Under the causeway again 01/19/09

The weather was bad, but slated to get worse as the week progressed. And aside from that, I had to work 6 gigs with the band in the next five days. I had worked the night before and consequently didn't feel like juggling stuff around to load the van with kayak paraphenalia for what boded to be a less-than-optimal fishing day.

My go-to place lately when non-kayak fishing has has been the B-span of the Sanibel Causeway. So that's where I headed.



This day the blue heron was the resident fisherman...



Rather than provide a blow by blow description of what was less than a stellar day of fishing, let me just say that I caught four small jacks...



Four small lizardfish...



And two feisty little pinfish that attacked my Gotcha lure...



Though a sunny day, it was cold, it was windy, and the tide was not moving very much. I wrapped things up about 11:30 and headed to the Winn Dixie Shopping Center at Summerlin and San Carlos where I stopped at the "Smoke Shop" - my favorite cigar store.



My friend Gray, the proprietor, had s special going on for one of my favorite smokes - Dominican Cohiba Torpedos - for like thirty-three bucks for a bundle of 25! I scored a bundle...



Then i headed to Bonita Bill's...



I had a cigar, a cold beer, shot the bull with some of my buddys, and was home by 2pm.

Life is good!

too windy to kayak so back to the causeway 01/13/09

I had planned to kayak fish Tuesday - after I ran an errand to city hall to get some questions answered about various and sundry special tax assessments they had levied on my home. What should have been wrapped up in a ten minute conversation wound up taking over an hour and entailed traveling to two separate locations to find the proper city employee to talk to! At least I got my issues resolved, but it was noon before I got out of there, and when I did, it was cloudy and windy - too windy to make me want to brave the weather in a kayak.

Instead, I headed back to the Sanibel Causeway to fish my spot at the B-span where I'd had some fun with jacks and small spanish mackerel the day before. There were some other fishermen there when I arrived at my spot at the bridge...



I started out throwing a 1 ounce red-headed white-bodied Gotcha lure. On the very first cast I got the skunk out from under the bridge with a little lizardfish. He was the first of six lizards I landed.



The little jacks were on fire! Before the day was over I caught nearly four dozen of them - all about the same size...



The ubiquitous ladyfish were there as well. I lost two or three to their jumping antics for every one I landed, but finished the day with a tally of six ladyfish...



I caught my first ever silver trout (but not a single spotted trout)...



I caught two spanish mackerel too. I kept the biggest one for supper.



I lost a number of fish (and Gotcha lures) to bite-offs - probably spanish macks but possibly bluefish. The weird thing was that I kept getting bitten off not at the lure end of the leader where you would expect, but at the leader-to-line knot! Spanish macks and bluefish get into a frenzy when one of the school gets hooked and apparently the hooked fish's buddies were striking at the albright knot joining line to leader and cutting the flurocarbon just below the knot thus freeing the hooked fish and pissing off the fisherman! I lost all three of my white 1oz Gotcha lures this way and two of the smaller 7/8oz silver Gotchas! I had a big (1oz or larger) chartreuse Gotcha with a chartreuse bucktail and single trailing hook so I tied that one on. First cast and BOOM! A nice solid hit and fight from this 17 1/2 inch gag grouper...



In the three hours or so I fished, the tide was continuously incoming. The breeze shifted from a southerly direction to a more westerly origin during that time. It was nearing 4pm and the bite had really picked up, but shortly after I got the gag grouper, I felt some large rain drops and the characteristic rush of cold wind signalling an approaching front...



The front literally slammed into the bridge (and me under it!) Winds funneling under the bridge abutment had to be gusting in excess of 50mph! Windswept sand was blasting my legs and I took off and pocketed my eyeglasses for fear the sand would sandblast the lenses! The worst of the storm lasted a good thirty minutes so I huddled as far back under the bridge as I could to get out of the rain and worst of the wind and proceeded to put a dent in my cooler's beer inventory while I waited it out.

I'd caught well over fifty fish in non-stop action for several hours and frankly my casting wrist was sore from casting and working those Gotcha lures and fighting all those fish! I wasn't complaining though! I had one spanish mack in the cooler for dinner and as I headed for home at 4:45 I thought to myself, "Life is good!"

Tarvus

a "hit and run" session at the Sanibel Causeway 01/12/09

I woke up Monday 1/12/09 well rested. I was well rested because I overslept! I'd planned on getting up early and knocking out my chores for the day but instead got up late and started my chores.

