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Finally! It seems we're beginning to get back to work down here. What began as a full week of seven days scheduled eventually became four trips scheduled for the week, but I only got to run three of them because of weather. I was happy to have what I had, though, after not working for so long.
First up on Monday was my friend Steven O'Rourke, and his good friends Stan Wray, and Steve, all of London. Steve O'Rourke is in the Fire Service and owns a couple of tackle shops in London. His friend Steve fishes professionally for England. Stan is also in the Fire Service. We had all gotten together on Saturday evening for a Bar-B-Que, and had a blast with them. Of course, we talked a lot about the upcoming Monday trip, and now it was time to fish.
We had the perfect tide just two days before the new moon, and I just knew the boys would do well. We headed to Picnic Island for bait, and got a great variety of small to large pinfish, and some small shiners. I was really just mainly interested in large pinfish that I could slice and dice. Soon we were off to chase reds.
As we approached the area I wanted to fish I could see a boat just getting set up on the flat. I thought, and hoped, it was a good friend whom I had told about the fish there. As I got closer I could see that it was. He was having trouble finding the fish, so I went on ahead of him looking. Soon, we had the first redfish in the boat, followed quickly by a few more. My friend pulled on up near us to join the action, but after catching several fish, decided to leave for greener pastures. I was surprised, and in the hours that followed my boys from Britain boated more than 60 redfish in what was an absolutely crazy morning of fishing. For most of the morning they were catching doubles, triples, and even a couple of quadruples of redfish. It was awesome! And, in the middle of it all, Steve O'Rourke got a great snook, which you see below. It was a day of fishing I think they won't soon forget.
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Tuesday, with a tide even better, the fishing was totally different for my first trip with Mark Shives and his friend Todd, of Lake Placid, Florida. We had been forced to cancel and reschedule our trips a number of times because of the hurricanes, and this was finally the day. Bait was once again easy, and we were at the first stop in short order.
But, what should have been another great bite, didn't materialize. We had to work for our fish, and I don't really know what the difference was. I think the main factor was that we had a front on our doorstep on Monday, and the fish ate so well on the front they didn't want to eat on the following day. Oh, Mark and Todd caught some nice fish, and missed plenty, too. But, it wasn't the high intensity action I had expected. We had a great time, tough, and they were great guys.
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Thursday I was back on the water for my first trip with Bruce Angier, and his lovely new wife Kiki. There's something very special about fishing with honeymooners! I hoped to put a good trip together for them, but that morning at the dock I talked with a couple of guides that had worked the day before, and the reports were grim. Hard fishing with little caught! As it turned out, even the bait the bait was tough, but we got plenty.
As my friends had predicted, the fishing was very tough. It had gotten progressively tougher each day of this week. Bruce and Kiki fished hard, and I hit hole after hole where we were on fish that wouldn't eat. We finally found some great trout action in a pothole toward the bottom of the tide, but that was it. We didn't boat a redfish or a snook that day. Kiki was pretty well worn out from their previous night's activities, and we headed home after the trout action. She was really beat!
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It's frustrating when you can't get the fish to cooperate like you'd like, but there are a host of possible conditions that are affecting our fishing. One of the biggest is the fresh water intrusion that we're experiencing from the draining down of Lake Okeechobee after the hurricanes. We are seeing trillions of gallons per hour dump into our estuary down the Caloosahatchee River. We also, oddly enough have a tremendous amount of new-hatch bait like shiners and threadfin herring virtually everywhere you go, right now. There is so much bait in the water I'm surprised we can get anything to eat! Then, there is the effect of weather as it comes and goes.
As we get into next week the tides are really awful; long, slow outgoing tides for most of the week. I expect the fishing with continue tough for most of next week, as well. Time will tell. The good news is that I have a very full week, and there should be lots to talk about. 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!
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