Brian's kayak fishing blog

catching up 2009 - 11/10/09 through 12/21/09

2010-03-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

I am four months behind posting to my fishing blog. Sometimes real life gets in the way of fishing and blogging I suppose!

So what I'm going do is post some slideshows I've put together of various fishing expeditions. Don't expect a lot of narrative - just the bare bones for now And I havent weeded out or cropped any photos to make the slide shows more presentable either. Hey! It's not an artistic masterpiece! I'm playing catch up here, right?

The first slideshow is from November 10, 2009 at Bonita Bill's and the Sanibel causeway. My son, Ben, (a blimp pilot) was visiting a few weeks before leaving for his new job in the San Francisco area. Ben will be working with the zeppelin blimp out of Moffet Field in Sunnyvale. Ben got skunked this particular day, but ole dad managed snook and grouper!

Ben and I were back at Bonita Bill's on 11/12/09. We fished with live pinfish off the docks there. This day we both managed some gag groupers! Our little buddy, Splash - the Bonita Bill's bar cat kept us company!

Ben wasn't feeling well on 11/13/09, so I went back to Bonita Bill's again and dock fished for grouper - with some success.

Though we caught a lot of grouper at Bonita Bill's, they were all too short to keep That changed on 11/16/09 however! We stopped by Mel, the kayak guy's place in Matlacha and rented a second kayak for Ben to use, then we headed out to fish Bunche Beach. We actually launched from the beach just east of the Sanibel causeway, then paddled back towards Bunche. We really spanked the ladyfish that day. We got a nice spanish mackerel, and decent bluefish for the grill too. We caught a bunch of short red grouper and gag grouper, then Ben hit the jackpot with a legal 22 1/8" gag! We ate well that night. Here's some slides and video of Ben working a grouper from his kayak.

Here's some video of Ben working a grouper from his kayak.

November 17th was my birthday. Ben decided to take a day off from fishing, so I headed back to Bonita Bill's for some more grouper fishing. I always make it a point to try and fish on my birthday. Bonita Bill's was a good place for it too since I knew if I didn't catch fish, I could catch a beer buzz there! I actually did wind up with a couple of nice gag grouper that day. One of them was just a hair shy of keeper size too!

November 19th we headed back to the Sanibel causeway. Having returned the rental, we just had my kayak. Ben took the Kayak out from the gulf side of the restroom island there while I fished the west end of the B-span under the bridge. I was fishing a chunk of cut ladyfish on the bottom at the last of the incoming tide and hooked what I suspect was a decent sized shark. Whatever it was, it bit through my 50 lb flurocarbon leader after a furious run of 50 or 60 yards. I re-rigged, rebaited with 1/2 a ladyfish and promptly hooked into what I suspect was a decent sized Goliath Grouper. The GG took a short run then found a crevice on the bottom to wedge himself into. I might just as well have tried to dislodge a volkswagon filled with concrete from the bottom! No pictures of either situation though.

Meanwhile Ben was tearing up the bluefish, spanish mackerel, and spotted trout while trolling X-raps and Yo-Zuri's just several hundred feet off the beach.

Ben finally had to head off for his new home and job in California, so I fished alone at Bonita Bill's on 11/23/09. You can tell I was alone because nobody was there to hold my camera so I had to shoot picks of the fish myself! Got a couple of short grouper there that day.

I took a week off from fishing and lo and behold, it was suddenly November 30th! The last day of snook season for 2009! I knew where some big ole fat boys we laid up under the docks and along the pilings at Bonita Bill's so I headed out to catch me a snook on the last day of the season! It's hard to catch a legal snook! They have to be 28 inches minimum length and they can't be more than 33 inches maximum length. I've caught one snook way too big to keep and a lot of them too small to keep and a few of them just the right size, but during the time of year when the season is closed so no - I had never got myself a legal keeper snook! The other fish I had yet to catch was a Tarpon. By my estimate, I've hooked eighteen tarpon in my 10 years in Florida but have never landed one. It seems I usually lose the tarpon and almost always my lure or hook when I have hooked one. So to make a long story short, I headed back to Bonita Bill's with a live bucket of pinfish for bait and I commenced to snook fishin'! For 2 1/2 hours I soaked those live pinfish in every single spot I had ever seen a snook hiding at Bonita Bill's and zip! Zero! Nada! Not even a bump on my bait! I'd worked myself up a powerful thirst too! A kind gent who often comes to see our band, the Yard Dogs, perform walked out on the dock and handed me a cold brewski! I thanked him profusely and just as he turned to walk back to the bar, ZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ - burning drag and fish on! I worked the fish and saw a silver flash just below the surface. I thought to myself, "Damn! That snook is gonna be too darned big to keep!" Then it jumped and I about pee'd my britches! I had a tarpon on and that bad boy was hooked good! It was just a little tarpon, but it was damn sure the first one I ever managed to land! he jumped at least a half dozen times and put on quite a show for the folks sitting at the bar! He tried to wrap me up in the pilings too, but I managed to head him off each time he tried to wrap me up! This was the result!

My beer benefactor immediately returned and volunteered to snap pics while I unhooked the tarpon. He was merrily snapping away with my camera as I was posing with the tarpon when I noticed he had the camera turned around backwards! When I pointed that out, he turned it back around and did manage a few shots of me with the fish!

But I thought I would include some of his original "tarpon photos" too!

Between December 7th and December 18th, I fished a lot at Bonita Bill's. Truth be told, i kinda got into a rut fishing there. But it was just so much easier than hauling that kayak around and I was getting lots of fishing action there too. I had several big snook (of course AFTER the season was closed and I couldn't keep them!) I also got a few grouper - some of them almost keepers too. But the bite that seemed to really turn on in December was the Crevalle Jacks! I started catching jacks in the 10-12 pound range and had many in the 3-8 pound range too. Here's more pics...

My last fishing trip of 2009 was also to be the last fishing trip for a couple of months! It was on December 21st. I seldom wear long pants, but you can see I was wearing them on 12/21/09! In fact, I think I've worn them just about every day since! Here are the photos from that day. I caught more fish, but was bored with taking photos of jacks and grouper. Here's what I did snap...

2009 was a good fishing year. 2010 has been a horrible fishing year thus far. We lost untold numbers of snook, jacks, ladyfish, spadefish and tarpon in the massive cold weather induced die offs that happened in January and February this year. It was too cold and too windy to bother with fishing for two months. It's STILL running about 15 degrees below normal for southwest Florida for this time of year! It's supposed to srtart a warming trend this weekend. I hope the warming trend continues!

A windy day at Bonita Bill's - 11/06/09

2009-11-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

Today was a low morning tide and 15-25mph winds out of the northeast kept the tide ebbing longer and further than was anticipated. I had to head to Ft Myers Beach to see Erika, the lady who does hats and T-shirts for the Yard Dogs, as she had called me the night before to tell me our recent order of hats was ready to be picked up.

I had the kayak loaded up along with all my gear, and I stopped at Bonita Bill's for coffee, juice, scrambled eggs, sausage patties and an english muffin. My plan was to see Erika, get our hats, then head for Bunche Beach to fish the rising tide.

It turned out that Erika had T-shirts ready for my band mate, Charlie, so I picked them up too and decided to head to Charlie's house to drop off his shirts and collect the gig money he had for me from our last show. With cash in pocket, I headed back to Bunche Beach. By this time, the place was crawling with tourists and the closest I could park was a good 1/4 mile from the water. I opted for searching out an alternate launch spot. I headed towards Sanibel, hung a u-turn at Punta Rassa, and pulled off the road just east of the causeway. Though mostly sheltered from the growing winds, the tide was still so low I was going to have to drag the kayak 250 yards through muddy flats to get it to water deep enough to float it. Frankly, I wasn't up for that. It was time for plan B!

I headed back towards Ft Myers Beach and stopped at the Bait'n Wait on San Carlos Blvd for five live pinfish for my Flow-n-troll. I headed back to Bonita Bill's, grabbed my pliers, law stick, and my heavy pier pole, stopped at the bar to load a cold beer into my shirt pocket, and headed out onto the docks. I hooked a live pinfish just ahead of the dorsal fin on a 6/0 unweighted bait hook and commenced to fishin' the pilin's for snook. It was close to noon and, though still low, the tide had finally started to flood. But the snook didn't want to cooperate.

I changed tactics and cast the freelined pinfish down tide and let him drift underneath a large sailboat docked at the next dock. It wasn't long and POW! The pinfish got hammered! I pulled up a nice 15 inch gag grouper!

He went back into the water unharmed...

I reloaded my shirt pocket with beer, rebaited with a fresh pinfish, and cast the pin back under the sailboat again. I was lolly-gaggin around watching boats and bikini topped tourist babes when POW! A HUGE hit, doubled up rod and PING! Broken off fish! My 50# leader was broken/bitten off at the hook!

I retied a new hook, reloaded the shirt pocket, rebaited the freshly retied hook with a fresh wiggly pinfish and cast it back to the same spot. After maybe five minutes, the bait was acting strange so I reeled it in to check only to discover it bitten in half right behind the hook!

After re-baiting yet again, I cast it back to the same spot beneath the sailboat. Nothing doing for a good 20 minutes or so. My friend, "Boat Lizard" Pete walked over to chat and while we were shooting the breeze, WHAM! Another hit and doubled over rod! It was another gag grouper and I thought for a while this was gonna be a legal keeper!

Alas! It proved to be an inch and a half too short at 20 1/2 inches...

I had a huge jack hit my last pinfish and take off on a nice run, but I missed the hookset. The jack killed the bait and since it was my last bait, I fished it dead for maybe 20 more minutes before calling it a day.

I let the lovely Bonita Bill's bartendress, Shelly, serve me a final brewski, then headed home. (I kick myself for not getting a picture of the lovely Shelly to insert here!)

Even though neither gag grouper was a keeper, at least I didn't have to clean fish blood and scales out of the kayak when I got home!

Life is good!

Finger on the trigger at Bunche Beach - 11/04/09

2009-11-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm in a rut! I probably fish Bunche Beach WAY too often, but geeze - it's such a great fishery and I keep thinking I'll get me a legal sized grouper there soon! So Wednesday, 11/04/09, I was back at Bunche Beach.

It was somewhat breezy, but the wind was generally easterly so the wind shadow of the mainland kept the waves manageable. In fact, it was nearly dead calm close to the shoreline when I launched the kayak.

I paddled off to my secret grouper hole. If you look closely at this next picture, there's a clue to get you close to my secret spot...

I was, again, fishing a rising tide. But the moon had been full the night before so the bite was perhaps slower than it might otherwise have been. I collected a nice mix of gags and red grouper.

The wind blew me towards the Sanibel Causeway and it was hard to hold my position over my secret grouper hole. I got heavy into BIG ladyfish every time I would try to paddle upwind back to the grouper hole. I should have just reeled in my lure and paddled back, but playing with those lady's was just too much fun. I must have hooked two dozen and probably caught 8 or so. I was blown WAY towards the west and had a long, upwind paddle back towards my grouper spot. I kept a few ladyfish and fished with cut bait on the big pole, but the wind had freshened and I kept dragging my little 10# barbell plate anchor. I had a few good runs fishing cut ladyfish, but the only hookup proved to be a large hardhead catfish. Finally, I upped anchor, tossed out the small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow and pointed the kayak back towards Bunche Beach. Just on the Bunche side of my grouper hole, the Yo-Zuri got hit! I was quite surprised to pull up a triggerfish with the Yo-Zuri in his jaw!

He was only eleven inches to the fork, and thus too small to keep, but it was my first ever Triggerfish on a lure and my first one ever off Bunche Beach in seven feet of water!

I finished up the day with a cold brewski at Bonita Bill's, then headed home.

Life is good! :)

Back at Bunche Beach - 11/02/09

2009-11-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

Monday, 11/02/09, I headed back to Bunche Beach. You know, it's hard to keep these fishing stories straight in my head if I don't post them soon after fishing because the trips and the fish caught seem to run together!

I don't remember the details of times etc., but I do recall I was fishing a rising tide and I more than likely got there late, so it was probably close to noon when I launched the kayak off Bunche Beach. I set off trolling a Yo-Zuri towards my special grouper hole. First fish of the day was a gag grouper...

It proved to be one of many gag grouper I caught that day.

I also scored a couple of red grouper on the Yo-Zuri...

All the grouper were shorts, so they were all released. I got a bunch of ladyfish, jacks, blue runners too, and when paddling back, I scored another nice bluefish...

Many enquiring minds want to know exactly WHERE my grouper hole is. I won't tell ya exactly, but I'll show you a picture! It's right HERE!

For those of you trigonometrically inclined, you can line up exactly where Bowditch Point looks like this...

and where the Sanibel Lighthouse looks like this...

That'll getcha close! :)

Back at Bunche Beach, I mounted the kayak on the kayak dolly and carted it up the road to where I parked. Two department of fish and game vehicles drove past and while I was loading the kayak, both game wardens came up to check me out. They checked my cooler and my license and (of course) all was in order. We chatted pleasantly a few minutes and I congratulated them for checking me out. Glad to see law enforcement out checking the fishermen! They said they bust a lot of tourists at Bunche who do not know the legalities of the fish they catch plus they get a lot of locals who DO know, but think they can get away with keeping illegal fish! Personally, I'm glad to see them out doing their jobs!

Life is good!

Bunche of fun - 10/29/09

2009-11-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 10/29/09, I headed out to Bunche Beach with the kayak. I threw a Rappala X-rap out one side of the kayak and a blue-backed Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow out the other side and commenced paddling around the sand spit towards the Sanibel Causeway. I hadn't even rounded the sand spit yet when the rod with the Yo-Zuri went off. First fish of the day was this nice bluefish.

I picked up three lizardfish and three ladyfish too. The majority seemed to prefer the Yo-Zuri over the X-rap for some reason. Somewhere between half and 3/4ths of the way to the Sanibel Causeway is my special grouper spot (hey, I can't tell you EXACTLY where it is or word would spread and the spot would be ruined!). I picked up four gag grouper trolling those lures. I think three hit the Yo-Zuri and one the X-rap. All four were shorts, but fun to catch! The bigges might have been 14" overall.

I decided to take a rest from paddling so I anchored up with my 10# barbell plate anchor and set one of the cut lizardfish out on my heavy spinning rod with a 6/0 hook on 50# mono leader. Within just moments, the pole went off and I sank the hook into a nice 16 inch red grouper! Well - let me clarify that! I didn't exactly "sink the hook". The grouper had the lizardfish bait in his throat and somehow the leader looped around his head and the hook caught the leader effectively lasso'ing the fish as you can see in these pics!

I think red grouper are one of the prettiest fish. This one measured 16 inches - too short to keep, but sure fun to catch!

The lizardfish bait was still good to go after I unhooked - I mean un-lasso'ed - the red grouper, so I threw it back out on that big eight foot Shimano Terramar heavy rod with the big Penn 750SSM reel on it loaded with 30# braid. That's my tarpon rod, so I knew it was up to the challenge of handling a decent sized shark should I happen to hook one while in the kayak. I was slurping up some Gatoraid while bobbing around on the kayak - just sort of admiring the scenery when the Penn 750 started singing! I grabbed the rod out of the holder and gave the drag a couple of turns to tighten it while the fish was pulling line out and felt the circle hook set into something BIG!

So there I am, rod bent double, reel singing, holding the rod right handed while I use my left to work that barbell plate anchor and maybe 10 feet of line back into the kayak! As soon as the barbell plate came off the bottom, the kayak was moving! The fish, whatever it was, was dragging me along at a healthy clip! My first thought was that I had a bull shark or perhaps Goliath Grouper on the line, but I didn't know WHAT it was!

Maybe 10 minutes into the fight, it occurred to me to try to film part of the battle. With one hand, I fished my camera out of my shirt pocked then managed to select movie-mode and power up the camera. I held the camera in my right (rod-hand) while I held the reel handle in my left and occasionally using my left on the rod as well! I was aiming the camera by guess and by golly so the video quality isn't good here, but you can get an idea of how this fish was pulling! I finally decided to stop filming and put the camera away for fear I was going to get dumped out and didn't want to lose it!

After a 45 minute struggle, I finally got the fish up to the kayak! It was a HUGE sting ray - maybe the size of the one that killed Steve Irwin! It was easily six feet from nose to tip of tail with maybe a 4 to 5 foot wing spread! The body looked to be about 9 to 10 inches thick! This photo doesn't do it justice becasue there's nothing to give it perspective as to the size, but hey! I was kinda busy right then and a quick, one-handed snapshot was all I could manage!

I very carefully, cut the leader about 6 inches from the mouth of the ray, then paddled back and played with a few ladyfish and blue runners on my way in. I finished the day with a beer and order of hot wings at Bonita Bill's.

Life is good! :)

Playing blog catchup - September and October 2009

2009-11-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

I know, I know...

I've been really bad about keeping the fishing blog updated since returning home from the band's tour in late August. While I was gone, the central airconditioner went out and we had to replace that. We also had to replace the well pump and well head. We had several palm trees removed and stumps ground, and the starter in the kayakmobile went out so I had to have that towed to the shop for a new starter. September was a slow month for the Yard Dogs - we only had 9 shows all month - so I had massive cash outflow with very little income. I also spent a lot of time getting the yard in shape. We had a lawn service keep it mowed while I was gone on tour, but I spent a good month weeding, thinning bananas, repotting pineapple plants, planting six new mango trees and four new carambola trees, and hauling and spreading over 100 bags of mulch over the planted areas. I was busy. And broke. So most of my September fishing consisted of playing with some big sunfish with a cane pole, #10 aberdeen hooks, and doughballs from bread slices out on my dock out back on the freshwater canal. I think I got a mayan cichlid or two also, and a few large golden shiners. Here's a slideshow with representative pics...

