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The Talon did get her bottom wet on Monday morning, as I had a new prop to try out on her. My good friend Capt. Butch Boteler had passed along the results of a mutual friend's experimenting with props on his Talon F-16, and I had a brand new Mercury Offshore 4 blade 23 pitch prop that was promised to be perfect. At first, I thought it might be too much prop for the Yamaha 150, but she seemed to pull it well to about 5,200 RPM, and that's as fast as I've ever gotten a Yamaha 150 to spin. The boat runs really nice with the prop on. It seems to really fly at top revs, and cruise at a nice 40 around 4,000 RPM.
Wind, weather, and a sad looking calendar combined to give me one trip to talk about this week. It was on Friday, and the second day after the passing of the first good cold front to make it this far south this fall, and I knew it would be a tough day. But, this time of year, once the fronts begin to push south, you could wait until next spring to get that perfect day.
This trip was with Tom Iversen, of St. Louis, who fished with me along with Dr. Joe Sandza a couple of weeks ago. We had a fantastic day. Joining Tom were his good friend Gale Hill, and his future son-in-law Steve, both of St. Louis.
Our wind was still out of the north/northeast at 10 to 15, more toward the 15, I'd say. The skies were that special hue of blue you get only when you're sitting under a big bubble of high pressure with not a cloud to be seen. It's pretty weather, but tough on fishing.
I decided to stop at Picnic Island for bait, thinking that if I found none there I would work my way north into the Sound. The tide had just begun to move in, and it didn't take long before I was sure I had seen a flash in the murky water. The sun was just breaking the horizon, so it was hard to be sure. I threw the net and got our first load of shiners while Gale continued to put out the chum. Three throws later we were loaded with all the bait we'd need for the day.
We headed to one of my favorite trout/snook holes on the low tide expecting to have at least a great trout bite, but it was not to be. Oh, the boys caught a handful of trout, and we had lots of bait hit and scaled the way only a snook can do it, but we never got a snook to actually hold on long enough to get tight to it. Actually, most of the snook hits the boys never felt.
We moved from there to a sure-nuff snook hole and were immediately into a pretty good bite. We had everything from 13 inch yearlings to a 30 inch beauty, and Gale had the hot rod. I teased him a lot about how he was fighting the bigger fish, but he was a great sport and did a good job. After he watched me chum the hole a number of times, and saw the snook blow up the baits, he admitted that he couldn't imagine why we had caught so much bait, but now understood. Gale and Tom caught a good dozen snook there, but Steve only managed one small.
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We moved to another sure-nuff snook hole that I hadn't fished since the cold of last winter. I'm sure the snook were there, as I did see several hits on my chum, but the only fish caught was a nice gag grouper that really amazed Tom with it's pulling power in shallow water.
From there we decided to give the redfish a try, and moved to a nearby flat. I began my chumming routine knowing full well the fish were there, because they always are on that stage of the tide, and they love the area. The wind was making it difficult to manage four lines, and the redfish didn't want to eat. We had three fish pop our cut-bait rigs a couple of times each, but they wouldn't go ahead and take it. They'd get almost tight and drop the bait. We had no hits on the live baits under popping corks. I figured the reds would eventually turn on, as they almost always do if you're patient, but the boys elected to move on and try to find some action.
We moved to a great snook area about a mile away and immediately had to contend with gulls trying to steal both our chummed shiners and the ones on our hooks. They can absolutely ruin a fishing trip and they're almost impossible to get away from. Once they find you have live shiners in your well, your boat is marked for the rest of the day. The best remedy is to make a scarecrow out of one of them, but that's not PC in today's world.
Anyway, we managed to catch a few more snook moving from hole to hole until the tide was done. By then we were all starving, and ready for lunch. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to top off what had not be a great day, but had been a good day on the water despite tough conditions.
Last week I opened a court of my customers and readers to give me their opinions about a no-show and forfeited deposit issue from that week. I couldn't believe all the emails I got from you folks out there, and I was pleased to see that not one reader or customer of mine took Kristen's side. Everyone, to a man, was firmly in my camp. And, as many of you predicted, the $50 deposit that was supposed to be forthcoming, hasn't come forth. I'm really tempted to cut and paste the text from some of your emails and send them to her, but I doubt she'd put herself in the position of reading them. She would be shocked to see what other fishermen think of her behavior. Oh, well. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write, and reassure me that I was on the right side of the situation.
Next week I have a full calendar beginning on Sunday with my old friend John Hitt. We have another front expected in on Monday, so it's anyone's guess how the weather will be once that happens. There should be a full week to report on next week, though, God willing.
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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