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So, here I am with the BarHopp'R home for a week, and in the mood to go throw some spoons. I called my old fishing buddy, Terry Bair. He was up for spoon feeding some reds.
It was the night of the full moon, and there was no water in Sarasota Bay. I figured it would be tough to get the redfish with full bellies to eat. It was!
While the sun was low, I decided to throw some topwater plugs; something I hadn't had a chance to do in a long while. I tied on a Creek Popper, and began working the plug in mere inches of water, in hopes that a big red would zero in on it.
It wasn't long before I had a great explosion on the plug. The back of the fish arched way up out of the water, but it happened so fast, I wasn't sure what it was. I kept popping. Boom! She blew it up again, again missing. I tried to keep my composure, and kept popping, knowing full well I'd never hook the fish if I didn't wait until I felt her weight on the end of the line. Bam! The third strick came quickly. I didn't feel her weight, but I didn't see the plug, either. In a heartbeat, I decided that she had to have it in her mouth coming at me. I reeled like hell and set the hook. The drag screamed for about three seconds and the line went limp. "Damn!" I yelled at Terry, "She broke me off. I can't believe it!" Terry was giggling with competitive amusement. Then I realized I still had the plug attached, and figured she just spit it out. It wasn't until I had thrown the plug another half dozen times that I realized that she had pulled the hook right off the back of the plug. Apparently, she parted the splitring that is used to attach the hook. I wasn't happy with the manufacturer of the Creek Popper!
Terry and I had a great morning of plug casting, and even though we only caught 4 reds, we had a great time.
The next morning met my old buddy John "Wolfgang" Franck and his church friend Bubba Butler for a morning of plug casting. Bubba had never done any saltwater fishing. He's a bass guy. We had the same conditions as the day before, with a northeast wind, but the fish were a little more cooperative. By morning's end we'd caught 6 reds to 26 inches, 1 snook of 25 inches, 6 trout, and a flounder. We got our West Coast Slam, and Bubba had a blast. I don't think he was ready for the pull of the redfish.
After a day off, I was ready to go again with my friend Capt. Tommy Stephens, and my surrogate son, Ben Kunkel. Benny and I did a lot of fishing together when he was in his teens. He's newly married and has a small boat, and I wanted to show him another way to fish, and show him the north part of the bay.
Before the day was over, I had him fishing with a Shimano baitcast reel, which he'd never done, and we had caught 10 redfish and 6 trout. It was a great morning.
But it was just the calm before the storm. I spent the next day off watching the weather and working on the web page. My good friend and best client, Kevin Grover was due up Friday, and had decided to fish Sarasota with lures instead of going south. That night the front and rain came through, and by daybreak it was blowing like hell out of the north.
Looking out over the water from the 10th Street ramp that morning, all I could see was rollers and whitecaps. Nasty stuff! I decided to wait until Kevin arrived, and move the launch to Ken Thompson Park, if Kevin still wanted to fish. I figured that way we might be able to stay out of the worse of the rough water.
Once on the water, we made several high speed drifts across the Middlegrounds in search of pompano. They were there, but were impossible to catch. We were fighting so much of the elements, you couldn't feel a bite. Kevin got the only pompano, and there were several catfish caught on the pompano jigs. Strange!
We moved on up the bay in hopes that we could get out of some of the wind and find some reds on the relatively protected flats. Kevin, Mike Murphy, and Brian, a first-timer, fished their hearts out, but by day's end we'd only boated 2 redfish, 1 snook, around a dozen trout, the pompano, and a ladyfish. Tough day! But, you know, those are the day's you don't soon forget.
I'm looking forward to getting back down to the waters I love, Pine Island Sound.
If you have questions or comments, or would like to book a trip, please email me at capt@barhoppr.com.
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