I did a bit of wade fishing and pier fishing too. My friend, Terry Brousseau, had been hammering the snook off the Fort Myers Beach pier while bait fishing with live ladyfish, so I spend several mornings out on the pier before daybreak jigging up ladyfish to use as live bait. I did have one snook (roughly the size of my leg!) take the bait, but though he ran and jumped, he never had the hook in him. I did see a number of keeper-sized and larger snook taken off that pier though!

Many mornings I fished for snook until about 9:00am, then switched to Gotcha lures to catch spanish mackerel off the pier. Ladyfish and Blue Runners also provided a lot of pier fishing action.

I also fished my spot at the B-span of the Sanibel causeway and took a few spanish macs there too. Wade fishing at Blind Pass and on the Sanibel Beaches produced a few jacks and ladyfish as well. I managed one kayak trip in mid-October and fished the B-span flat for spanish macs and bluefish. I also hooked two sharks there as well fishing with small cut jacks. One shark bit me off, and the other I fought a good while before he frayed my line with his tail and broke me off. Here's a few pics of the Blind Pass area on Sanibel/Captiva and some of the other forays I made during October...

One day in mid/late October, while fishing on the Ft Myers Beach Pier, I set out a chunk of cut ladyfish on my old, stubby pier pole. I was rigged with a 6/0 circle hook and a one ounce rubber-cored sinker on four feet of 50 pound mono leader tied to 50 pound braided line. I thought I might have a little fun with a small blacktip or bonnethead shark (something to excite the tourists and pier sightseers donchaknow!) I left the old star-drag baitcasting reel set with a loose drag with the clicker on, stuck the pole in the rod holder hole on the top-rail of the pier, and was in the process of retrieving a cast of a Gotcha lure on my light spinning rod when the old baitcaster drag started screaming! I had to crank down the star drag pretty tight to work the fish to the surface, but imagine my surprise when, instead of a shark, a HUGE redfish came up wallowing on the surface! I had to walk him down the length of the pier, then hop the rail of the pier onto the beach to land him! By this time, I had quite a crowd! The redfish had the circle hook deep in his mouth so I cut the leader rather than try to dig out the hook and injure the fish. I waded out to revive him and it took nearly 30 minutes of swishing him around in the water before he revived enough to swim away. The fish was a good five inches longer than my 36" law stick when I measured him while reviving him. I figure with tail pinched, he would have gone 42 inches overall length. He was at least 15 inches over the maximum allowable length to keep. As you can see in this pic, I was a happy camper having caught him!

I knew there was no way I was going to top THAT fish that day, so after catching just one ladyfish and the one big redfish, I adjourned to Boniita Bill's where I could celebrate with a beer and exercize bragging rights!

Life is good!

2009-08-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

First fish since getting back in town - 08/28/09
I got home Tuesday, 08/25/09, after a LONG 5 weeks on the road touring with the Yard Dogs. I've been taking it easy catching up with stuff around the house since then and don't plan any salt water kayak fishing until next week.

Friday I cleaned my little outdoor aquarium that I use as a "guest fish hotel" for small freshwater fish that I collect out in the canal out back. After refilling the aquarium with canal water, I went out to the canal with the pool skimmer and a slice of bread to catch some small gambusia to use in cycling the tank. When I chummed the water with bread crumbs to attract the gambusia, I noticed a REALLY BIG sunfish looking fish popping floating breadcrumbs on the surface. I grabbed a spinning rod with a 1/0 hook and popping cork attached, baited up with a corner of a slice of bread and tossed it out maybe 10 feet from the dock edge. Big sunfish immediately started popping the bread crust, then POW! This slab of fish came up from below, inhaled the bread and took off diving deep! The circle hook did it's job snagging the fish in the upper lip. The fish fought like the dickens too! Imagine my surprise when i pulled in the line to discover a two pound, ten ounce blue tilapia on the hook!

I continued to fish off the dock with bread crusts and caught a number of hand sized sunfish, but no more tilapia.
I put a small sunfish on a spinning rod and snagged a gar which bit the baitfish in half and escaped.

Afternoon thunderstorms finally drove me indoors. It was fun. Catching a tilapia was a totally new species for me!

Captiva beach bait and sharking 7/10/9 - 7/11/9

2009-07-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm a believer is fresh versus frozen bait when targeting sharks. Frozen bait will work, but freshly caught bait just seems to lure the big ones in easier and entice them to chew. So with a shark fishing expedition planned for Saturday, July 11th, I sent about Friday, July 10th to collect some fresh shark bait.

The band I perform with band, the Yard Dogs, had an evening gig scheduled on Captiva Island at a place called the Mucky Duck. I headed out early, parked at the pay lot at the very end of Sanibel-Captiva Road, and headed out to wade fish with my trusty Gotcha lure.

I wandered north towards Redfish Pass a ways to get beyond the throngs of tourists then waded out once I had a clear patch of beach to myself. I proceeded to spank the little hand sized crevalle jacks, putting a number in my styrofoam bait chest int the next hour.

I think I had five jacks, a sea robin, a large pinfish and I finished off the bait search with a ladyfish that splashed my camera lens.

I met a nice young couple, Steve and Miranda, from New York who were fishing nearby. Steve was bait fishing and had only caught a few catfish, so he was envious watching me catch the jacks and ladyfish. I gifted him with a spare Gotcha lure, explained to him how to work it, and before I left he had landed a nice ladyfish on it! I enjoy helping out other fishermen!

I hiked back to the van and headed to the gig to do load-in and sound check. During the show that evening, my friends and local Sanibel residents Gene and Diana Taylor, showed up. Knowing that Gene is an avid fisherman, I promptly invited him to join us for shark fishing the following evening.

Fast forward to Saturday...

I scurried around in the morning doing last minute shark fishing prep errands (like getting batteries for the lanterns, glow sticks, sodas and beer, snacks, ice, etc. I stopped at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria for some take out cuban sandwiches and to touch base with my friend, Mirardo, who was to accompany me, along with his nephew and future son-in-law on the sharking adventure. It turned out that he had been delayed on a trip to Miami and was unable to make it back in time to fish that evening. It looked like it would be a two man adventure between me and Gene.

At about 4pm that afternoon, a huge deluge hit Cape Coral. We had over an inch of rain drop in less than a half hour! But it was short lived and the skies to the west were clearing as I left home to head to Captiva. I can't say the same for the easterly skies though as this picture snapped crossing the Cape Coral Bridge shows!

There were clear skies ahead as I approached the Sanibel Causeway though - so that boded well for our evening on the beach!

Gene and I took turns paddling out baits. Here's a couple pics of Gene on the bait delivery express...

We had baits in the water and were completely set up by 7:30 that night. Two of our rods were baited with jacks, a third with a spanish mackerel, and the fourth rod with a bluefish. While Gene was out dropping bait I noticed a young couple nearby and the man was fighting a large fish on a fairly light spinning rod. I wandered over to watch the battle but his shark broke off before we had a chance to see what kind it was. Too bad! The man's name was Sebastian and the woman was Jennifer. I learned they lived in Cape Coral too. Sebastian was from Chile and Jennifer was from the Czech Republic. You meet nice people when you spend time fishing! I invited Sebastian and Jenifer to come see the Yard Dogs play at our show at the Twisted Conch in Cape Coral next Tuesday. Hope they can make it!

Gene had noticed one of our heavy rods had been pulled completely over and was laying on the sand. Evidently I had left the drag too tight and a shark had hit and pulled hard enough to topple the pvc pipe rod holder driven deep into the sand. Gene grabbed the rod and began reeling in - only to discover zero resistance. Evidently the shark had run parallel to the beach and dragged the line over the shells on the sandbar which had frayed it through up above the leader.

After re-rigging that rod, I sent Gene out just before sunset to drop a fresh bait and snapped this photo in the process. Nice Captiva sunset. That spot on the horizon is Gene in the kayak!

When Gene returned we settled into our beach chairs as daylight faded.

Nothing much happened for a long time. Gene and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and had and enjoyable conversation while waiting for some action. Suddenly the 9/0 reel baited with a jack went off! Gene leaped to his feet, seated the butt of the rod into his fighting belt and tightened the drag.

After a very brief tussle, he felt the fish was off. He reeled in only to discover the shark had bit and chewed the bait just behind the point of the hook and the run had been a result of the shark holding the bait in it's mouth rather than having been hooked. But as we were still fiddling with that rod, the 12/0 rod baited with the whole bluefish went off - big time! I yelled to Gene to get the rod and he started cranking only to discover that shark was not on the hook either. Knowing that the bait was a three pound bluefish, I just asked him to leave it out so that the shark might come back to pick it up. We had secured the bait to two hooks by threading the leader through the mouth and gills and secured them further with zip ties. I knew there was no way the shark had taken that bait off the hooks!

Not long after all this we got a fourth run! This one was again on the 9/0 rebaited with a spanish mackerel which Gene had dropped just before sunset. I grabbed that rod but felt the line go slack. I reeled in only to discover it had broken off again above the leader. There are lots of snags from old crab pots and such out there and evidently the shark had chaffed through the line again.

Gene and I rebaited two of the three rods (we left the bluefish bait alone) and I paddled them both out - rebaited with half a ladyfish on each one. I took them a good ways out. Spooky as hell paddling those baits out alone in the dark I tell you!

Upon my return, we both settled back into our beach chairs.

A little while later, around 11:00, Jennifer walked over from their nearby spot to chat with us.

She had run out of cigarettes. I don't smoke cigarettes, but I do enjoy an occasional cigar, so I donated a small cigar for her to share with Sebastian. We also donated some jacks and a ladyfish for them to use as bait as they were running low. Jennifer reported that Sebastian had been broken off a couple more times too and had landed no sharks either.

Gene and I soaked our baits until shortly after midnight with no further activity. We decided to pack it in and go home.

When we reeled in the 12/0 rig, we discovered that the whole bluefish bait was gone! The 148 pound wire leader had been bitten clean through!

Now THAT was some sort of bad-ass shark to have done that!

Not only did we discover the leader bitten through, but we found a wad of tangled monofilament leader wrapped around the spider weight sinker. I hand over handed it in and imagine my surprise to find BOTH of the rigs we had lost attached to the other side of all that mono! One rig was intact, but the only evidence of bait was just the jawbone of a spanish mack still hanging on the hook! The other bait was gone and the leader (this one was a multi-strand cable leader) had been chewed through just above the hook! We wondered if it was the same shark that had taken both baits or if there were two sharks with sore jaws and wire leaders hanging out of their mouths swimming around that night!

Gene was a hard worker and dragged the kayak back to the road as I emptied the remnants of our bait chest into the Gulf. I like to donate unused bait back to Neptune.

We had had four runs and though we caught no fish, it is still exciting to be out there fishing for the big boys! My lesson learned is to ALWAYS check the bait after a run - even if I think it's still there. And unless the bait is huge, I plan to re-check smaller baits after an hour or so. Small sharks and crabs can chew a bait away to nothing and you can sit there for hours, as we did, thinking you are baited up when in reality you aren't!

I hope Gene will accompany me again. If he does, i am SURE we'll get 'em next time!

I got home around 3:00am, was asleep by 4:00, up at 9:00 and off to work by 1:30 that afternoon.

Life is good!

Shortened bait hunt 07/06/09

2009-07-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well, the shark fishing trip scheduled for the 29th of June got postponed until July 6th. At least that was the plan.

I headed out the morning of Monday, July 6th to try and augment my frozen shark bait supply with fresh bait. The shark fishing trip was planned for Monday night and my restaurant owning cuban friend, Mirardo, was slated to accompany me - along with his future son-in-law and possibly his nephew. I had been unable to reach Mirardo to discuss final plans so I dialed his cell periodically throughout the morning.

Meanwhile, I ventured out waist deep off the gulf side of the restroom island on the Sanibel causeway and started pitching a gold "Gotcha" lure - hoping for small jacks, ladyfish, spanish mackerel or bluefish. I fished for about 20 minutes and managed to get a few undersized trout to play...

I finally reached Mirardo on my cell phone, but he was having problems at his restaurant that were going to force him to cancel the shark fishing that evening. I quit fishing for bait and headed to Bonita Bill's for a bite of lunch and a cold brew.

My friend Kirby was tending bar at Bonita Bill's. He pointed out a new policy that had been recently enacted there...

I managed to remain under the new Bonita Bill's beer limit and soon headed home. It was a good evening to relax with my feet up and watch TV. Mirardo and I have tentatively rescheduled the sharking adventure for Saturday, 07/11/09 (tomorrow night). I've got a band gig out on Captiva tonight at the Mucky Duck, so I may head out a couple of hours early and do some shark bait fishing before I have to be there for load in and sound check.

Life is good!

scratch the shark fishing tonight - 06/29/09

2009-06-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

So tonight was going to be a great shark fishing adventure off the Sanibel/Captiva beaches. But we got this damned "anomalous weather pattern" (the weather channel's words) sucking moisture into our area. Southwest winds currently 17-25mph sorta kinda killed the idea of kayaking out shark baits tonight. The surf is high enough, and beyond the breakers it's rough enough, that it ain't worth the effort to try and paddle out shark baits in the kayak. Odds are the surf would dump you into the ocean paddling out in daylight - let alone paddling out (and back) at night! I checked things out this afternoon and it was even too rough to try and wade fish. We have enough nice days here - no sense pushing it to try and fish on a nasty day!

I adjourned after my scouting trip without even attempting to wet a line, and had a beer at the Lighthouse Tiki Bar with bartendress Jen, got rained in at Bonita Bill's while aquiring a one pound go box of peel and eat fresh Gulf pink shrimp for $7.75 with my friends Kirby and Cookie, then had a final brewski with my Twisted Conch bartendress friend, Monica.

This was the scene at Bonita Bill's...

It's a good night to sit at home and dink rum while watching TV! (This is on my agenda tonight) The shark fishing will have to wait for calmer seas or at least more foolhardy paddlers than me!

Life is still good (even without fishing).

Rainy day - Ft Myers Beach pier - 06/26/09

2009-06-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Friday, 06/26/09 found me feeling cranky and out of sorts. It had been nine days since my last fishing adventure and I needed to get out to salt water someplace to dip a line. Wind and thunderstorms conspired to keep me from kayaking, but I figured the pier at Ft Myers Beach was a possibility, so off I went.

I made a quick stop at the Bait N Wait on San Carlos Blvd and picked up a couple of small sabiki rigs (the spanish macs had destroyed my last rig my previous trip to the pier.)

I paid for three hours parking at the pier parking lot, but had to waste twenty minutes worth of that waiting out a deluge and passing electrical storm. When the rain lessened to a slight drizzle, I headed out onto the pier. The wind and waves had roiled the water to the point of zero visibility. There were no schools of bait visible anywhere. More rain and electrical storms were looming in the distance.

I jigged the sabiki half-heartedly for about ten minutes in the murky water as the rain slowly increased. There was no bait to be had. Before long I was soaking wet and said to myself, "Screw this!" I adjourned to the Lighthouse Tiki Bar and let the lovely Welsh bartendress, Tracy, serve me a cold chilly pop before I headed home.

The next fishing adventure will be a night time beach sharking trip tomorrow night (Monday, 06/29/09) with my cuban friend, Mirardo and his eighteen year old nephew, Emilio. Emilio is off to join the marine corp in early July so Mirardo and I plan to work him hard carrying gear, paddling out baits and wrestling sharks onto the beach tomorrow night!

Life is good! Stay tuned for the shark fishing report!

Ft Myers Beach Pier 06/17/09

2009-06-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 06/16/09 I walked out on the Ft Myers Beach pier with my sabiki stick and tarpon pole. Basically, I just wanted to see if there was much in the way of bait there. There was. Huge schools of greenbacks were popping all over the place!

When I unlimbered my sabiki stick, I discovered that most of the hooks had rusted and the little fish scale looking thingies on the hooks were falling off. I tried it anyways and only managed to snag a few greenies. I put one out live and freelined on my tarpon pole but between the wind and tide, I couldn't get the bait down off the surface. People all around me were catching nice spanish macs, but all I managed was three greenbacks.

So today, 06/17/09, I picked up a few sinkers, some smaller circle hooks, and a new #4 white sabiki rig. I rigged my trout rod with the sabiki rig and rigged my redfish rod with a 1 oz slip sinker over a swivel and three feet of 20# flourocarbon leader with a 1/0 Owner Circle hook (the classic "fishfinder" rig). I headed back to the pier - arriving about 75 minutes before low tide. I planned to fish the last of the falling and first of the rising tide.

Right away I started catching big greenbacks. I put one out on the redfish rod and while soaking that, commenced to collect more bait for the ice chest. I plan to use the saved bait as cut bait and chum for tarpon and or sharks off Sanibel/Captiva later this week. I also hoped to score a few of those nice spanish macs I saw people catching all around me the day before to add to my shark bait stash.

I was catching greenbacks primarily, but managed quite a few pilchards too. Whenever I put a pilchard out live on my redfish rod, it got hit. The greenbacks were not touched. But more about that later.

In addition to the greenies and pilchards, I caught a few leatherbacks. Those darned things are nasty! Nothing will take them as bait and they can sting the daylights out of you with their dorsal fins! I caught a bunch of little, flat, round looking fish too. Don't know what they're called, but I've never had any luck using them as bait so I tossed them back along with the leatherbacks. I also had some sizeable spanish mackerel hit the sabiki rig and as a result, my six hook sabiki rig eventually became a 3 hook sabiki rig! I didn't land any of the spanish macs that hit the sabiki. All of them bit off the hook they hit.

I was getting hits on the pilchards though! I hooked a nice trout that spit the hook as I lifted him out of the water for the long haul up to the pier. I also had three hooks bitten off - probably spanish macs but possibly bluefish. I did eventually land two nice keeper trout of 15 1/2 and 16 1/2 inches. They both went into the cooler.

A family nearby was tearing up the spanish mackerel on live pilchards and they offered me two of them which I gladly accepted to add to my shark bait coffers!