What I really REALLY wanted to do was go fishing, but first I had to count up proceeds from our band's gig the night before, enter new sign-ups on our band's email list, and get our weekly band newsletter written and emailed. I had a stock trade that I wanted to make and had to wait for the market open at 9:30 to do so. Then I cooked up some eggs for breakfast and shared them with my pet parrot, Chico, before heading to the bank to deposit some cash and to cash some checks.

In the meantime, I had thrown two light spinning rods and my new 9 wt fly rod in the van along with an empty cooler and a tackle bag. A quick stop at Publix resolved the cooler emptyness issue and I was off!

I didn't really have long to fish and I didn't want to take the time to unload my van and load my kayak stuff so I planned on wade fishing off the spoil islands and beneath the bridges on the Sanibel Causeway. It was nearly 11:30 before I hit the "restroom island" at the causeway C-span. I was amazed to see how foggy it still was crossing over the bridge at that late hour!







My plan was to wade out and unlimber my new fly rod on the San Carlos Bay side of the causeway, but there was a slight breeze out of the south blowing into my face which I knew would merely frustrate me trying to practice casting the fly rod. So instead I grabbed a spinning outfit with a silver/red-headed 7/8th ounce "Gotcha" jig tied on and commenced casting! I got a little tap-bump-bump on my first cast and on the second, hooked up with a little crevalle jack.



My third cast yielded a cookie cutter version of the first little jack...



A couple more casts with nothing happening caused me to walk the 1/4 mile or so down to the C-span. I waded out from the abutment to the first set of pilings and while the incoming tide ripped against my legs, I cast my little Gotcha down-tide. One cast and BUMP! A hit and a tussle from this little puffer fish...





After a dozen or two more casts with nada happening, I headed back towards where I had parked the van. I couldn't resist wading out for just one more cast and in so doing, hung the third cookie-cutter sized jack of the day...



I moved on to the eastern abutment of the B-span at that point. There were a few tourist types there slinging big chunks of frozen squid on red-beaded wire leaders with big 3 ounce pyramid sinkers. They had evidently been there quite a while with no success and were quite amazed when I walked up, made one cast - this time with a small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow plug, and proceeded to catch TWO of those cookie cutter jacks on a single lure!



Within minutes, I'd switched back to the Gotcha and followed that up with a small trout...



another jack...



and four small, toothy little spanish mackerel...









At 1:30 I new I had to head for the ranch. My little chihuaua dog, Rocky, was scheduled to attend obedience school at 3:30 that afternoon. I couldn't stand the thought of keeping the cute little guy waiting - even if the spanish mackerel had finally started biting! I mean, who could resist a face like this one???



My advice to young, single guys reading this is to get yourself a chihuaua puppy! They are the ultimate babe magnet! Plus they a sweet little dogs too (albeit a bit misbehaved!)

Life is good!
Tarvus

Matlacha Pass/Underhill Creek 01/06/09

I checked the tides for Tropical Point on Pine Island Sunday night to see what they looked like for Tuesday (today). The low was real early (4:33 am) and the best part of the flood petered out at about 10am. It was a rising tide all day, but 10am to about 3pm it was slow, slow, SLOW! Naturally, that's the time I finally got my sorry butt in gear and got out on the water! Oh well! Better late than never!

I started about 7:30 this morning unloading band equipment out of the van. By the time I got my fishing gear and kayak gear loaded up into the van, got all my stay-dry stuff packed into zip-lock bags, had a cuppa coffee and headed out, I got really hungry! So I detoured from Pine Island Road to El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria over on Hancock Bridge Road in Cape Coral where I had a three egg omelette stuffed with peppers, onions, cheese, sausage,bacon and slathered with home made hot sauce; two slices of buttered toast; a 12 ounce bottle of mango juice and fresh brewed cafe con leche for $6.31 (tax included!)



I made an ice stop at the Circle K in Pine Island Center, then headed south on Stringfellow Road. Nearing St James City, I turned left onto Tropical Point and followed it to the kayak launch at road's end...



I parked the van and commenced the kayak unload and assemble routine.



I hit the water around 11:00am. My intended destination was Underhill Creek on the Cape Coral side of Matlacha Pass - about a mile and three-quarters paddle from Tropical Point on Pine Island. The breeze had picked up and was blowing out of the south in the mid teens as I launched. The chop was white capping with the southerly breeze so I pointed the yak just south of due east since my destination was ENE of my launch site.

