This was a slow week for me. It's our off season here, and everyone is crying the blues. We also had several days of bad weather to contend with, but I did manage a couple of trips.

Bait is still unbelievably plentiful both in Sarasota Bay and Pine Island Sound. One or two throws of the net, and you're gone fishin'.

Early in the week I was out with Gaden Thomas, who recently retired from GTE Florida. We left under the threat of storms, but managed to get in a few hours fishing before being run off the water. The falling barometer had given the redfish lockjaw, but we did manage to catch a few, and lose a few.

Friday I had a trip with Bob and Carol Bass, of St. Cloud, Florida, and Jim and Jan Lemkow, of Deltona, Florida. They found me through Sanibel Causeway Bait and Tackle, a very nice tackle/bait shop at the foot of the Sanibel Causeway. Bob and Carol had brought their own boat from St. Cloud, but weren't having much luck catching anything. Carol was the avid fisherman of the group, and wanted to catch a snook in the worst way. She turned out to be a pretty good angler.

We caught our bait on the beach near the lighthouse. There was so much bait, we decided to cull out the biggest shiners and let the small ones go. After four throws or so we had all the bait we needed for a day of fishing. I headed for the snook beaches of Sanibel. It wasn't long before we started hitting snook, and everyone, especially Carol, had a blast. We wound up with a total (unofficial) of 32 snook, 2 jacks, and 2 Spanish mackerel. The waters off the beach are full of mackerel, but to catch them you really need a small piece of steel leader, or at least a long shank hook. Not things I normally carry in my backcountry fishing arsenal, but if I had, we could have loaded the boat with mackerel.

We made a few stops on the way in to see if we could scare up a redfish, but in the mid-day heat we were able to entice none to come out of the trees to eat.

We're expecting an unseasonably cool front to make it this far south sometime Monday. That could trigger some great fishing action next week. Stay tuned.

TRIP INFORMATION [Site Index] [Highlights] [Capt. Butch Profile] [About the Boat] [Kayak Fishing] [Testimonials] [Booking Tips] [Weekend Policy] [Great Rates] [What to Expect] [Cheap Accomodations] [Send Email] [What to Bring] [Directions to the Ramp]

WHAT WE CATCH [Snook] [Redfish] [Tarpon] [Trout] [Jack Crevelle] [Tripletail] [Customer Tales]

THE CAPTAIN TELLS ALL [Fishing Reports] [TV Quality Video Clips] [Articles] [Newsletters] [Angler of the Month] [Angler of the Year Awards] [Manatee Zones] [Tackle Service Center] [Cool Fishing Stuff For Sale] [Hot Links to Cool Sites] [Send Email] [Back to Home]

OTHER FUN STUFF TO DO! [Shelling & Sightseeing Trips] [Dolphin/Manatee Watch Trips] [Lunch & Bar Hopping Trips]