The bait became scarce about 1 1/2 hours into the rising tide and it was time to head home anyways.

I left the two mackerel on ice for sharking later this week and headed out to the dock out back to fillet the trout.

It was odd that I was the only person on the pier catching trout while all the other live bait fishermen were nailing spanish macs. Go figure!

I fired up my "Big Green Egg" charcoal cooker and headed inside to prepare a sauce to use to cook my four spotted trout filets outside on the grill. I've been working up a new recipe and this fish tonight was literally the best fish I have ever eaten! Here's my recipe...

Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter
2 heaping tablespoons of mayonaise
1 shot glass of lime juice (lemon works too)
2 shot glasses of mojito sauce ( Goya "Mojo Criollo" will work but I use some homemade Cuban mojito that really adds a nice, light, citrusy, garlicky, peppery flavor)
1 slice of onion - diced
salt and pepper
two to four spotted seatrout filets

Method:
Melt the butter in a ceramic casserole dish. Add the onion, lime juice, and mojito. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir the ingredients together until a smooth, creamy consistancy is reached.

You can cook in the stove's broiler or on a grill. I prefer the grill. I add soaked hickory chips to the coals before cooking for a touch of light smoked flavor. I set my grills flue and vents to provide a medium heat and once the sauce is bubbling I add the filets. After about 3 - 4 minutes, when the edges of the filets are turning white, I flip them and continue to cook another 3 - 4 minutes. Do NOT overcook!

Serve with cold beer. No need to add any other seasoning. The infusion from the sauce will lightly and perfectly season the fish. This is absolutely the best fish I have ever tasted!

Life is good! :)

Yet again at the Sanibel Causeway - 06/12/09

2009-06-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, I went back there again. It's getting to be a habit fishing there, isn't it?

I caught the tide change there Friday, 06/12/09, with the last of the outgoing and fished my fishing about midway through the incoming tide. I tried to keep track of the fish caught. I know I had 28 spotted trout. Most of them came on my little Gotcha lure...

but a good number hit on the little blue/pearl colored Mirrodine too...

Some of them were battle scarred after encounters with other fish. Like this little guy with the scarred-up belly...

I caught several silver trout as well.

I had a hard time catching shark/tarpon bait, but eventually set out a cut lizardfish on the big rod. I caught two topsail cats on cut lizardfish. This one...

and this one...

Eventually I caught another lizardfish and set him out on the big pole. After about ten minutes, this little atlantic sharpnose shark hit the bait...

I salvaged the bait chunk you see in the corner of the shark's jaw and casted it out again (Hey! I believe in recycling donchaknow!) Within seconds of the bait hitting the water I had another hit. It was a second, nearly identical atlantic sharpnose!

I also caught a jack that I cut up for bait before I remember to take a picture of him. So the fish total, as best I can recollect, is 28 spotted trout, three silver trout, two lizardfish, two atlantic sharpnose sharks, two topsail catfish and a crevalle jack.

I kept one fish for the table - a nice 17 1/2 inch trout.

When you keep your fish in the same cooler as your beer, your beer starts to taste like fish. But I'm getting used to that and it ain't necessarily a bad thing!

Life is good! :)

Manatee Picnic at Sanibel Causeway - 06/08/09

2009-06-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

I hope I'm not boring my blog readers by continually going back to the Sanibel Causeway B-span flats, but I have some really good reasons for fishing that spot. #1 the fishing is good! There's a grass flat, structure and drop off into deeper water right in that one area. Tidal flow is good, baitfish are abundant and such a mixed smorgasboard of fish abound in the area that you're never exactly sure WHAT is gonna bite your lure! #2 it's a close paddle from launch site to fishing site. This time of the year when electrical storms predominate here in Florida, it's comforting to be able to retreat to the shelter of your car in a hurry if necessary! #3 it's a comfortable launch spot with the car parked just feet away from the water's edge. #4 it usually isn't too crowded and the scenery is great.

So - for all those reasons, I launched the kayak off the B-span spoil island on Monday, 06/08/09.

As expected, I started off by opening a can of whup-ass on the spotted sea trout!

I caught several dozen at least. The largest was a good 19 inches.

Once again, the spotted trout were interspersed with hard-fighting silver trout! I caught a handfull of them throughout the day too.

I was having success using both my Gotcha lure...

and my Mirrodine lure...

I was chased off the water briefly while an intense looking thunder cloud passed overhead then sort of dissipated...

After the weather had passed I paddled back out and staked out the kayak near my landmark. This photo was taken looking east towards Sanibel Harbour resort (visible in the distance).

After the weather passed, the water was dead calm...

I was hoping to catch shark bait or tarpon bait amongst all the trout I was getting and thought I had a spanish mackerel that would suffice...

But when I measured him it was just a hair shy of the 12" from nose to tail fork and he went back in to grow some more.

Eventually, about mid tide, the bite slowed. I decided to head on in. Nearing the car in shallow water I noticed a disturbance on the water's surface...

I quit paddling and let the kayak just glide closer. I coasted right up to a family of manatees enjoying the equivalent of a manatee picnic on the succulent grasses just off the spoil island! There was papa manatee who stayed a bit aloof from mama and baby...

He was a grizzled looking dude...

Mama and baby poked their heads up a time or two...

but spent the majority of their time huddled up together. In some of these pictures you can see the youngster hugging the mama with it's flipper around her back...

I was so close, I could have touched them with my paddle...

I called it a day and headed on home. I kept just one fish which I planned on having for supper - the 19" spotted trout seen here on the cutting board just before being filleted and eaten!

Life is good! :)

Sanibel Causeway mixed bag - 06/04/09

2009-06-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 6/4/09 I fished my spot on the edge of the grass flat just inside the B-span of the Sanibel causeway.

I launched about an hour before full flood tide off the B-span spoil island.

My first fish was a small jack that hit a yo-zuri. He was the first of three jacks that day.

He went on the tarpon rod as cut bait which I casted into deeper water off the flat. It wasn't long before a big topsail catfish hit the cut jack.

The catfish was the first of six topsial cats and three hardhead cats I caught that day. A lot of people look down on catching catfish, but I enjoy the way they pull, and I'd rather catch a lowly catfish than nothing at all!

I switched from the yo-zuri to a Gotcha as the tide started falling and worked the lure from deep water back towards the flat - into the outgoing tide. At that point, the bite really turned on! Spotted trout proceeded to HAMMER that little Gotcha lure!

Before the day was over, I caught three dozen speckled trout. Most were short, but I had two keepers 15 1/2 and 16 1/2 inches.

I also had a nice bluefish hit the Gotcha.

He went a good 2 1/2 pounds and fought like a snook with lots of aerial acrobatics and long sizzling runs!

I kept rebaiting the big rod with cut jacks every time I caught a jack.

Eventually I caught a fish that was NOT a catfish on the cut jack when this little 30 inch blacktip ...

snagged himself on the circle hook buried in the jack!

I got this little blue runner on the Gotcha lure...

and he joined his jack cousins as bait.

I managed one short mangrove snapper...

and six silver trout...

and even a short gag grouper!

My final fish of the day was the sixth silver trout of the day.

I paddled back to my car...

loaded up the kayak, and went to Bonita Bill's...

for a celebratory beer for my final tally of 36 spotted trout, six silver trout, three jacks, a blue runner, a nice bluefish, six topsail catfish, three hardhead catfish, a blacktip shark, a gag grouper, and a large pinfish that also joined the bait stash!

When I got home, Punky the cat lounged nearby...

while I cleaned fish...

Actually, the bluefish went into the shark bait freezer and the gutted and bled blacktip went as a gift to my cuban friends Mirardo and Annie. But the four filets from the two trout I grilled for my supper!

After a great meal, I lounged on my dock swing with a cold beer an Arturo Fuente "Curly Head" cigar, and a paperback mystery.

The breeze died down and the water in my canal was smooth as glass. I was content.

Life is good!

Sanibel lighthouse sharking 06/02/09

2009-06-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 6/2/09, was the day I had promised Lexi, Bentley and Laney that I would take them shark fishing. We headed to the sanibel lighthouse beach for the undertaking.

I had been unable to catch any fresh bait, so took some old frozen jacks and ladyfish out of the freezer. No telling how long that stuff had been in there, but hey! Frozen bait is way better than no bait! Besides, I had high hopes of snagging something fresh while out fishing.

I can only fit one little kid at a time on the kayak and besides, we only had one kids life preserver so they would have to take turns fishing. Bentley decided he really didn't want to go shark fishing anyhow, so Lexi and Laney huddled up together then informed me Lexi would go first, then Laney.

I paddled Lexi out on calm water.

We rigged with some cut jack.

After about twenty minutes with no action, Lexi got bored and wanted to go back to the beach. So next it was Laney's turn.

Laney and I fished about an hour before she tired of the lack of action. After paddling her back to the beach, I rigged up my triple rod holder and went trolling offshore.

I paddled a good two miles or so offshore hoping for a school of spanish mackerel or maybe a stray tarpon, but got nothing. I returned to the beach still dragging a small yo-zuri. In three feet of water not a hundred feet off the beach, I had a little lizardfish hit while reeling in my line.

At least we weren't officially skunked!

Life is good!

Snookless Sanibel 06/01/09

2009-06-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind on posting my fishing reports. We've had houseguests and a lot going on and those days I'm off, I'd rather be out fishing rather than writing about it.

But anyways, Monday, June 1st I set out to nab some snook with my flyrod off the Sanibel Lighthouse beach.

I fished a couple of hours but only saw six snook to sightcast to. No luck with the snook on the fly rod. But schools of bait were EVERYWHERE so I headed back to the car and grabbed my rod rigged with a Gotcha. I fished it for another good hour or so. I finally managed a lizardfish...

and a small ladyfish that flopped off onto the beach and back into the water before I could snap a picture. That was too bad. I wanted that ladyfish for the next day when I had promised my grandchildren Bentley and Lexi and Lexi's little friend Laney, that I would take them out on the kayak to catch sharks (little blacktips). Oh well. I'd have to catch some other bait before then.

Speaking of the grandkids - they, along with daughter, Holly, and future daughter-in-law JennJenn, were at Ft Myers Beach - near the pier. I headed over that way to meet up with them. I told Holly I would walk out on the pier and call them on my cell so they could dirrect me to their spot on the beach. I had an ulterior motive in walking out on the pier. I took my sabiki rod with me and a small cooler - hoping to sabiki up some threadfins off the pier to use as cut bait for the blacktip fishing the next day. But unlike Sanibel, there was no bait to be seen at the pier that day and though I tried the sabiki anyway, I was unsuccessful.

I met up with the kids at the foot of the pier, but they were going for sodas and souvineer shopping and while they were gone I tried the Gotcha lure in a quiet section of the beach - again without success.

Ultimately, I retired to the Pierside Restaurant and Bar to savor a cold draft beer and cigar while waiting for the kids. While sitting at the end of the bar, a man walked up and said, "Excuse me, but aren't you Brian Travis?" I said yes and asked him where he knew me from (thinking he must have seen me in a show with my band, the Yard Dogs). Imagine my surprise when he told me he knew me from my fishing blog pictures! His name was Tim, and he was vacationing with his family from Indiana further down the beach nearer Lover's Key.

Tim had seen me earlier walking the pier and had recognized me then, he said. Small world, huh? We spent some enjoyable minutes talking fishing. Tim had had quite a bit of success using Gotcha lures after reading about them in my blog. I had him accompany me back to the parking lot and gifted him with a blue/pearl colored Mirrodine lure from my tackle box. I later learned he had caught a number of fish with it too!

Life is good!

Sanibel beach and serendipitous snook - 05/26/09

2009-05-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

My cell phone took a swim in the dog's water bowl Monday night rendering it somewhat less than useless, so Tuesday morning found me at the AT&T store when they opened at 9:00am, seeking a replacement. Ever notice how they keep changing cell phones so you can't replace the one you lost with a similar one? Then you gotta go through an entire learning curve to see how the new phone works. What an ass pain! And you can't just BUY a phone. No. You gotta jump through all sorts of upgrade hoops and sign a new contract and stuff before you can get a new phone. What a hassle!

By the time I stopped for breakfast and ice and got to Sanibel, it was 11:00am. I had packed my trusty 9wt fly rod and planned to wade fish the beaches there for snook. Somehow though, I had managed to misplace my little box of flies so I used that as an opportunity to stop at Norm Ziegler's new fly fishing shop on Periwinkle Drive in Sanibel. Norm is the creator of the "Norm's Crystal Schminnow" fly which is reputed to be one of the best for snook!

I picked up four of them and on Norm's advice, headed off for Bowman's Beach.

The tide was rising until about 2:00pm and the southerly breeze was light so the surf was low and the water fairly clear. It should have been perfect snook sight fishing conditions, but unlike the previous week at the lighthouse beach , when I saw several hundred snook schooling along the beaches, this day I only counted six snook. There were literally hundreds if not thousands of stingrays schooling along the beach though! It's an eerie feeling standing knee deep in water while surrounded by 150 stingrays - some of which are brushing your legs as they swim past. Believe me, you DON"T wanna be high stepping along at moments like those!

Anyway, I fished west from the main tourist population at Bowmans and pretty much had the beach to myself.

I did run into two other fly fishermen and this guy...

The other fly fishermen told me they had seen lots of snook earlier, but the schools had disappeared later in the day. They had had one snook on, but failed to land it.

I fished from 11:30 to 2:30, so I definitely gave it the old college try, but to no avail. I drove back off the island and headed to Bonita Bill's for a cold brew. While sitting there at the bar, I noticed schools of bait popping between the docks just a few feet away. Closer inspection showed several nice snook lurking in the shadowline of the dock and beneath the floating section. In order to cast downtide to the dock edge, I would be casting upwind. Frankly, I'm not that great a fly caster yet and doubted I had the accuracy and skill to place the fly where I wanted it. Besides, the sailboats behind me were full of halyards and standing rigging to really complicate a backcast. So rather than my flyrod, I went out to the car and grabbed my spinning rod with a Mirrodine lure still attached from the episode with the lawnmower bass the day before. Unlike my flyrod skills, I'm a fairly proficient and accurate caster with a spinning rod. I proceeded to drop the Mirrodine right up against the edge of the floating dock on a succession of casts. With the tidal current now running out fairly strong, I was able to place the lure in the space between the pontoons on the dock and let the tide sweep it beneach the dock before starting my retrieve. I had quite an audience watching me from the bar and outside tables. About the 7th or 8th cast, POW! Big hit, major swirl and heavy bend in the rod! I had hung a nice scrappy snook! Since it was my ONLY fish of the day, I choose to bore you with several photos of said fish. Hey! It's my blog so I can do anything I want with it, right?

Once I got the hook out of it's mouth, the snook wiggled and almost squirted out of my hands!

I managed to hold on to him, but he put a fin into my forearm and I was bleeding pretty good.

I released the snook to swim back to his dock and retired to the bar. A guy stopped me at his table on the walk to the bar and said "Nicely done!" That made me feel good.

Life is good!

Lawnmower bass - 05/25/09

2009-05-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished mowing the front yard and weeding the side yard planters. I came inside, grabbed a glass of ice water then went out back to the dock to check the rain gauge to see how much rain we got yesterday. The rain gauge is on my dock, so on the way there, I grabbed my spinning rod with a mirrodine tied on and carted it out along with my ice water.

My first cast was across the canal to the edge of a weed bed there. I let the mirrodine slowly sink a second or two then twitch, twitch, POW!!! Fish on!

I brought this scrappy bigmouth bass to the dock.

One cast, one fish!

I came back inside, typed this blog entry and now I'm grabbing a beer and a paperback novel and heading out for a cooling dip in the pool!

Life is good!

Back at Sanibel causeway flats - 05/20/09

2009-05-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

Bluefish and spanish mackerel had taken all but one of my Mirrodine lures on Monday, 05/18/09.

I had to replenish my Mirrodine supply so I headed to Walmart first thing and stocked up! I had hoped to breakfast there at the food court, but nothing was open that early in the morning. I decided to stop at a 7-11 or Circle K and buy junk food for breakfast, since I had forgotten to get ice at Walmart too.

I left Walmart and headed south on Del Prado Blvd. There's a spot on Del Prado at the intersection of 47th Terrace where the left hand lane and center lane jog a bit to the left. Both lanes are left turn lanes a block ahead at Cape Coral Parkway. I've seen more than one close call there because often cars in the left lane mistakenly cross over into the center lane - despite the traffic lines in the road to the contrary. I was driving in the center lane and wouldn't you know? Some bozo in the left lane crosses illegally into my lane and as he does he just barely, ever so slightly ticks the edge of my rear bumper with his front bumper. We stopped at the red light and as I was about to get out of my car, I see the other driver get out of his, walk up and check the bumpers, then walk back and get back into his car. I could tell that there was no damage from the ever-so-slight plastic bumper to plastic bumper contact and evidently the other guy had independently verified this with his quick inspection. Hey! No harm, no foul! Glad it was nothing serious! The light changed and we moved out.

I stopped at Circle K for ice and powdered donuts and peanuts plus a couple of tall boys for the cooler. I was on the water at my spot on the grassflats at the Sanibel B-span and fishing merrily away by 8:45! I proceeded to literally CLOBBER the trout! I easily had two dozen in the next two hours! Here's a few representative pics...

Plus I had another keeper spanish mackerel...

and a puffer fish that pumped itself up like a party baloon!

I also caught a large pinfish which I put out on the tarpon rod as cut bait. But rather than a tarpon, all it managed to get me was another topsail catfish.

I had plans to meet my wife at Bonita Bill's for lunch at 12:30, but a looming thunderhead chased me off the water by 11:00am.

I loaded up the kayak as rain loomed on the horizon.