I tossed a white bucktail tipped with shrimp out behind off the port side and a blue and silver Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow off the starboard side. I hadn't gone a hundred yards before both got hit! In the 1.7 miles to the mouth of Underhill Creek, I proceeded to catch seventeen ladyfish! One fish every tenth of a mile!















I passed mangrove islands and oyster bars looking north...



and a few miles to the south Sanibel Harbour Resort and the A-span of the Sanibel Causeway were visible...



Every time I caught a fish, the wind would blow me north off my course. I finally stowed my fishing rods and concentrated on paddling after being blown north of the power lines and maybe a half mile north of the creek entrance!

Getting into Underhill Creek and out of the wind was a welcome relief!



I paddled a good ways up the creek...



crossed under the power lines as they headed east into Cape Coral...



and snapped this photo on the power line right-of-way...



I was chunking the shrimp-tipped white bucktail jig up next to the mangroves but wasn't having any luck...



I got to this spot right here and decided to flip the yo-zuri up against the mangrove bank...



There was a loug pop and a swirl on my first retrieve. I followed up with a second cast that landed perfectly under the edge of the mangroves. Two twitches and a sweep of the yo-zuri and WHAM!!! ZZZZZzzzzzZZZZzzz! Fish on! Within seconds, the fish (a sweet looking snook) was up out of the channel next to the bank and into one-foot deep water. I could see at least three other snook following the one on my lure as we fought for advantage in the shallow water! Eventually, I lead the snook to the side of the kayak, grabbed the leader and while fiddling with my shirt pocket trying to get my camera out, watched the snook make a jump against the hand-held leader and self-release boatside. Sorry to say I got no photos of him!

Despite multiple follow-up casts, I could not entice any of the snook's buddys to bite!

I paddled up the ditch alongside the power lines where they'd dredged the fill for the right of way and followed it a good half-mile until about 1:00pm when I lost my yo-zuri in the mangroves. I could hear vehicle traffic a bit further east - coming from Cape Coral. I decided at that point to start the treck back to Matlacha Pass and across to Tropical Point.

I re-tied my light weight rod with another yo-zuri once I reached Underhill Creek again. I waded out on a bar and started casting back towards my snook hole. I didn't get another snook, but I picked up my 18th ladyfish of the day...



I waded back to my staked out kayak...



Popped a cold snack, and sat back down for the paddle back.

The wind was BRUTAL paddling back! SSW and in the high teens! I had to paddle right into the teeth of the wind in order to make my way due west to Tropical Point. Naturally, I was dragging both the shrimp tipped bucktail and the yo-zuri while I paddled but my speed through the water was quite slow. Despite that, I did get four more ladyfish paddling back - bringing my total to 22. The ladyfish had completely stripped the bucktail hair off my jig by this point and the last strike I had took what remained of the jig altogether! Undeterred, I continued to drag the Yo-Zuri (this one was white with a red head). About mid-channel in Matlacha Pass, my rod bent double and line began zinging off the drag on the reel! The fish didn't come up and jump like a ladyfish. At first, I thought I had a nice redfish on. After a few minutes, I thought it might be a big jack! I fought that fish for a good ten minutes on that light rig (10 pound braid and 20 pound florocarbon leader). Finally I got it close enough to the yak to see that it wasn't a jack, it was a nice legal sized cobia- 38 inches or thereabouts (judging the fish length against the width of my kayak). Every time I got the fish close and tried to get my grips in it's mouth, it would take off on a screaming drag-burning run again! I finally grabbed the leader, reached for the fish and POW! It jumped and snapped my line! Darn! Obviously there's no photo of THIS event!

By this time I'd been blown way north of Tropical Point so I had to paddle directly against the wind and tide to get there. It was after three when I finally dragged my tired butt out of the water and got loaded up.

I'd used this unfinished two story house on Tropical point as my landmark while paddling back. It must be a sign of the times that construction has ceased and the unfinished home is starting to deteriorate. Very sad...



But never one to remain sad for long, I detoured to the Ragged A$$ Saloon for a quick pick-me-up, then headed for home.



Naturally, I had to make a final quick stop at Bert's Bar in Matlacha - just to say hello to my friends...



I sat on the back deck at Bert's, sipped my beer and smoked a Backwoods Mild and Wild Cigar while considering the fact that a snook, a cobia and 22 ladyfish had made for a heck of a nice day!

It sure beats work!

Life is good! :)

Tarvus