we now face.
We headed to Tarpon Bay flats in hopes of catching good bait. There was plenty of bait there, but it was a mixture of small threadfins, small shiners, and pinfish. We loaded up and headed to a spot in Ding Darling that I figured would be full of snook moving back inside from the beaches and passes. I guess I was wrong, as we only caught one jack crevalle. From there we headed to one of my favorite fall/winter/spring potholes. I had it on good authority from my friend and customer David Jaeger that the snook were back in the pothole, as well as big trout. Well, perhaps I got there too late, but I don't think so. I suspect the fish were there, but not eating. We caught one nice trout.
From the pothole we headed north to a flat where reds often congregate. As I taxied the Talon in at slow speed with flaps down, we had redfish pushing all over. The redfish were there all right, but we couldn't get them to eat our baits. In fact, we could see them pushing wakes right through my chum, and not even stopping to check it out. Very odd!
At our next stop we couldn't see the reds as we approached, but I knew they were there. We fished them hard, and repeatedly had redfish swim within 20 feet of the Talon. That's unusual, for sure. They didn't seem to mind that we were there, at all. Perhaps they like the seafoam color or the quietness of the Talon. We were on plenty of fish, but they just didn't seem to be in an eating mood. We managed to catch about half dozen nice redfish and one snook before the tide was done. We also lost our breeze somewhere along the way, and with no air moving, the heat was brutal. It really knocked the wind out of our sails, and once the bite slowed, Dick and I were ready to head in. We didn't catch a bunch of fish, but we did catch some nice reds, and Dick seemed to be happy with that.
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Well, only one more week until my schedule gets busy, again. I sure hope the tropics behave. I need to run every trip I have on the books, but the hurricane season isn't over until November.
The downturn in business because of the slow economy, and now further because of the tragedy of September 11, has had me and some of my friends brainstorming how we can generate trips, generate cash flow, and therefore stay in business through the tough times we have ahead of us. Here are the first two ideas I will put forward. First, since December and January are normally my only slow months of the year, I am fearful of just how slow they could be this year. I am going to roll back the cost of my half day trip to last year's rate of $325 for anyone booking in December and January. Further, if you would like to prepay your trip, no matter when you have it booked, either in lump sum, or in three or four installments, I will discount the trip by $25. Your trip must be paid at least a month in advance to earn the discount. With the market in such a slump and interest rates still declining, that's a much better return on your trip fee than leaving it in the bank until trip time.
So, come on folks. It's time to get out and enjoy your favorite pastime, in your favorite vacation destination. Let's show Osama Bin Lunatic that he can't beat us with economic terrorism, either.
I have now posted the final thumbnailed pictures on the Talon Page of this website, for those interested in seeing how one of these jewels goes together.
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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!
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