Had a great lunch with Nancy at Bonita Bill's! I had the peel and eat shrimp. All their shrimp is fresh off the boat, the "Miss Cher" that docks at Bonita Bill's! Nancy had to head back to work for a 2pm meeting, but I decided to check out the fishing action at the Ft Myers Beach pier.

The surf was high and the water was cloudy. Winds were whipping out of the south!

But there was intermittant sunshine and many tourists on the beach.

There were a few fishermen on the pier and one dizzy blonde fisherwoman. An elderly asian gentleman managed to hook and land a large topsail catfish. The blonde bimbo went nuts! She screamed "He got a shark! HE GOT A SHARK!" She looked at me and asked, "That IS a shark, right?" I couldn't help myself. I replied, "Oh yeah. It's a big hammerhead!" I wandered away biting my lip to keep from laughing out loud!

I had kept one large trout and the spanish mackerel from my earlier fishing so I headed home where I added the mackerel to my shark bait stash in the freezer and filleted the trout for supper.

Nancy had an evening out with the girls planned at the Royal Palm Dinner Theater, so I settled in on the Laz-E-Boy recliner with the TV remote and two little dogs sleeping on my lap. In typical fashion, I nodded off within minutes only to be awakened by the doorbell and dogs barking shortly after 8:00pm. I answered the door and was a bit taken aback to see a Cape Coral policeman standing there. He said, "Sir, would you step outside?". When I complied, he asked, "Sir, is this your vehicle?" My car with the kayak on the rack was parked in the driveway and I'm thinking to myself, "Great! There's probably some obscure Cape Coral code about having a kayak on the roof of a car in your own driveway or something!" When I told him yes, that was my car, he immediately whipped out a little card and reads out loud, "You have the right to remain silent..." and proceeded to Mirandize me while I'm standing there barefooted in jersey shorts and a tank top wondering what the hell is happening! Is this cop going to arrest me for having a kayak on my car's roof? What the hell?

Then he says "Were you involved in a traffic accident this morning?" and the whole incident with the plastic bumper bumping that morning, which I had literally forgotten all about, comes flashing back. I explain to the cop that it wasn't really an accident, that it was merely glancing contact between plastic bumpers and that the other guy had checked then re-entered his car before we drove away.

To make a long story short, despite the fact there isn't so much as a scratch on my bumper, the other guy is claiming $300 in damages, had recorded my license number and the cop charged me with leaving the scene of an accident! Unbelievable! Why the hell did he get back into his car then? He had hit ME and he appeared unconcerned when he got back in his car. I learned a valuable lesson from this! Next time so much as a stray shopping cart touches me at Publix, I'm going to exchange license and insurance information with the operator!

I was not arrested, but was given a ticket. I checked the citation code on the internet only to discover it is not a traffic violation but rather a second degree misdemeanor subject to $500 fine and 60 days in jail! Holy crap!

I was quite upset that night and hardly slept at all. The next day, I researched attorneys on the internet (thank you Google!) and contacted a firm that specializes in traffic offenses. They assure me that I have nothing to worry about, but as crazy as the world is these days, who knows? I'm out $3000 in retainer fees, but they assure me I won't even have to appear in court.

Life is good, but sometimes it sure doesn't seem fair!

Snookin' at the Sanibel Lighthouse 05/19/09

2009-05-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

The weather guessers were wrong again! The wind was supposed to be blowing 10-20 out of the north and there was supposed to be like an 80 percent change of thunderstorms! I didn't even think about launching the kayak because of the forecast, but having seen the dolphins working the snook in the shallows the day before had me thinking about beach fishing for snook! I figured a north wind - even 10-20 as forecasted, would not roil the surf on the south side of Sanibel, so that's where I headed. I parked at the Lighthouse beach and tied on that little Mirrodine lure again. It mimicked a sardine or threadfin which was probably what the snook were chewing at the beach. I started fishing about 9:00am. Though there were scattered clouds, the predicted thunderstorms were not yet in evidence and the 10-20 north wind was flat calm. The gulf looked like a millpond! I saw birds working bait near the point so I started off there casting the little mirrodine lure into and around the periphery of the schooling bait. I got nothing. I started walking the beach heading west and kept my eyes on the shallow water in the gut between the beach and the first sandbar. The sun was out and visibility was good. After just a few minutes walking, I saw a splash and swirl as a large snook blasted bait not fifty feet away in less than a foot of water! The snook rejoined a school of maybe a dozen others - all swimming into the tidal current running parallel to the beach. I made what I judged to be a perfect cast with the little Mirrodine - dropping it maybe ten feet in front of the cruising snook in maybe a foot of water. I twitched and retrieved the lure in what I judged to be a remarkable imitation of a wounded pilchard, only to have the entire school of snook studiously ignore my offering! This same scenario was repeated innumerable times in the 1/2 mile or so of beach that I waded! I probably saw 300 snook cruising the shallows! Not a one of them showed the slightest interest in my Mirrodine! It was beyond frustrating seeing some really sweet fish thumbing their noses at me! I chatted with a fisherman who was freelining live pilchards he had castnetted off the beach. He told me he had caught two snook and his buddy further down the beach also had two. He said they had tried plugs, DOA shrimp, bucktail jigs and soft plastics, but had only been able to get 'em with live bait. I continued down the beach and watched his fishing partner catch a snook. I fished a bit further, then started working my way back. As I neared the guy who I had watched catch a snook, he had yet another hit on his live bait! I fumbled and spazzed around with my camera and finally figured out the movie setting and caught the very end of his fight with the fish.

I did return to the car and tie on a white glow-in-the-dark DOA shrimp and fish with that a while too. But I had no luck. By this time, the clouds had covered the sun and it was impossible to see the snook until just after they had swum past me on the beach. Makes it tough to sight fish if you can't see the fish until they're gone!

I called it quits and headed home. I'll be back with my 9wt fly rod the very next time we have a calm day or slight north winds!

Life is good! :)

A busy day at Sanibel causeway - 05/18/09

2009-05-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Monday, 05/18/09, I was up early and watching the local weather report. I knew I had a nice rising tide until early afternoon and according to the weather, the wind was ENE at 2mph with possibility of afternoon thunderstorms. I decided to fish Knapp's Point off Sanibel Island and was up early and at the Tarpon Road beach by 7am. But the weather guys were wrong. The wind was southerly at probably 15-20 and the surf was up and the water roiled up and cloudy. No way I was gonna launch into THAT mess and try to fish offshore!

I backtracked to the Sanibel causeway and opted to fish the grassflat inside of the B-span spoil island. The island would provide a bit of a wind shadow and being close by what wind blew over it would not have enough fetch to really raise waves big enough to cause me problems in the kayak.

Rain was falling as I rigged the kayak, but it looked like the worst of it would pass to the west of me. I tied on a blue/pearl colored mirrodine lure...

and launched the kayak.

There's a convienient landmark I use near the west end of the grassflat.

I staked the kayak out in about five feet of water and started casting. That little Mirrodine lure was productive indeed! The trout were tearing it up!

That little Mirrodine also yielded a keeper sized spanish mackerel...

a fat topsail catfish...

and a hand sized little crevalle jack...

I cut the head off the jack, scored his sides with a knife to add scent and put him out on a big 8/0 circle hook on my tarpon rod. I continued to fish the Mirrodine.

I continued to spank the trout there. I think my final count was twenty with the biggest going 16 1/2 inches.

A couple of guys in a flats skiff anchored about 70 yards away to castnet whitebait. I was staked out using a 7 foot "Stik-It" anchor pin.

I had just made a cast with the Mirrodine when zzzZZZZZzzzzZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!! The big rod with the cut jack went off big time! There was a HUGE swirl about 50 feet from the kayak and then the fish started RIPPING line off the big Penn750ssm reel! I calmly reeled in the Mirrodine, stowed that rod, pulled the anchor pin and strapped it to the kayak, then grabbed the big rod. Immediately the fish spun the kayak and started towing it as it steadily ripped line off the reel! I have 30# braid on that rod (an extra heavy 8 foot Shimano Terramar) and I had about 4 feet of 50# mono leader with 2 feet of 80# flurocarbon as a bite tippet. I probably had about five pounds of drag set on the reel and I had to intermittantly palm the spool to get the fish to stop ripping line off the reel. I would guess the fish finally had the kayak moving along at 2-3 mph before I could stop the fish from stripping line! The two guys in the flats boat were yelling encouragement and offered to tow me after the fish, but I wanted to land it myself - unassisted. They hollered "What you got?" and I replied "Tarpon! I think!" But in retrospect, I'm not really sure. At the time I thought it was a huge tarpon, but if so, it never jumped aside from the initial boil on the surface when it felt the hook. It may have been a large shark rather than a tarpon, but if so it was a big shark - not a typical blacktip. I'm still inclined to believe it was a tarpon. Perhaps the shallow water just didin't allow a fish that size enough depth to launch itself airborne!

The mystery fish was towing me east - towards the A-span and parallel to the spoil island. It hade pulled me several hundred yards in the kayak and had stripped at least 200 yards of line off the reel. I knew I had to start recovering line and began pumping and reeling to try to regain line. But every time I would pump the rod, the fish would exhibit another burst of speed and strip even MORE line from the reel! I knew it was only a matter of time in that shallow water before the fish found something on the bottom to rub the line against and break me off! As soon as I had that thought, it happened! Ping! Fish off. Damn! What a disappointment!

I paddled back to my spot, re-staked the kayak and re-rigged my big rod. I commenced casting the little rod again and managed a couple more trout ...

and another jack.

The tide basically had quit and the wind had died down. I decided to paddle back to the beach on the island where I had launched.

While I was loading up, I heard a big splash and saw a school of snook being herded into the shallows by a mother dolphin teaching her juvenile how to hunt snook in the shallows!

Once the kayak was loaded up...

I headed over to Bonita Bill's for a bite of lunch and a cold snack. It turns out there was a young fellow fishing off the back dock there who had hooked not one but TWO tarpon fishing live pinfish! Justin Krieger was his name and he and I traded fishing stories while I watched him fish!

Bartendress Kendra and Key West Express skipper, Cpt. Avner Gilead live aboard a sailboat at Bonita Bill's and have done some extensive refurbishing and remodeling.

Avner gave me a nice tour of the boat! I was impressed with the scope and quality of what he has done! Here's a few pics...

http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/fishing051809/?action=view¤t=P5180066.jpg

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk306/tarvus33991/fishing051809/P5180071.jpg

That evening, I took my wife to dinner at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria in Cape Coral. Here's a pic of wife Nancy with proprietress, Annie (on left) and waitress Mayfre (on right).

It was raining pretty hard when we left the restaurant, but I just HAD to brave the drizzling rain to capture this photo of the "purplest car in the world"!

life is good! :)

I tried - 05/15/09

2009-05-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

I tried to go fishing Friday, 05/15/09. I loaded up the kayakmobile with all my stuff (including the tarpon catfish bait I had kept on ice since Tuesday). I had my eyeglasses on a safety strap hanging around my neck and somehow managed to bump them on something and pop the lense out of the frame. Without my glasses, I couldn't see well enough to pop the lens back in, so now I had to go to the Optometrist's office before I could fish.

Besides that, my little Chiuahua dog, Rocky, had got hold of my sunscreen lip balm so I had to stop at the grocery store for more of that. My plan was to drift the Sanibel causeway with catfish tails and possibly live threadfins if I could sabiki any up there at the causeway. I figured I needed some of those rubber-core clip on sinkers just in case I had to use them to get the bait down in the current. So that was another errand to run.

As I was rigging my gear (this was before I broke my glasses) my Gerber folding pocket knife broke! The latch that locks the blade in place got metal fatigue and snapped off so the blade wouldn't lock. Guess I would have to stop at Wally World for a replacement!

But hey! I figured no problem! The tide didn't really start moving until around noon or 12:30 so I had plenty of time to get everything done!

I had a nice breakfast omelette at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria, visited Publix for the sunblock chapstick and a bag of ice, and headed to the Walmart in North Ft Myers (since it was near my optometrist's office). I wandered over to the sporting goods section where the knife case is and saw the exact knife I wanted to replace. Naturally, the person manning the sporting goods department was nowhere to be found. I waited there a full ten minutes then set out looking for the clerk. I saw her with some sales rep checking his shelf stocks and she told me she would be right with me. I waited another ten minutes then went looking for her again. I asked her if she could use her walkie talkie to call somebody to help me. She flashed me an exasperated expression and said again that she would be right with me. I waited five more minutes and said to myself, "Screw this! I'll go somewhere that appreciates my business!"

I got better service at the optometrist's office where they fixed my glasses free of charge and had me out the door in less time than I spend waiting in Walmart for the lackadaisical sporting goods clerk.

I decided to hit Lehr's Ecomony tackle in North Ft Myers for the sinkers and to see if they had folding knives there. I'm a fairly regular customer at Lehr's and they always treat me right! Though I didn't get an exact match on the knife, I got a nice substitute and a pocket full of sinkers and by the time they gave me their regular customer discount, both the sinkers AND the knife cost me about the same as the other knife at Walmart! Give me a mom and pop shop any day over an impersonal chain store retailer!

I left North Ft Myers heading to Sanibel! I was cruising along Summerlin Drive about 55 miles an hour when my left rear wheel started bouncing and vibrating. I figured I had lost a tire weight and it was suddenly out of balance! I slowed to about 50 and the bouncing moderated some then BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!!! A glance in the rearview mirror revealed chunks of rubber disintegrating behind the kayakmobile. I figured "Blowout!" and slowed and gradually pulled onto the road shoulder. But when I checked the tire, it looked normal! Scratching my head, I circled the car and checked all four tires. They all looked normal!

I checked the left rear again and saw that though the tire was still fully inflated, half of the tread had come off altogether! I was right at the intersection of John Morris and Summerlin so I limped the car up to John Morris and drove it to a parking lot at John Morris and McGregor Blvd where it was safer to put on the spare than on the shoulder of Summerlin.

I unloaded the trunk and stowed the stuff in the back seat, got the jack and the spare out, jacked up the car and started pulling lug nuts. But the last lug nut turned out to be the locking kind! Great! Just great! When I bought the kayakmobile I checked to make sure it had a spare and a jack and that the spare was fully inflated, but who would have thought to check for locking lug nuts on the tires???

I called my insurance company's roadside assistance number. They advised me I had free towing for up to eleven miles and that there was a Firestone tire store just two miles away! Thank you USAA! They called a tow truck which arrived about 45 minutes later. The Firestone store was having a slow day so they pulled me right in and had the kayakmobile up on a rack. The front tires on the yakmobile were both Kelly's and both back tires were Dunlops. I figured if one Dunlop had died, the other might too, so I had them replace both rear tires and remove the locking lugs on all four wheels. The bill was $214. Not bad all things considered. But by the time they got done, it was after 2pm and a thunderstorm had moved into the area. So much for fishing this day!

I drove the yakmobile back to Cape Coral but managed to avoid the thunderstorm - even though I could hear thunder and see lightening popping nearby. I stopped at the Twisted Conch in Cape Coral and shared my tale of woe with bartendress and friend, Monica while I had a single Yuengling Lager to cheer my spirits.

When I got home, I decided that the catfish I had kept as bait had outlived their usefulness since it would be Monday before I had a chance to get back out of the water. Freezing 3 day old bait just didn't make sense so I fed the catfish carcasses to the turtles in my canal.

At least I have functional eyeglasses, sunblock chapstick, new tires, a new knife and a pocket full of sinkers for my next fishing adventure!

Life is good!

Pineland Tuesday, 05/12/09

2009-05-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

It was a week of weird tides - rising until about first light, then flat for hours until late morning before rising again into the afternoon.

I was off Monday and Tuesday, but I was just plain tired out Monday and decided to forego fishing. Tuesday, I was rested up, but again the slow tides left me in no hurry to get on the water. I think it was about 10:30 Tuesday morning, 05/12/09 when I launched the kayak at the Pineland kayak launch.

The breeze was light and just about due west, so I started out in that direction. I paddled towards the northern tip of Black Key. I stopped to stake out the kayak in likely looking places and worked a blue/pearl Mirrodine lure and a gold glitter Cal swimbait over grass and the edges of various potholes, but didn't even get a single strike. About two thirds of the way to Black Key there is a small oyster bar and I could see birds and bait in abundance! I don't think I have ever seen so many mullet jumping! The entire periphery of the little oyster shoal was constantly alive with small mullet going airborne! In addition there was smaller bait getting popped up close to the oyster bar in just inches of water! I figured with so much bait there the predator fish just had to be there too, so I staked out the Prowler 13 and commenced casting the Mirrodine lure.

My first cast was perfect! Exactly where I wanted it in just inches of water a few feet from the exposed oysters! I gave it a single twitch and POW! Fish on! I had no idea what I had though as the fish ran extremely fast, but didn't pull very hard. When I got it up to the kayak, I saw why. I had foul hooked a needlefish!

Four more successive casts yielded three more needlefish - all of them foul hooked! I flooded the footwell of the kayak and all four of them were swimming around my feet. Since bait was popping all around me, I tried casting into a bit deeper water near the color change where the oysters met the turtlegrass. I managed this small jack doing that.

I saved the jack to use as tarpon candy and tried chunking three inch pieces of cut needlefish out on a 2/0 circle hook hoping to entice a redfish cruising the oysters on the now rapidly rising tide. The redfish were un-cooperative, but the hardhead catfish just loved that cut needlefish! I caught six of them and kept four to use as tarpon bait.

Eventually, I paddled up to the oyster bar, staked out the kayak and climbed out to wade fish the periphery.

The mullet were still jumping but the smaller bait disappeared and my lure fishing yielded nothing further.

I resumed paddling out towards Black Key. Just yards off the tip of Black Key a pod of four dolphins cruised by between me and the shore.

The water was clear and the turtle grass healthy, and should have been full of hungry trout.

