Bunche Breeze 04/20/09

I had to work both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Naturally, on the days I can't fish, the weather was gorgeous and the winds light. But I was off Monday and as I headed to Bunche Beach I had high hopes for a great day on the water. There wasn't even a breath of air moving!

Until I arrived at Bunche Beach.

I'd stopped at McDonalds for a sausage and egg McMuffin and by the time I hit Bunche, the breeze was blowing about 10mph. I figured I could handle 10 easily enough and launched into a slight swell and light chop. I paddled into the wind which was southerly and headed towards the shallow flat towards Matanzas Pass. Enroute I had my first fish of the day - this little gag grouper.



I was hoping to pick up ladyfish or maybe a small jack to use for live bait. As I reached the shallow water, I spotted two manatees swimming in less than 4 feet of water. I coasted up to within six feet of them before they exploded away with thrashing tail flukes and massive splashing and upwellings of bottom mud!

I trolled back and forth and casted all around the usually productive area without success. There were manatees EVERYWHERE! I counted at least nine of them and literally had a hard time avoiding them! I didn't want to get knocked out of the kayak by a frightened manatee! I tried to take pictures, but whenever they'd stick their noses up to breathe, my photo snap would come a second too late! The closest I could come to a manatee pic is this one. The manatee is that slightly brownish patch of water in the center of the photo. You'll just have to use your imagination to see what he looked like...



I had a four day old, slightly stinky ladyfish from my ill-fated outing in Matlacha on 4/17 and I thought I might have to use that for tarpon bait, but as fate would have it, I did manage a little lizardfish as I paddled off the flat into deeper water. He promptly went on my hook as tarpon bait!



I drifted for an hour fishing the live bait and casting Yo-Zuri's with my trout and redfish rods. Eventually i caught this little Crevalle Jack.



He went on the hook to replace the lizardfish who I set free.



While fishing the little jack, I was again visited my a marine mammal - this time a dolphin.



He circled my kayak continuously for a good ten minutes...



and kept working his way closer and closer...



The wind picked up to the mid teens and the swells increased in size and the chop edged up from light to "moderate" and started white-capping. I figured high winds, circling dolphin - my fishing was done for the day.

I paddled back to the beach, loaded up the yak and headed to Bonita Bill's where a pound of peel and eat shrimp, a couple of Key West Ale drafts and a Dominican Cohiba made up for a windy, largely unsuccessful day of catching fish.

Life is good!