2:53 PM on 4/29/97
Fishing Report for Week Ending 1/12/97
Fishing Report for Week Ending 1/12/97
by Capt. Butch Rickey
The first trip of the week was with Terry Sinclair of Carlisle, Ontario, Canada. Terry has requested an instructional guide through a local guide service because he wanted to learn the how, where, when, and why of fishing our waters. Terry has a place in Bonita Springs.
I rather enjoy teaching trips, and unlike many guides, I have no problem with showing a customer how and where I fish. I always tell people that live bait fishing the way we do it here is like an algebraic formula. If any one piece is missing, you're probably not going to be very successful. You have to be able to throw a cast net and catch the shiners we fish with. You have to know where they are at different times of the year. You have to know and understand the effects of the tides, and where the fish are going to be on the different tide phases. Just knowing a hole isn't enough. You have to know how to set up on the hole. You have to have the proper tackle, and the proper terminal tackle. I think you get the idea. Besides, there are plenty of fish and plenty of holes out there for everyone.
I had a chance to illustrate this principle to Terry later in the morning. I made a fairly long run up the Sound to my first stop for snook, only to find another flats boat already on the hole. I told Terry that we would fish another spot and wait for the boat to leave, explaining that he might not have the right bait, and that he didn't look like he was properly set up on the hole.
We fished another hole not to far away, and got a couple of snook out of it. I kept an eye on the boat on the other hole, but never saw him catch a fish. I waited for about 30 minutes after the other boat left, to give the fish a chance to settle down, then went to the hole and set up. We didn't hit anything right away, but I just knew there were snook in that
hole. I threw a couple handfuls of crippled shiners in the hole. Shortly afterward, I saw several snook come out of the mangroves. I instructed Terry to cast a shiner in close. He made a great cast, and hooked up immediately. He caught several nice snook out of that hole after it had been abandoned by another angler.
We had an extremely low tide when we started that morning, so after giving Terry a course on how to catch bait, and how to throw the net, we went pothole fishing. Terry had a pretty good day, catching 8 or 9 snook, around 20 trout, a flounder, and a jack, but was fighting a bug. We called it after a half-day, and I think Terry left feeling much more confident about catching fish on his own.
January is a slow month here, and is usually cursed with lots of bad weather that makes fishing a challenge, to say the least. Don and Michele Cipledi of Sarasota, drew a cool and windy day just after a passing front, and the fish pretty well had lockjaw. They got a 27" redfish, and lost one, plus 2 snook, 4 flounder, 1 snapper, and 12 trout. I wasn't satisfied with the day's production, so I offered them a makeup trip at cost.
There won't be a report for next week I took the week off.
Go to NEXT Report
Go to PREVIOUS Report
RETURN to REPORTS INDEX.
Click here to book a trip with me on "the BarHopp'R", or call 1-800-545-1853.
OTHER FUN STUFF TO DO!