But if it was, they weren't buying what I was selling! After fishing the edge of Black Key for a half hour or so it was nearing 2:00pm. The tide was almost done so I opted to let the wind drift me back to Pineland. Besides that, the cumulous clouds were building up and one of them was developing the anvil shape indicative of a potential thunderstorm, so I figured it wise to be closer to my take-out spot just in case.

I put a slice of cut jack on an 8/0 circle hook, hung it under a cork and started to drift. I figured maybe I might spark some interest from a stray tarpon on the drift back.

The wind took me right past my little oyster bar which was marked with two white poles...

and I drifted almost back to Pineland in the freshening breeze. I drifted the cut bait and continually worked both the Mirrodine and the plastic lures but had zero further action.

After loading up the kayak, I opted to drive the hundred yards or so to the Tarpon Lodge for some cold, liquid refreshment (the three beers in my cooler were slimed with catfish slime and weren't very appealing to me at that point).

I struck up a conversation with the only other patron at the bar - a gentleman from Columbia by the name of Memo. Memo has homes in Columbia and on Captiva and though retired, he works for fun on Cabbage Key. Memo had taken the shuttle boat to Pineland and he too was cold snacking at the Tarpon Lodge! Memo and I were ably served by our friendly bartendress, Marci. Here's a pic of Memo and Marci.

Note the tarpon on the wall over Memo's shoulder! I think it was there to taunt me!

Life is good!

Bunche Beach Redux - 05/08/09

2009-05-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

Seeing the "tarpon dance" at Bunche beach two days earlier just whetted my appetite to pursue the tarpon there at my next opportunity! Friday, May 8, 2009, provided me with that opportunity.

Once again I planned to fish the last couple of hours of the rising tide and the first couple of the falling tide. I probably should have caught the early tide at first light, but it was late the night before when I got home from a gig at the Mucky Duck out on Captiva Island, and waking up seemed like a better idea after sunrise than before.

As I paddled towards Bowditch Point off Bunche Beach, I trolled a little Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow and a large Yo-Zuri on the other side of the kayak. I hooked a 17 inch ladyfish on the small Yo-Zuri, but the fish managed to thoroughly tangle both lines and I had my hands full juggling the thrashing ladyfish while cutting the tangles out of my lines and re-tying both leaders while drifting in the kayak with the still hooked ladyfish tugging against the old leader which I held clenched in my teeth! Eventually I got 'er done and hooked the ladyfish live on an 8/0 circle hook on my Shimano Terramar tarpon rod with the big Penn 750ssm reel.

I stowed the recently re-rigged rods with the lures and just trolled the live ladyfish out to the point where I started my drift. During that drift, I did see a big tarpon roll about 100 feet away, but nothing hit the ladyfish. As I drifted, I casted the little Yo-Zuri and snagged a nice blue runner which went into my footwell "baitwell". I had three blue runners left over from two days earlier which I had kept on ice to use as backup cut bait if needed. You can see the live runner (in the footwell on the right) and the backup baits in this picture...

As I drifted, Punta Rassa and the Sanibel Causeway were visible in the distance to the north...

the tip of Sanibel Island and the lighthouse were several miles distant to the west...

and a half mile to my south was Bowditch Point at the northwest tip of Estero Island.

The wind was about 10-12mph out of the southwest so I sort of fished a zig-zag pattern with my drifts. The wind would blow me northeast and when I hit shallow water I would paddle due west so I zig-zagged my way generally northwards while covering a good bit of water in the process. By hooking the ladyfish through the nose, it trolled nicely behind as I paddled and was free to swim about as I drifted.

There is another kayak tarpon fisherman that I have seen on the water several times. He usually anchors his kayak and freelines live or cut bait while chumming. In respect for his fishing turf, I have never approached closer than maybe 150 feet, but we have hollered conversations about tarpon and fishing techniques several times in the past.

He reported having seen six tarpon but had not had a hookup.

Shortly after taking his picture, I had a hit and run with the ladyfish as I paddled out for another drift, but I failed to get a hookup and the encounter left my ladyfish dead. I replaced the ladyfish with a live blue runner and continued fishing.

The tide went slack at full flood just after noon. I dropped my barbell plate anchor overboard and cut the dead ladyfish and the several dead blue runners into small chunks and chummed the water around me with them. I figured if no tarpon hit, perhaps I would get a hit from a shark which would give me a fun ride in the kayak. As I floated in the noonday sun, I cracked one of several cold brewskis and cooled my feet in the 83 degree water of the Gulf.

I also practiced the fine art of peeing into an empty beer bottle while seated in a bobbing kayak at anchor. I will spare you pictures of THAT particular event. (Hey! I couldn't take pictures of that anyway. Both hands were occupied and there was no way to hold a camera!)

After an hour, my attention deficit disorder kicked in and I had to get moving again. It gets boring sitting still with nothing much happening. Besides, I was out of beer and the tide was moving and I felt like I should be too. My bait had quit moving too so I unhooked it and fed him to the fishes.

I dragged the little Yo-Zuri behind the kayak and paddled up into Matanzas Pass. I went exploring up one of the salt creeks that serves as a boat channel from one of the condo developments there. (That blurry object at the top of the pic is NOT a UFO! It's my finger tip!)

I was hoping to pick up another ladyfish or blue runner, but it didn't happen. On my way back out of the salt creek, I spied this blue heron cleverly camoflaged amidst the dead mangrove stumps...

As I paddled back to Bunche Beach, I did entice this little gag grouper to hit my Yo-Zuri.

I was loaded up and on the road by 2:30. I made a quick stop at Bonita Bill's and ran into fellow musician and local resident and live-aboard sailor, "Boat Lizard Pete". Pete was fishing off the dock for his supper.

He scored a nice 14 inch mangrove snapper while I watched him fish. At the end of the dock I snapped this picture of the shrimp fleet docked along San Carlos Island...

I stopped at the Twisted Conch in Cape Coral for a quick snack and brew. My friend, Monica, was bartendress this day.

The only other customer there when I arrived was a fellow by the name of Jerry, to whom Monica introduced me. Jerry and I soon became involved in a lively tarpon fishing discussion. Jerry told me about the huge tarpon his wife, Jen, had caught in Boca Grande Pass two years previously. Within minutes of hearing Jerry's story, his lovely wife, Jen, showed up there and we all had a good ole time talking tarpon and enjoying a beer! Here's a pic of Jen and Jerry...

It was not a real productive day fishing wise, but it had been fun and I made some friends and I got out on the water. You can't catch a tarpon unless you are on the water with a wet line. I'll just have to keep on trying. I chose to view today's efforts as a tarpon catching rehearsal! :)

Life is good!

Tarpon Dance at Bunche Beach, 05/06/09

2009-05-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't catch a tarpon, and no - I didn't even hook up on a tarpon, but I DID get to see one dance! More about that later...

Wednesday, May 6th, I decided to hit Bunche Beach. The wind was predicted to be southerly and light in comparison to what we've had lately. I had fresh ladyfish caught the day before and I figured to drift fish for tarpon and perhaps a blacktip shark using that cut ladyfish on a big circle hook! After a quick stop at Mickey D's for a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin, I splashed the kayak at Bunche Beach right at 9:00am. I had a rising tide going until 11:30 and figured to fish through the tide change and into the first hour or so of the falling tide.

I paddled into the wind out towards Bowditch point, but angled 3/4th of a mile or so offshore from Bunche Beach. I was in about eight feet of water when I sliced a big hunk out of the center of that ladyfish...

baited up my tarpon rig, and started my first drift. While drifting, I was casting the little Mirrodine, but it runs in the top foot or so of water and at the depth I was at I had nothing interested in it. I switched from my trout pole with the Mirrodine to my redfish pole still rigged with a big Red and white silver sided Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow from the previous days outing at the Sanibel Causeway. I knew the big Yo-Zuri would run deeper and put out more distressed-fish type vibrations than the Mirrodine. Sure enough! It worked! A nice bluefish smacked the Yo-Zuri and gave me a good fight before I lead him to the side of the kayak!

He went into the cooler to serve as shark bait on my next sharking expedition! I continued to work the Yo-Zuri as I drifted. Eventually the water started getting shallower as I neared the tip of the big sand spit that sticks out from the beach. On one cast I had reeled the lure almost to the side of the kayak when a nice mangrove snapper popped the lure! This one was close to 12 inches long and went into the cooler for lunch the next day!

I also casted the Mirrodine on occasion and caught a nice blue runner using the Mirrodine. I reeled in the ladyfish chunk and baited the tarpon rig with the live blue runner. I trolled the live runner as well as the Yo-Zuri as I paddled back upwind to start another drift. I hadn't gone far when a trout popped the Yo-Zuri.

I tried measuring that trout several different times, but each time he was just a wee bit short of 15 inches, so back into the water he went to grow some more.

I started my second drift freelining the live blue runner. I alternated between sipping a beer and casting either the Yo-Zuri or the Mirrodine while I drifted. Two guys in a boat anchored up in about 8 feet of water near my drift line, but I could tell I would clear them by 150 feet or so and continued to drift. I waved to them as I drifted by and they waved back. When I was about 100 feet past their boat, the water erupted about 100 feet off the bow of my kayak and 100 feet or so straight behind their boat. There was a splashing swirl then a HUGE tarpon leaped straight up out of the water a good six feet into the air! He crashed down and leaped again and again and AGAIN tailwalking and dancing across the water in some sort of frenzy!! I let out a whoop and the two guys on the boat started whooping and we watched that tarpon go nuts! The weird thing was that nobody had a hook in him! He was either leaping and dancing for the sheer joy of it, he was rehearsing for what he would do if perchance some fisherman DID get a hook in him, or he was trying to escape a really REALLY big predator!

But if it was a shark, I sure didn't see any fins and though I was listening, I didn't hear that "Jaws music" so I continued to fish. I did catch three more blue runners and I used the live well in the foot well technique I learned on the previous week's Pineland trip to keep them alive.

I continued to fish through the tide change and about ninety minutes into the falling tide. I did see one other tarpon roll about 200 feet away, but little else was happening. I was out of the water with kayak on the rack by 1:30. I stopped at Bonita Bill's to quench my thirst...

and ran into my bandmate Charlie Kuchler and his wife, Deborah, having a beer there. Lively conversation ensued and this lovely beer structure resulted - admired by bartendress Kendra and manager Barb in this photo.

I headed home to fillet the mangrove snapper for the next day's lunch.

When my wife got home, we headed to our favorite little cuban place, El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria in Cape Coral, for a salad and midnight sandwich!

Life is good!

Sanibel Causeway B span flats, 05/05/09

2009-05-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

I launched the kayak off the spoil island east of the Sanibel Causeway on Tuesday, 05/05/09. I paddled out on an incoming tide and staked out the kayak near a convenient landmark.

I'd fished this spot eleven months or so ago and caught fish until my casting arm was sore. Unfortunatley, the action was not as hot this day as it had been last year. For one thing, I don't think the grass is as healthy now as it was last year at this time. They dumped an awful lot of fresh water out of lake Okeechobee last summer and that tannin stained, ag-fertilizer rich fresh water causes algae growth which blocks the sunlight and the sea grasses suffer when they don't get sunlight to grow.

At any rate, after fifteen minutes or so casting with nary a hit and no sign of baitfish in the area, I decided to try something different. I put a large Yo-Zuri out on the starboard side of the kayak and paddled into deeper water towards the causeway B span.

Just before I reached the causeway a BIG ladyfish hit the Yo-Zuri!

I wanted to have a go at Tarpon off the beach the following day, so that ladyfish went into the cooler for cut bait for the next day! After trolling around the bridge for a while with no further action I decided to try drifting the grass flat and flipping that little Mirrodine lure that I've grown fond of. That decision resulted in four trout.

At the end of the drift, I stowed the rod with the Mirrodine and trolled the big Yo-Zuri back to the kayakmobile. The last fish of the day was a big lizard that hit the Yo-Zuri...

I was off the water by late morning and stopped for a beer and a bite of lunch at the Twisted Conch in Cape Coral. Then it was home for a shower and a quick nap before heading out to Pine Island for the Yard Dog's "Cinco de Bayou" show at Woody's Waterside.

Life is good!

Wading Sanibel, 05/04/09

2009-05-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

I know the snook are on the beaches and I wanted to rumble with some! So Monday, Mat 4th, I headed off to the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel Island.

Unfortunately the high wind had a fairly heavy chop going on San Carlos Bay and the Lighthouse Beach had surf and cloudy, roiled waters. Scratch plan A and impliment plan B!

I headed across the tip of the island to the Sanibel Pier...

to the left of the pier, the island tended to shield the water from the worst of the wind so I waded and fished that little blue-backed pearl colored suspending Mirrodine lure for a good hour with no success. At least the scenery was pretty.

I decided to activate plan C and headed to the parking area at the boat launch on the Sanibel side of the causeway C-span. I wade fished from the boat launch, past the causeway and up the beach for 1/4 mile or so.

On my way back, I stopped once more at the foot of the causeway. I saw something popping bait on the surface, flipped the little Mirrodine out and caught this barely legal spanish mackerel.

I released the mack and headed off to Bonita Bills for a cold chilly pop (plan D). I wasn't the only fisherman at Bonita Bill's.

Life is good!

Bass in the weeds, 05/02/09

2009-05-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

The lack of rain has drastically lowered the water level in the freshwater canal we live on. Clear water and lots of sunlight have prompted a weed explosion in growth too. There are only a few spots behind my house where the weeds aren't right up on the water's surface.

Saturday, 05/02/09, I tried casting a little Yo-Zuri into the three or four spots on the canal that are weed-free.

Fourth cast got this...

A short day fishing with just four casts, but hey! Sometimes four is enough!

Life is good!

Pineland, 05/01/09

2009-05-07T06:11:00.001-07:00

Friday, 05/01/09, I launched my kayak at Pineland. There were several reasons for this. For one, the predicted wind was easterly and I figured I'd be able to avoid the worst of it with the bulk of Pine Island to my east. Another reason was that so many fellow kayakers report good success there at Pineland. And finally, the fact that there is a convenient launch and I'd never fished that particular area decided me.

There was another kayaker there when I arrived at the launch. He had adopted a playful full-grown labrador retriever just three days earlier and he was getting her used to sitting in the kayak while he paddled. I got a kick out of watching him toss a tennis ball out into Pine Island Sound for her to exhuberantly retrieve! Though the man and his dog had only been together three days, it looked to me like they had already bonded!

The wind tricked me once I got the yak in the water. Rather than the predicted easterlies, it was blowing out of the southwest - probably about 10-12 mph. I decided to paddle southwest into the wind and finish the day letting the wind assist on the trip back to the launch. I had a rising tide, but even with an additional foot or so from the tide, the water was still quite shallow. I tried trolling my little Yo-Zuri lures but had to keep stopping to reel in and free them from grass and weeds hung up in the hooks. In the two mile paddle to Wood Key I managed to collect a large pinfish on one of the Yo-Zuri lures so he went onto the tarpon rod - hooked through the nose with a big 8/0 Owner circle hook.

I stopped for a pee break at Wood Key. I staked out the kayak in knee deep water...

and tossed a blue-backed Mirrodine lure along the edges of the mangroves. I got a few follows by small fish, but no hits. Just before getting back into the kayak, I noticed a miss-wrapped line on the reel. I figured I would cast it out as far as I could into open water to free the miss-wrap from the reel. That worked good. I worked and twitched the Mirrodine over a shallow grass bed as I re-wound the reel. Just at the edge of the grass where it opened into a sandy area, KABAM!!!! A HUGE boil on the surface, and my line went tight and whatever the fish was, it started streaking for open water - bending the rod double and RIPPING line off the reel! I never actually saw enough of the fish to identify it, but it acted like a big redfish really putting his shoulders to work against my line! Unfortunately the hook pulled so the fish's identity remains a mystery.

I climbed back into the kayak and set my sights on the kayak launch at Pineland - on the distant shore in this photo.

I basically just drifted the pinfish on the tarpon rod and blind casted the little Mirrodine lure as the wind drifted me straight back to the launch site.

I did catch two more large pinfish on the Mirrodine and discovered that if I remove the scupper plug from my footwell and lean forward and sideways in the kayak, I can get maybe four or five inches of water into the footwell, re-plug the scupper hole and let the footwell function as a surrogate live well! I managed to keep the two extra pinfish alive that way until I released them at the launch. Cool huh?

Eventually the wind deposited me back at the launch. You can see my kayakmobile in the break between the mangroves in this picture.

It wasn't a great day fishing, but at least it served to give me a bit more confidence fishing that little Mirrodine lure!

I headed home and played with the sunfish and bass on my back dock.

My cat, Panther, seemed to enjoy spending time with me while I was fishing too.

Life is good!

A tuesday on the dock 04/28/09

2009-05-07T06:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 was another windy day. I stayed home and played with the sunfish and bass off my dock in the backyard. Watched a trio of otters swim by several times.

It was a good day to relax in the sun on the dock swing with a cold beer and Dominican Cohiba!

Life is good!

Four Freedoms to Caloosahatchee 04/27/09

2009-05-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, 04/27/09, was windy as all get out. It's been two months of wind and obviously this day was going to be no exception. The wind was generally easterly and I had a flash of inspiration and decided to launch the kayak at the Bimini Basin at Four Freedoms Park in Cape Coral.

I could paddle south-southwest down the Bimini Canal to the river and generally be protected from the easterly wind which was quite heavy.

I wheeled the kayak from the street to waters edge and launched into the basin.

I paddled past a local resident's personal tiki bar on his dock overlooking the basin - complete with screaming parrot!

Then I cast a small Yo-Zuri off the starboard side of the yak and a blue and silver Mirrodine lure off the port side. I headed south-southwest from the Bimini Basin to the Bimini Canal...

I saw very little boat traffic as I paddled, but I was passed by Cape Coral Police boats no less than five times in the three hours I was on the water. That seemed like overkill to me - one cop boat for every single civilian boat I saw on the water that day!

The chop in the river was heavy and there were lots of whitecaps in the distance...

Just as I snapped this picture at the mouth of the canal, the Mirrodine got hit by a nice mangrove snapper. I was fighting a bouncing kayak in the waves, boat traffic coming at me down the canal, the fish at the end of the line while trying to stow my camera and keep the fish from tangling my other line. Eventually I got everything sorted out and boated the snapper. He was over eleven inches - better than the ten inch legal size, and went into the cooler for lunch!

I retraced ny paddle back up Bimini Canal - going north-northeast and passing back through the Bimini Basin until the canal dead-ednded at Coronado Boulevard. Paddling back down through the basin, I saw two guys in a john boat both catch small hardhead catfish on shrimp tipped jigs. Just as I paddled past them a large topsail catfish pounded my Yo-Zuri lure.

Those catfish generally hit at slack tide, so that told me the tide was done for a while and that it was a good time to get off the water.

Enroute home, I stopped for a Yuengling Lager at the Twisted Conch where I enjoyed conversing with my friends - bartendress Monica and waitress Donna. Once home, I sharpened a fillet knife, popped a cold snack and set about reducing the snapper to snapper fillets!

I wound up spending another hour or two catching and releasing big hand sized bream on bread balls and a cane pole!

Life is good! :)

Matlacha 04/23/09

2009-04-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Thursday, 04/23/09, I headed back to Matlacha. I wanted to try again for Tarpon. I launched the kayak at the kayak launch site at the Matlacha Park...

and headed under the little bridge by the Olde Fish House Marina...

so as to avoid the worst of the wind. I rounded the marina and cruised out towards the pass...

I paddled just to the south of the sunken Marie Annette...

Near the sunken boat, I hooked a feisty little trout...

At least I giot the skunk out of the kayak!

I headed across Matlacha Pass towards the shallow flat north of Pine Island Road on the east side of the pass. There were a couple of shrimp boats tied up at Pine Bay.

I wanted to fish this area hoping to score a ladyfish. I seemed to be hanging up in weeds every cast, but I FINALLY hooked a nice sized ladyfish to use for live bait! I headed back to the big bridge and was excited to see two big tarpon rolling as I neared the main span. They were just teasing me though! I fished that live ladyfish for over an hour in and around the pilings, in the channel, just off the channel and drifting north along the channel. The tarpon were rolling, but they weren't eating.

At some point, the ladyfish gave up the ghost. I kept it in the cooler for cut bait and headed back to the kayak launch for a potty break and to re-rig one of my rods. I tied on a blue and silver suspending Mirrodine and headed out the channel to the south towards the pass. Right at the mouth of the channel the mirrodine plug got hit HARD! I grabbed the rod out of the holder as the fish was stripping line against the drag, but after putting quite a bend in the rod, it managed to spit the lure. I continued to troll both the mirrodine and a Yo-Zuri plug as I paddled across the pass south of the bridge. There is an old squatter's shack in the mangroves on a point on the east wall and I decided to pull the kayak into the mangroves...

stretch my legs, and do a little exploring of the old ruined shack...

I fished the mangroves along the east wall and back up into the back creeks some, but had no success. I hooked another small ladyfish paddling towards Bert's Bar, so I anchored out behind Bert's and soacked that ladyfish for a good hour. I saw plenty of big rays wallowing around on the surface, but no more tarpon. Finally I decided to call it quits.

I headed home, let the dogs out...

walked out onto my dock...

popped a cold snack...

caught a number of handsized bream on a cane pole...

and finally accumulated enough 2 inch bream to use as live bait. I baited up a cheapo Walmart spinning rod with the little sunfish two feet under a popping cork, kicked back with my feet up...

and proceeded to watch the bass and gar steal all my baitfish without a hookup. But it was a relaxing way to end the day.

Life is good!

Bunche Breeze 04/20/09

2009-04-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

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!

Matlacha 04/17/09

2009-04-21T06:35:00.001-07:00

It seems like Aeolus, the greek god of winds, is against me. Must be because of something I did or said in a previous life! Gosh, whenever I have a full day in which to fish, Aeolus pisses on my parade and lashes the winds into a frenzy. Such was the case Friday, 04/17/09.

I had the whole day off and I wanted another shot at those tarpon frequenting Matlacha Pass - or at least another nice snook like I'd pulled from beneath the bridge the previous day. I had a big lizardfish I planned to use as cut bait unless I could catch a ladyfish to use live.

I launched at the Matlacha park and headed out towards the south side of the bridge, thinking to fish behind Bert's Bar again. But the wind, the WIND changed my mind right away as soon as the nose of the kayak poked out from the channel leading to Matlacha Pass. I promptly about faced and paddled up the channel, beneath the viaduct on Pine Island Road, past the Olde Fish House Marina and rounded the point on the north side of the Matlacha Bridge. I had a bit of wind shadow from the bridge and the island and the chop and wind were easier to handle in the kayak. I love paddling around the little island village of Matlacha! It's definitely a colorful and quaint place!

I set my sights on the Matlacha bridge (seen here from the north).

The wind was out of the southeast and the bridge itself would shelter me from the worst of the wind.

I decided to fish the exact spot I had caught the snook the previous day, but this time I planned to anchor just off the west of the main channel bridge fenders.

I fished the cut lizardfish for a good hour. It was a slow all-day rising tide, but I caught the tide at the slowest of the slow time. After an hour I decided to troll the northern edge of the shore east of the bridge. There is a shallow flat there and I did manage to pick up two ladyfish. I hooked the smallest one live onto my heavy pole and threw the other in my cooler to use as cut bait.

Another hour at the bridge fishing the live ladyfish was a total bust. I decided to call it a day and paddled back around the little cottages and trailers lining the shore leading into the marina area.

At least I had some time on the water and managed a couple of ladyfish to keep the skunk out of the kayak!

Life is good!

Wednesday and Thursday Matlacha 4/15-4/16

2009-04-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I met up with the other guys in the band to load in for our gig at Bert's Bar in Matlacha, Florida that night. (If you don't get to Bert's before lunch, you'll never get a parking place in front and you have to cart your stuff from blocks away.) Often, I bring a spinning rod and amuse myself casting off the back dock at Bert's for an hour or so after load-in. But Wednesday, I didn't bring my fishing gear. Instead, I watched my bandmate, Charlie Kuchler, casting jigs and spoons for an hour while we both consumed a few cold snacks. Charlie didn't get anything while he was fishing, but we saw maybe 6 or 7 tarpon rolling not 50 feet off the back dock!

I went home that afternoon consumed with the thought of taking my kayak to Matlacha the next day and trying for some of those tarpon! I had the fishing jones so bad that afternoon that I had to go out on my back dock...

with a cane pole and a slice of bread and play with the sunfish for a half hour or so. I probably caught and released two dozen in a half hour and at least six of them were big hand sized slabs!

Thursday morning I hit my favorite breakfast spot, El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria at Hancock Bridge and Santa Barbara in the Cape.

After fueling up on cafe con leche and a huge omelette stuffed with cheese, bacon, sausage, onions and peppers, I headed out to Matlacha. I stopped at Seven Seas Bait and Tackle for five pinfish and an oxygen tab with which to populate my flow 'n troll bait bucket and ventured on down the road to the park in Matlacha and the kayak launch spot there.

I paddled past the Matlacha Bridge and the Bridgewater Motel next to the bridge...

and dropped anchor about 50 feet off the back dock at Bert's Bar.

A tarpon rolled about 30 feet in front of me as I dropped anchor! I immediately hooked a pinfish on an 8/0 Owner circle hook and hung him beneath a cork about five feet above the hook. I fished for about two hours with nothing happening, but I managed to lose 4 of my 5 baits and consumed all three beers I had brought along. When I hooked the last pinfish on, I pulled anchor and let the slight breeze push me out into Matlacha Pass. I had a run on that pinfish, but failed to get a hookset. Undeterred, I began casting a little Yo-Zuri plug on my trout rod. I caught one trout but it self-released 10 feet from the kayak. I also caught a small lizard fish. By this time, the three beers I had consumed in the previous two hours were crying for release, so I decided to call it a day and head back to Matlacha Park. Enroute, I trolled the Yo-Zuri up and around the Matlacha Bridge without success. Nearing the park, I hooked and landed a small ladyfish of about 15 inch length - perfect sized live bait for tarpon! I promptly hooked the ladyfish up on my tarpon rod by sticking the 8/0 circle up through it's nose...

and after a quick wade in waist deep water to relieve my uhm... bladder distress, I headed back around the corner to the bridge again.

I figured I would freeline the live ladyfish on a few drifts with the tide through the bridge and if no success, would stow the ladyfish in the cooler and try again the next day using the ladyfish as cut bait.

My first drift was just outside the wooden fenders west of the main channel through the bridge. I freelined the ladyfish and positioned the kayak just off the fenders as I drifted. Not even a third of the way under the bridge, my line went tight and seemed headed right for the pilings along the bridge fenders. I reeled the line tighter still and the rod bent double as the fish streaked for the fenders! The combination of 8 foot Shimano Terramar rod, Penn 750 reel, 30 pound braided line and an 80 pound flurocarbon leader gave me the confidence to lean back and deny that fish access to the pilings where he could cut me off! I thought I may have hooked a small tarpon, but when the fish swirled at the surface, I saw the telltale racing stripe down it's side! It was a decent sized snook! The snook fought valiantly, but against my heavy tarpon rig it had no chance! I leadered it once I had drifted through the bridge.

I thought I had a keeper, but try as I might, I just couldn't quite get it to measure 28 inches.

It came up 1 1/2 inches short of keeper size. So back she went and swam away healthy.

I started back to Matlacha Park again. Got this trout...

and three more lizardfish between the bridge and the park. The last lizardfish was even bigger than the trout. I leadered him and before I could unhook him he flipped up and hooked me deeply in the palm of my hand with one of the barbs of the treble hook. I gritted my teeth, took my needlenose pliers and YANKED the hook out of my hand, accompanied with some loud and quite creative language! That lizard fish pissed me off, so he went in the cooler to serve as cut bait for tomorrow's fishing adventure! Payback baby!

As I was loading up the kayak another fisherman came drifting up to the launch ramp in a yellow Phoenix kayak. It turned out to be Josh "Yaknitup" Harvel. Josh had fished all morning unsuccessfully, but on his way back to the park had made one last cast along a nearby seawall and come up with a 30" keeper snook!

Josh and I talked kayaks and fishing and stuff until we both were loaded up ready to head out. It was fun finally meeting him after admiring his fishing stories and photos online for the past year!

I was home by 2:00pm and quickly mowed the lawn so my wife would see I had been good and not spent my ENTIRE time before work fishing!

I'm gonna head back to Matlacha tomorrow and try those tarpon one more time!

Life is good! :)

Mixed bag Monday at Bunche Beach, 04/13/09

2009-04-14T06:04:00.002-07:00

Monday, April 13, 2009 was a day off for me AND the weather forecast was for East winds less than 10mph! Finally! The winds have been rough recently and have kept me off the water (or at least off the water I would have preferred to fish) frequently lately! This day I decided to hit Bunche Beach in the kayak in the hopes of bagging a tarpon which I know are hanging around there! I'd checked the tides the night before on my favorite tide prediction website, and I knew the tide would be rising from about 7:45am up to 2:45pm, though it wouldn't start moving really good until about 10am.

I launched the kayak at low tide right at 7:45 that morning. The wind was higher than predicted and was more out of the SSE than the East. The water was quite roiled up too and not nearly as clear as I've become accustomed to there. Regardless, I set out paddling the kayak into the breeze and incoming swells.

I like to start out my paddling trips going upwind while I'm still fresh so I can have a wind assist coming back when I'm more apt to be tired and a less motivated paddler! I threw out a large Yo-Zuri Tobimaru plug in a greenish mullet pattern on my tarpon rod and a small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow on my trout pole and trolled both behind me as I paddled. Just for grins, I decided to paddle around Bowditch Point and head down the beach towards the Ft Myers Beach pier. The water was pretty bumpy and the breeze was what I would estimate to be a steady 12mph, so it was a tough paddle.

I actually paddled beyond the pier and was just passing the Lani Kai building on the beach when the Yo-Zuri Tobimaru got hit!

I knew it wasn't a tarpon, but whatever it was it was a feisty fish putting quite a bend in the 8 foot Shimano Terramar Rod! It was no match for the Terrimar and the big Penn 750ssm though and soon I had leadered a nice sized bluefish! As I lifted the leader for a photo opportunity, the bluefish flipped itself off the lure, into the kayak and then out of the kayak into the water before I could snap the shutter! Oh well. You'll just have to take my word on that one!

I really wanted to try for tarpon and my hopes were to catch ladyfish to use for bait, so I stowed the tarpon rig and threw out another small Crystal Minnow on my redfish rod. This lure was chartreuse and silver and a twin in size to the blue and silver lure on my trout rod. Trolling both small lures, I headed back. Within seconds, I had a bend in the redfish rod! I think it was another bluefish but it managed to self-release before I actually got a look at the fish. Seconds after getting underway again, I had a strike on the trout rod but there was no hookup from the hit and consequently no fish to fight. As I headed back north along the beach, I had to work to stay balanced in the following seas. It was bumpy enough to be uncomfortable in a kayak, but nowhere near rough enough to be considered dangerous.

Soon I was passing the pier again on my way back towards Bowditch Point and Bunche Beach.

My course intentionally carried me further offshore on my return route and once I rounded the #1 Channel marker off of Matanzas Pass,

I swung the nose of the kayak east with the wind hitting my starboard side straight on. My plan at this point was to head for shallower water in the hopes of picking up ladyfish off the spoil banks north of the pass and further inshore. My plan worked. I caught a smally ladyfish - about 15 inches overall length and immediately started searching through my tackle bag for a 6/0 or larger circle hook to use on him. I left the majority of my stuff back in the car and it turns out I had just one, slightly rusty 6/0 circle in the gear I'd brought along. The point of the hook wasn't very sharp, but it would have to do since I'd left my sharpening stone in the other gear bag too! Oh well. I quickly cut the Tobimaru off my tarpon rig, tied on the rusty hook and hooked the ladyfish through lips and freelined her out to swim wherever she felt like going! I let the wind (now nearly due south) push me along and I stowed the paddle as I drifted the ladyfish and began casting the Yo-Zuri on the trout rod.

Within minutes of starting the drift, I had a big hit and a nice fight on that little trout rod! I've caught a lot of grouper at Bunche Beach and that sure felt like what I had on the end of the line! Sure enough! It was a very pretty 14 inch red grouper!

Co-incidentally, it was now after 10:00am and the bite seemed to be picking up along with the tidal movement! After releasing the grouper I continued casting the Yo-Zuri. I hooked another fish that fought really hard and got off the lure before I could see him. My guess was it was another bluefish. The very next cast to the same area and Pow! - then an instantaneous limp line. I reeled in and inspected my leader to find it bitten clean through just above the lure. Definitely bluefish!

I quickly tied on another Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow and continued casting. Soon I had a hit and reeled in a 14 1/2 inch trout, just shy of the 15 inch minimum.

As I reeled this trout to the surface, I saw flashes of bigger fish swimming circles around the trout. The trout MIGHT have been 15 inches before these other fish bit off half it's tail and a portion of his anal fin!

I tell ya! It's a brutal world out there in the food chain!

I continued to drift along between 1/2 and one mile per hour. Around 11:00am, I got a BIG slam on my lure and watched the pole bend double as a fish ripped line off the drag on the little Shimano Symetre 4000fj reel. (I fish those reels on both my trout pole and redfish rod, spooled with 15# braid. You can't beat 'em for under $100! Perfect for kayak fishing where you KNOW your reels are gonna get splashed with salt water and you don't want to ruin a more expensive reel!) Anyways, I had my hands full for a while there with that fish! It fought like the dickens! It was a nice big (by Gulf standards) bluefish! I just LOVE the way those bluefish fight! This one weighed close to three pounds and fought like it was a 12 pound fish!

The bluefish went into the ice chest. He was destined to be either lunch, or to get frozen and kept for bait on a future beach sharking expedition! After I'd unhooked the bluefish and clunked him in the head to stop him thrashing around (but before I had a chance to drop him in the cooler), something hit the live ladyfish on the tarpon rod! From the way the drag was screaming on the big Penn 750, it HAD to be a tarpon! (Though I never got to see the fish.) When I tightened the drag even further, the fish spit the bait which was still attached (and still alive, though badly battered) when I reeled the line in. The ladyfish had been scraped down the sides and was missing lots of scales, but there were no bite marks on it, leading me to believe it was a tarpon that had hit it and run with it. (Mental note to self - visit Dan Weich at Lehr's Economy Tackle and pick up some new Owner 8/0 circle hooks before you go bait fishing for tarpon again!)

I cast out the still living ladyfish again, put the tarpon rig in the rod holder and commenced casting the Yo-Zuri again. I just love fishing Bunche Beach! You never know what's going to hit your lures there! My next hit was from a keeper 11 inch mangrove snapper that also went into the ice chest. With lunch secured, the bluefish in the cooler had just been relegated to shark bait for sure! I was so excited about catching lunch that I forgot to take a picture of it! But hey! You see one eleven inch mangrove snapper, you've seen 'em all!

I was a bit worried that that little snapper might not make a big enough lunch when wham! Another hit on the Yo-Zuri! This time it proved to be a fat, 16 inch trout!

That trout joined the snapper for my lunch!

When I'd launched earlier I nodded a greeting to a father/son team in the process of launching a tandem kayak. My drift was taking me right near them. I was about 100 feet away and just about to holler "Hello!" at them when the tarpon rod went off AGAIN! Big time! This time the rod was bent double and I felt the fish! Drag was screaming and he was RIPPING line off as the kayak turned and started to follow the run! Suddenly there was like a "pop pop" feel and the line went slack. I reeled in to find the hook still attached, but empty. I think the first pop I felt was the hook slipping out of the tarpon's mouth and the second pop was the ladyfish ripping off the hook. That's what I get for trying to use a dull, rusty hook! My bad!

I chatted a bit with the other kayak guys. It was indeed a father and son visiting from Minnesota. They'd watched me fight that tarpon for the 15 or so seconds he was on and were quite excited about it! They asked what I was using for bait. I explained I had caught a ladyfish on a Yo-Zuri and used the ladyfish live for the tarpon. They were fishing with shrimp and had fished all morning with just two catfish to show for their efforts. I scrounged around in my tackle box and found a spare Yo-Zuri which I gave them along with instructions on how to fish it and how to rig the ladyfish they hoped to catch with it. They were happy with the lure and it made me feel good giving it to them. Always nice helping out fellow fishermen too!

I set off paddling back to where I'd caught the ladyfish so I could catch more bait. But all I was able to convince to hit were three small jacks about the size of this one.

I hooked one on and fished him live for a while but had no further tarpon action. The bluefish, trout, grouper, ladyfish and snapper bite completely quit too. At 1:30pm, I paddled in, loaded up and headed home.

That afternoon I saute'ed the lightly seasoned trout and snapper fillets in butter and white wine and gorged myself on fresh fish and Sameul Adams Pale Ale.

Life is good! :)

Friday in the mangroves, 04/10/09

2009-04-14T06:04:00.001-07:00

Friday I really wanted to take the four ladyfish I had caught the previous day back to the Caloosahatchee River to use as cut bait for tarpon. But the darned wind had picked back up and was blowing 20 to 30 from the south. No way I was gonna paddle into that wind or deal with the heavy whitecapped chop it was creating on the river! But I had the day off and I really wanted to go fishing. After giving it some thought, I decided to test out a secret launch site I had been told about in Cape Coral and go exploring the mangrove jungles West of the Cape.

I got to the launch site mid-day and pulled the kayakmobile right up next to the cut in the mangroves where the launch site is.

I paddled across the canal and into a narrow cut in the mangroves almost straight across. The wind crossing the canal was BRUTAL! I had to crab the kayak 45 degrees into the wind just to go straight across! But once inside the mangroves, there was no wind. The water was crystal clear and shallow so these pictures make it look muddy. Actually you are just seeing the bottom through the water...

The creek narrowed considerably...

and in spots I had to bend backwards to coast through the tunnel of mangroves. I had to take my rods out of the holders and lay them facing the bow of the kayak to get through the narrow spots. There was quite a bit of tide running and though shallow, it was work getting through the current.

The narrow creek I was in emptied into a broader creek about 1/4 mile after entering it. I staked out on a sandbar at the confluence and cast my little Yo-Zuri's cross-current and downstream on the larger creek. I saw schools of crevalle jacks and juvenile snook but could not draw a strike from them. Big schools of mullet working their way upstream towards Matlacha Pass were also evident. After a time casting with no success, I opted to explore some more. I had been shown a local captain's secret snook hole on Google Earth and had noted it's coordinates into my little handheld GPS. It was about a one mile paddle from where I was so I decided to go exploring. The water in the larger creek was fairly deep and there were some spots where I was paddling into the wind and against the tide at the same time. I didn't make rapid progress, but I made steady progress and enjoyed the peacefulness and solitude of being all alone in the mangroves! Eventually I got to the confluence of yet another salt creek that was quite deep and narrow and had a heavy tidal flow surging out of it.

A broad sandbar gave me a perfect spot to stake out the kayak and get out and wade fish.

I gave it a fair shot, but the fish were either not there or totally lockjawed! Perhaps the tidal current was moving too fast? As you can see here, even in mere inches of water it was really ripping along!

This is a picture looking back the way I'd come.

I decided to paddle and explore further upstream in the main creek.

I probably went another mile or so before deciding to call it a day. It was an easy trip back with tidal current flowing with me and the wind assisting when I'd hit a north/south stretch of the creek.

I found my little cut through the mangroves again...

and before long was back at the secret launch spot.

Though steep, some thoughtful person or persons have laid carpeting on the bank so it's fairly easy to drag the kayak out.

Soon I had the kayak laying next to the kayakmobile.

Packing up was easy and I was on my way home before long. I had worked up a powerful thirst though, so I stopped off in Matlacha and had a cold snack at Bert's Bar before heading on home.

I was fishless, but happy. It had been a fun day exploring!

Life is good! :)

Caloosahatchee Thursday, 04/09/09

2009-04-12T08:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday was sunny and the wind much less than it's been for the past couple of weeks here. I decided it was time to take the new kayakmobile out for it's first kayak launching trip. The old '91 Lincoln Continental only has 54,000 miles on it. I think I got a good kayak car for $2195 plus the cost of the new Yakima kayak rack!

I'd been hearing reports of tarpon up in the Caloosahatchee and I decided to try a new launch spot - the roadside park on the North Ft Myers side of the Caloosahatchee Bridge - right next door to Pincher's Crab Shack. I launched at noon.

Launching off the new kayakmobile was a breeze. That "boat loader" contraption that I bought with the rack sure makes it easier to load and unload! I paddled out into several feet of water then veered left towards the Caloosahatchee Bridge (aka Hancock Bridge).

I was trolling a Yo-Zuri Tobimaru plug in a mullet pattern on my tarpon rod and a small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow on my redfish rod. I picked up a small jack next to the bridge on the little Crystal Minnow lure.

I saw huge schools of cownosed rays patrolling just below the surface and spent some effort casting at them in the hopes of picking up a trailing cobia, but had no luck with that, so I turned upriver and headed towards the Edison Bridge.

I made a quick pit stop on Lofton Island - between the Caloosahatchee and Edison Bridges.

I got into a spot on the Edison Bridge next to the pilings that yielded a ladyfish every time I paddled past it. I took a total of four ladyfish that way.

I also picked up a keeper sized mangrove snapper that went home with me for lunch!

Paddling back to my take out spot, I picked up two undersized spanish mackerel by the Caloosahatchee Bridge...

I also caught another crevalle jack identical in size to the first fish of the day and in the exact same spot too!

I rounded the bridge and headed back towards Pincher's and the kayakmobile.

I was out of the water, loaded up and headed home by 2:30pm. I cleaned, sauteed and ate the snapper and still had time for a quick nap before heading off to the gig at Woody's Waterside in St James City that evening.

Life is good! :)

Kayak bass and the grandchildren, 04/08/09

2009-04-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

Grandson Bentley and granddaughter Lexi were heading home Tuesday, 04/08/09. But not until late afternoon. That left all day open to fishing and thankfully the heavy winds we had been plagued with for the past weeks FINALLY abated!

The grandkids were excited about fishing for bass in Pawpaw's kayak in the Cape Coral freshwater canals and lakes. Bentley was first up to go kayaking with Pawpaw and he was excited!

Lexi and JenJen watched from the dock as we paddled off.

We were dragging a couple of small Yo-Zuri Crystal minnows behind us as I paddled. Nothing much happened until we rounded the corner of Alhambra Lake and headed east on a neighboring canal. All of a sudden, Bentley was hooked up with his first ever bass!

In the next hour, Bentley caught a total of five bass and lost two more.

After returning to the dock, and refueling with a cold snack, it was time for Lexi's turn!

I paddled Lexi to the same spot Bentley had had his success and Lexi wasted no time!

She asked me, "Pawpaw, we have two lines behind the kayak. What happens if we get two fish at the same time?" I told her that hardly ever happens. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, it DID happen!

Lexi landed the first one...

And I held the other rod until she did so that she could land THIS one too!

Sort of a weird looking hump on the back of the bass in the above picture, huh?

Lexi informed me that since her brother had caught five fish, we had to stay out fishing until she caught TWENTY fish! But as fate would have it, as soon as she said that the biggest bass of the day hit her lure! She had her hands full, but brought this bass to the kayak all by herself!

I convinced her that since she had the BIGGEST bass, we didn't have to stay out so she could get the MOST bass too. That worked out good. That way both kids had bragging rights and it avoided potential arguments! It also meant I could head us back home which was good since I was tired, thirsty and wanted a refill on my beer!

Thier uncle Shawn was next up for the kayak bassing. Thankfully I didn't have to paddle him too!

While Shawn was out fishing, the kids amused themselves catching minnows off the dock with the swimming pool skimmer net while Troy and JenJen watched.

Lexi not only got the BIGGEST fish of the day, but the SMALLEST one too!

All our guests headed back to Atlanta late that afternoon, but I was glad to have had the chance to take Bentley and Lexi bassing in the kayak. Hopefully that will make for happy memories! We were sad to see our company leave, but they will be back for a week in about a month. My guess is that I'll be recruited for some more kayak paddling when they do!

Life is good!

Monday 04/07/09

2009-04-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

After being up all night the night before, we were too tired to do any fishing Monday. But Troy picked us up a Boston Butt from Publix and I spent the whole day slow-cooking it in the Big Green Egg over natural lump charcoal and hickory chunks! Here's the results!

It was truly a feast!

Life is good!

Captiva sharking, Sunday 04/06/09

2009-04-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

The winds were uncooperative the entire time our visiting family was here in Florida. They had been counting on a beach shark fishing adventure out on Captiva. I played an evening gig at Pincher's Crab Shack in North Ft Myers Sunday, 04/06/09 and arrived home about 7:30 that evening. The wind had abated somewhat and after hemming and hawing for a bit, I decided that that particular night might be the only sharking opportunity we had.

We quickly scrambled to ready the gear and loaded up Troy's crew cab truck with kayak stuff, fishing stuff, comfort items and people! Nancy, JenJen and Lexi decided to stay home, but (left to right) Shawn, Troy, Bentley and Holly were all for a sharking adventure!

We arrived at Blind Pass around 11pm. We wanted to fish the Captiva side of the pass, but with the dredging construction going on, parking is only available on the Sanibel Side of the pass. Troy dropped our gear on the side of the road and as Shawn and I readied everything, Troy went and parked then walked back to help us haul the gear out to the beach. It's sure nice having young guys around to do the heavy lifting and hauling!

Shawn and I rigged the fishing gear while Holly and Troy relaxed on the beach.

Bentley had about as much fun playing with the headlamp we let him wear as he did fishing!

We casted out a chunk ogf ladyfish on my Penn 750ssm rig, and I kayaked out a whole bluefish bait on the Penn 12/0 and a whole spanish mackerel bait on one of the Penn 9/0's. I dropped the spanish mack about 250 yards offshore and the bluefish closer to 400 yards off. The wind was still high and the surf was pounding. Quite a scary paddle out and really tough blasting through the big breakers! At least paddling out you can see the breakers in the headlamp light, but paddling back IN is the really tricky part because the surf hits you from behind and you can't see it coming. I made it in okay and Shawn volunteered to kayak out the next two baits.

We had whole ladyfish on the Penn 6/0 and the other Penn 9/0. I told Shawn to drop the 6/0 bait about 100 yards off (just beyond the breakers) and to take the other bait about 150 or so yards out. That way we had baits from 50 yards (the spinning rod) all the way out to 400 yards (the 12/0). Shawn struggled a bit getting through the surf. He kept getting pummled hard by the breakers and by the time he got the kayak moving again, the next set would hit him hard! Eventually he struggled through and got beyond the surf. He did a picture perfect re-entry too and made it back safely without getting dumped!

It was probably 1:00am before we had all the baits out and settled down on the beach to wait for a run. Little Bentley checked out early and Troy managed a few catnaps himself while we waited for sometheing to happen.

We had a hard time getting the 12/0 spider weight to hold bottom. We'd reel it tight and then a few seconds later notice slack in the line. After about the third time resetting it, I asked Shawn to reel it in. I figured something small might have taken the bait and was keeping us from setting the weight. I was right. It takes a long time to crank in 400 yards of line - even on the big Penn 12/0, and dragging an 8 ounce spider weight makes it work too! When Shawn finally had the leader visible in the surf, we saw that he had a big topsail catfish on the line!

Not exactly what we were after, but at least we caught SOMETHING!

We reeled in the other long bait to check it too. I figured if we were going to paddle out another bait to replace the bluefish, we might as well check the spanish mack bait. Good thing we did since it had been eaten too - without a hookup.

Shawn was somewhat less than eager to battle the surf in the kayak again, so I paddled out the baits again. The wind had picked up and the surf was even nastier than my first trip out. I got pounded really hard getting out but finally broke through into clear water. Re had rebaited with whole ladyfish and I dropped them 300 and 400 yards out then paddled back in. But I didn't fare as well as the first time. A huge wave lifted the stern of the kayak and though I was back-paddling like a fool trying to let it roll beneath me, it started surfing the kayak down the face of the wave! The nose of the kayak buried itself in the water at the bottom of the wave and launched me in a forward flip into the surf.

Now just wading at night knee deep in the ocean can be a spooky thing, but swimming way out in heavy surf at 2:00am when you've just dropped bloody fish bait in shark infested waters is NOT fun! Remarkably my glasses stayed on thanks to my eyeglass safety strap and my headlamp not only stayed on my head, but continued working despite a salt water soaking! The waves took the kayak all the way to shore, so it had a long, lonely, spooky swim back in. Shawn was visibly relieved that I'd made in in safely. (He didn't want to have to come out after me!)

We fished until 4:00am without a darned thing happening. We kept seeing something moving at waters edge just beyond the range of our headlamps. I snapped this photo in the blind and lo and behold! We discovered what it was we'd been seeing!

We finally packed it in, reeled our lines in, and headed home. It was near 6:00am before we got home.

No sharks to show for our efforts, but we'd had a fun night none-the-less!

Life is good!

Fishing with the grandchildren Saturday, 04/05/09

2009-04-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

One of my earliest memories was of my Grandpa Travis, limping endlessly up and down the driveway at his home bracing himself by dragging a kitchen chair by the back. Grandpa had suffered a stroke that partially paralysed his left side, but he was determined to recover from it so he walked every day with that old kitchen chair - sort of a self-prescribed personal rehab regimen. We would visit my grandparents every Sunday after church so seeing Grandpa with that chair was part of that routine. I was maybe four years old and Grandpa would tell me and my cousin, Dale, that when he "got better" he was going to take us boys fishing. I was thrilled and could hardly wait to fish with Grandpa, but it was not to be. A second stroke then a fatal heart attack finished him off before cousin Dale and I ever got to fish with him. But I remember the excitement just the possibility of fishing with Grandpa brought to me, so I promised myself to do my very best to pass the joy of fishing along to my grandchildren.

I am blessed with three grandsons and two granddaughters, and I have a third granddaughter on the way (she is due to arrive around the 4th of July in fact!) My nine year old granddaughter, Lexi, and her 7 year old brother, Bentley are visiting us from Georgia. After spending their first afternoon here cavorting in the pool, they both decided they wanted to fish off Pawpaw Brian's dock the second day.

Bentley was first up for his fishing lesson. I baited a #10 aberdeen hook with a tiny pea sized ball of bread dough. The hook was hung on 8 pound mono on a cane pole with a BB sized spilt shot 8 inches above the hook and a tiny cork about 30 inches over the hook. After getting his bait stolen the first dozen or so trys, Bently finally got the hang of watching his bobber sink under the surface then slowly lifting the cane pole up for the hookset. His first fish was quite a respectable sized sunfish!

Bentley was almost as proud of his fish as he was the skull and crossed-axe temporary tattoo that I had given him earlier that day!

Bentley proceeded to catch a number of fish, but his first one was the biggest one of the day. The small, 3 inch and under sunfish I kept in a bucket and baited up a 1/0 hook on my spinning rod using them as live bait. I had that rig in a rod holder on a dock post while I helped Bentley with his cane pole and Bentley kept me busy enough that I lost sight of the cork bobber I'd hung the live bait under. Thinking the wind had blown the bobber into the weeds along the side of the canal, I started to reel it in. It turned out the bobber wasn't in the weeds - it had been pulled underwater by a 30 inch long nosed gar! Bentley was quite excited to watch me fight the gar, but we were both disappointed when the gar self-released as I was hoisting him up onto the dock. He managed to flop off the dock and back to freedom before we could photo document his capture. After a dozen or so fish, Bentley became more interested in playing with the little fish in the bait bucket than he was fishing. We were both further distracted when this otter swam right up to us at the dock.

We used up all our fish out of the bait bucket tossing them to the otter to try and keep him around long enough for Bentley's parents and sister to come see, but by the time they came outside, the otter had left.

At that point, Lexi decided she wanted to fish and Bentley headed off to swim in the pool under his mother and grandmother's supervision.

Lexi proved to be every bit as adept as Bentley at catching fish. She got a succession of large sunfish...

as well as a number of smaller sunfish and at least 6 or 7 big golden shiners.

I wanted to slip another small sunfish on the hook on the spinning rod to see if perhaps a bass or gar would hit it, but I ran into difficulties. Lexi informed me that any fish which she named after she caught it was not allowed to be used for bait - only the un-named fish could be used. Naturally, Lexi named EVERY fish she caught so the bait bucket was just a temporary holding tank.

The grandkids uncle Shawn came out on the dock later that afternoon and proceeded to catch a three pound bass on a little BB sized pinch of bread dough on that same cane pole! I think he got a picture of it and I'll add it to this post later on if he does.

(picture added 04/08/09

I left the kids to fish with their uncle Shawn as I had to head out to a gig on Ft Myers Beach.

Life is good! :)

New Yak Rack and more dock fish 04/04/09

2009-04-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

I ordered a new Yakima Kayak Rack for the new kayakmobile a week ago. It finally arrived Friday, 04/04/09. I zipped out to Estero River Outfitters to pick it up and they mounted it for me free of charge. Naturally, I had to test load the kayak as soon as I got home! I bought a "boatloader" gizmo that slides out from the side of the front rack and allows you to load the kayak by lifting up one end at a time. Quite convenient! It'll make loading easier after a long day paddling!

This new rack will be a great time saver and now I'll actually be able to fish on days when I have to work that evening. I won't miss loading all that band stuff in and out of the van!

My wife's daughter and her husband, their two children, my wife's son and his fiancee are down from Atlanta visiting for a few days. We also have a visiting pomeranian, a visiting shi-tzu, and not one but TWO visiting pit bulls to add to our own menagerie of two shi-tzu's, a chihuaua, three cats and a parrot! We got us a housefull of people and critters! Though we had a few interesting "get acquainted" moments with the dogs, they are all part of one happy pack now. Thankfully the pit bulls are sweetheart dogs and play nice with children, cats and little dogs (and grandparents). I tried to interest the grandchildren, Lexi and Bently, in doing some dock fishing Friday, but they were more enthused with the novelty of swimming in our pool than anything else. So I went out on the dock myself and practiced with one of the new telescoping cane poles I bought for the kids to use.

I caught some decent sized bream...

and quite a few big golden shiners...

I watched three otters do a swim by too. Naturally, they would not cooperate for a photo of all three. This was the best I could do.

I left shortly after 4pm to head to that night's gig up at Portobello's at Burnt Store Marina.

Life is good! :)

I am supposed to be doing chores, 03/31/09

2009-03-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

I am supposed to be doing chores today, but hey! It's a nice day, I have the day off so I'm approaching my chore duty at half speed and taking time to play. Sooner or later I'll get around to starting those chores! We have company coming this week. Our daughter, Holly, her husband, Troy, our grandchildren, Lexi and Bentley, son Shawn and his fiancee, JenJen are due to arrive later this week. I'm supposed to have the pool decks pressure washed, the pool cage pressure washed, the weeds in the back yard pulled, and my wife wants me to go thru boxes of stuff she cleaned out of the closet to decide what to save and what to throw away. On top of that, the lawns need mowing and the dead leaves need to be cut out of the banana trees and the palms trees, and I gotta prune the thorny palms up above eye level.

So naturally after morning coffee, I hit the dock to play 17 casts rather than do chores! (With the wife at work, I have no adult supervision whatsoever!)

I caught no fish doing 17 casts. They just weren't hitting. But I did see three otters frolicking in the canal out back...

I decided that the visiting family would want to play 17 casts too, and since I am low on Yo-Zuri lures, I needed to hit Lehrs Economy Tackle. I also wanted to get my big Penn 12/0 reel restrung with a new topshot of 100 pound test mono for shark fishing. Our visitors want to do shark fishing too during their visit. I had previously had the two 9/0 Penn's re-strung, but was saving up to do the big 12/0. I also discovered yesterday that all my Gotchas were rusty after being doused with salt water during my last wade fishing experience. And I needed 80 pound flurocarbon for tarpon leaders, a replacement cane pole for the grandkids, and some #10 aberdeen hooks and 8 pound line to re-string the two cane poles. I was also hungry, so I decided to do a number 4 omelette at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria, then head to Wally World for the cane pole, hooks and leader, and hit Lehr's for restringing the 12/0 and the Yo-Zuri restocking. I decided to take my new car.

Did I mention I had a new car? It's not really "new", its a "previously owned" '91 Lincoln Continental that I picked up last week after seeing it on Craigslist. It's in really really nice condition and get this - it only has 54,000 miles on it and it's 18 years old! Previous owners were a couple that kept it as a winter car when they visited Florida each season. It was garage kept while they were up north. Though used, it's definitely NOT a beater car! It's in great condition! It's gonna be my new kayak conveyor just as soon as I get a roof rack mounted on it. I ordered a new Yakima rack last week and it's supposed to be in by tomorrow. Here's what the new kayakmobile looks like...

When I finished my errands, I re-mounted the 12/0 reel and rigged the new cane pole. I decided to go out and "test drive" the new cane pole, so I grabbed a slice of bread from the pantry and headed out to the dock. In the course of an hour, I probably got a dozen bream. Some of them pretty big too!

But what surprised me were the HUGE golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) that totally outnumbered the sunfish! I bet I caught two dozen at least! Some of these were at the upper end of the size these fish get to be - in the 12 inch range! They were WAY too big to use for bass bait for the size bass in my canal!

Here's one flopping off the dock to freedom...

I did put a small 3 inch sunfish out under a cork on a 2/0 hook hoping for a big bass or a longnose gar, but got nothing on it so after a half hour I set the bait free. I stowed the cane pole and the baited rod and went back to doing 17 casts with the Yo-Zuri plug. The 17 casts were unproductive, so I drank an Anchor Porter as consolation.

I drank another as I typed this blog entry up to this point. I won't publish this just yet though. Something cool worth writing about may happen later in the day. I think I'll go outside and drink a third Anchor Porter while doing a little pressure washing.

Tried the 17 cast thing twice after finishing pressure washing. I got no co-operation from the fish though.

Life is still good!

fresh and salt and pizza to go! 03/30/09

2009-03-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

I started out about 9 in the morning morning doing my 17 cast game off the back dock, but didn't get so much as a bump from the resident bass in my canal.

Around 10:15 in the morning, I tried the 17 cast thing again. This time I got hooked up on cast number 14.

I ran errands late in the morning and around 1:00pm, I stopped by the Sanibel Causeway B-span at my favorite spot and worked a Gotcha lure for a solid hour and a half. No joy. The water was really murky - undoubtedly from the high winds and heavy surf thats been pounding the past few days while the sou'wester blew through our area. The salt water effort was a total bust (no photos).

Back at the house around 4pm, I tried 17 casts again. This little bitty bass arrived on cast #7.

Between 4 and 6pm, I tried 17 casts again. Cast #13 yielded this one.

While doing some banking during my errand running earlier in the day, I met "Boston Richie" standing at the counter one teller over. He was quite a friendly guy and handed me a menu for his new pizza joint - Boston Richies over on 3616 Chiquita Drive here in Cape Coral. I talked my wife into giving it a try and we went over to Richies place and scored an 18inch pizza which we brought home and thoroughly enjoyed! Delicious!

Life is good!

Cheating at the "17 cast" game 03/29/09

2009-03-29T07:11:00.000-07:00

We're in the midst of a big sou'wester that's been blowing in the 20-30mph range for the past few days. No way I'm gonna go kayaking in that stuff! Driving over the Matlacha Bridge yesterday I saw a good 4 foot chop in Matlacha Pass!

So I've satisfied my fishing jones by playing the 17 cast game off my dock.

The wind blew hard all night, but this morning it layed down a bit as a rain and thunderstorm moved through. It was raining lightly when I headed out to the dock for the 17 cast game, but the lightning was miles away. I figured the fish might be a bit more willing to play since the wind had died down and the rain moved in. I was right! My first cast - POW! Nailed by a decent sized bass!

He wasn't huge, but he was nice and fat! I continued casting. On cast #13, this fish succumbed to my little Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow!

Now the rules of the game are that I can make just 17 casts, then I gotta go inside for a while. But what the hell, I made up the game, I'm the sole player AND the game's judge! So I decided to cheat! I made more than 17 casts! And I got this little fellow on cast number 21.

Naturally, I continued to cheat, but the gaming gods frowned upon me and though I made 29 more casts, I didn't get any more fish (though I did miss a strike). The thunder got louder and the lightning moved a bit closer so I headed inside with the idea of making some sausage, bacon and cheese omelettes.

Life is good!

20 to 30 mph winds and 17 casts (times 3) 03/28/09

2009-03-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I posted an entry about my new game - making 17 casts off my dock.

Today, I made 17 casts at around 9:00am. I got squat! Zilch! Noddafreakingthing! So at noon - just before I had to leave for a gig in St James City out on Pine Island, I made 17 more casts. Once again - zip! No action. No fish. Not even a bump on my little Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow!

So about 7:30 tonight, when I got home, I tried just 17 more casts. Now you gotta realize, we have a big sou'wester blowin in right about now and the fish bite has suffered as a consequence. But FINALLY, on my 13th cast out of 17, I got this little bass today.

I just want my blog followers to know that even when the fishin' sucks, I'm still doin' my best to catchemup!

Life is good! :)

17 casts 03/27/09

2009-03-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

17 is my lucky number.

I have a new fishing game I started on Friday 03/27/09. I walk out on my dock and make 17 casts. Then I quit fishing for a while and go do something else until the mood grabs me and I go back and make 17 casts again.

Around 10am, doing my 17 cast ritual, I had a hookup with a decent bass which self released as I was lifting him out of the water up onto the dock. I had two more hits during that batch of 17 casts, but missed the hookset on both. But hey! Three strikes in 17 casts ain't bad!

An hour later I made 17 casts again. Caught this bass on about the 8th cast...

Around 2pm, I tried again with another 17 casts. Had two strikes but they were short-striking and I had no hookups. Writing this entry got me going. I'm gonna go right now and make 17 casts!

Life is good!

10 minute dock bass, 03/26/09

2009-03-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

You don't REALLY need a kayak to catch fish. Honestly! I ran some errands this morning, came home and fixed myself of bowl of cajun 15 bean soup, then grabbed my trout rod with a blue backed Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow still tied on from Tuesdays foray into the canals off my dock. I strolled out on the dock at about exactly 1:00pm, Made a cast in a northeast direction from my dock. Let the Yo-Zuri float for a five count then sweeeeeep, pause, sweep, pause, POW! A big fat bass popped that Yo-Zuri almost like a topwater hit! I saw him come streaking up from a weed bed and watched him hammer the lure!

After a quick photo and release, I cast in a southeast direction. Crank, crank, sweep, pause, POW! ZZZzzzzzZZZ! Another one bites the dust!

I won't lie to ya. I probably had to cast like four or five minutes more before the next hit. A nice size bass came up and popped the Yo-Zuri right at the foot of the dock. He gave a final head shake though as I hoisted him up out of the water and he splashed back.

Two minutes later, on a cast I had made nearly due east off my dock, I had this bad boy slam the Yo-Zuri!

Three for four on the bass in ten minutes time. I came inside, stowed my rod, popped a cold snack and sat down to upload pics and update this blog!

Life is good! :)

more bassing in the Cape Coral canals 03/24/09

2009-03-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

I left my kayak rigged and ready to go after my freshwater bass'n excursion Monday. This morning about 10:30, I loaded up my fishing gear and got set to launch off my dock.

I paddled north towards Alhambra Lake, but cut the corner across the lake and took a right turn up the canal heading east. I caught this first bass at the confluence of the lake and the two canals...

Dragging two Yo-Zuri's, I soon connected with a second fish...

And a third...

and a fourth...

and a fifth...

I had a FAT hand sized sunfish pop my lure...

And heading back into my canal I caught a "less than hand sized" little bass...

I finished the morning with a double of small bass - right as I arrived at my own dock!

Not too shabby a way to while away an hour and a half! I was home and had every thing stowed away by noon! Plenty of time to enjoy a hot bath and nap before heading to Port Charlotte for this evening's gig!

Life is good! :)

yakking the Cape Coral canals 03/23/09

2009-03-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

Today was a day off for me, but it was pretty windy - typical for March. I ran errands and did a few chores this morning, then decided to forgo weeding the back yard and pressure washing the pool cage in favor of doing a little fresh water fishing.

I dropped the kayak off the back dock. The water is so low due to lack of rain that the step down from the dock was too big to negotiate safely. I had to lower myself into the water then step aboard the kayak.

I tied on a small red-headed white Yo-Zuri and a floating popping plug on the other rod. Dragging both lures behind the yak, I set off paddling north towards Alhambra Lake.

Within a hundred yards I thought the topwarer plug had snagged weeds, but when I started pulling to free the lure from the weeds, the weeds went airborne and a nice 2-3 pound bass spit the hook! I re-cast the popping plug but the next hit came within 100 yards and it was on the Yo-Zuri! I reeled in a typical one pound bass, but the wind blew me into weeds and brush on the bank so I had to spend time untangling my other line while holding the bass yakside and eventually it self-released.

I headed across Alhambra Lake and got hit again on the Yo-Zuri. Got this little fellow as a result and finally had a picture of a fish to show!

Threading my way through the canals towards Lake Kennedy, I hooked and lost two more fish on the topwater plug. I finally landed my third catch in the canal just before crossing under Nicholas Parkway into Lake Kennedy. This fish hit the Yo-Zuri too.

The wind was whipping along in the mid to high teens and paddling across Lake Kennedy into the wind took a bit of effort. Progress was quite slow and I doubt there was much action on either of the lures I was trolling as I paddled. But eventually, I did get across the Lake and into the lee of the windward shore. I paddled parallel to the shore - just within the wind shadow - and hooked what amounted to the biggest bass of the day. Once again though, he jumped at the side of the kayak and spit the hook. But this one was big enough that losing him left me cussing loudly and fit to be tied!

I let the wind push me back across Lake Kennedy, but it was blowing me so fast the Yo-Zuri was diving deep enough to keep getting constantly tangled in weeds in the shallow water. You can see Sun Splash water park in the distance on the shore of Lake Kennedy in this photo...

I usually get bass and mayan cichlids along the pier visible in this picture, but not today!

I spooked a blue heron on my canal as I paddled back home.

When I pulled up to my dock I saw how ratty the yard is looking what with all the weeds that need pulling and I almost felt guilty for going fishing instead of pulling weeds.

But not THAT guilty!

Life is good! :)

Sanibel Mixed Bag on Friday, 03/20/09

2009-03-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

Supposedly the spanish mackerel and bluefish are inshore big time now, and I've heard from more than one source that the Tarpon are showing up too! My friend Gene Taylor had a six footer jump right in front of his kayak off Bunche Beach on Wednesday. So, to make a long story short, I decided to head out Friday and do a little fishing and scouting and paddling!

The wind was supposed to be NNE in the 11 to 13mph range, so I decided to launch from Sanibel and let the island itself shield me from the worst of the wind. Just east of Knapps Point on Sanibel off Casa Ybel Road you intersect with Algiers Lane. At the end of Algiers Lane lies Gulfside City Park. That's where I opted to launch the kayak. I splashed it into the water about 11:30 that morning.

The winds were more ENE than NNE and blowing at least 12 mph, so I decided to paddle right into the wind while I was still fresh and enjoy a wind assisted push as I paddled back to my put-in site later that day. An ENE heading pointed me almost directly towards the Sanibel Light, so I had an easy landmark to follow! Initially I headed ESE until I got to somewhere between 3/4th of a mile or a mile offshore, then changed course slightly to parallel the beach towards the lighthouse. I was trolling a big yo-zuri (silver with black back) on my tarpon rod and a small, white Rappala X-rap on my trout rod. I had a Gotcha on my redfish rod and planned to cast it into any schools of pilchards or threadfins that I saw.

Right away, I started catching small spanish macs on the X-rap!

A Stearman Biplane buzzed by overhead several times during my paddle...

I caught this fish that looks like a small mackerel, but it has sharp stinging fins and feels like a nettle once you've handled it!

It was a nearly 4 mile paddle to the lighthouse beach...

In addition to the spanish macs, I picked up a small bluefish...

and a small fish that looks sort of like a jack called a Blue Runner...

There was a slow, all day rising tide which slowed down even further between about 1 and 3 pm. As the tide slowed, I started catching lizardfish. I think I caught a total of seven.

I kept two big spanish macks that I caught enroute to the lighthouse beach. One I planned to eat and the other, slightly smaller I wanted to freeze for future shark bait. I kept the bluefish for future shark bait as well.

I landed at the lighthouse beach about 1:45 that afternoon. I took about a 15 minute break and consumed a bag of peanuts and a small package of lemon creme cookies and a pint of water. It felt good to get out of the kayak and stretch! I re-tied my leaders which had become quite frayed by the toothy macks and bluefish. Since I had seen no bait schools, I swapped the unused Gotcha for another smaller Yo-zuri and retired the X-rap for the paddle back. After discretely admiring a number of nubile, bikini clad tourist women, I shoved off for the paddle trip back to Gulfside City Park right at 2pm.

At first I made remarkable time! My handheld GPS was showing 3 to 3.5 mph while I was just sorta half-assed paddling. I hit 4.5 mph doing a steady cruising paddle. I figured to be back at Gulfside Park by about 3pm! I started catching fish again too! But eventually, the wind died way down and the seas, which had been white-capping and choppy paddling towards the lighthouse and at the start of the paddle back, smoothed out some.

Here's a view looking out to sea...

and here's a view from a couple miles off Gulfside Park...

I had paddled into maybe 15 feet of water offshore when I caught this small blacktip shark on the little Yo-Zuri...

You can usually tell a black-tip from a spinner shark because the anal fin on a black-tip will be white, but tipped with black on a spinner...

This picture shows my stuff on the deck of the kayak. You can see, conveniently close at hand, my trusty knife, handheld GPS, grips, lawstick, bandana handkerchief and needlenose pliers.

I'm wearing sea moccasins which come in handy if wading across a shell bottom and keep you from burning bare feet on a paved parking lot too!

I have a convenient rod holder adapter from Scotty's which accepts 3 Scotty rod holders along it's length. I like having my rods visible in front as I paddle and troll lures. You can see right away when you get a hit from the bounce and bend in the rod. It's easier to get to them too rather than having to reach behind to a rear rod holder...

In addition to the shark, I picked up several more spanish macks on the paddle back too...

But the lull in the wind and smooth seas didn't last long. The wind shifted 180 degrees and freshened! My much anticipated tail-wind soon became a nasty head wind! I had to paddle HARD to keep a speed of 1.5 to 2mph into the now WSW wind! The paddle back took an hour and ten minutes LONGER than I expected! I dragged the kayak out and reached my van in the parking lot just when my paid for parking expired at 4:10pm. With tourist traffic on Sanibel and in Ft Myers and the Cape, it took me over an hour to get home. The only disappointment of the day was that I didn't see any big bait schools or Tarpon. But just because I didn't see any doesn't mean that they aren't here! With the cold weather behind us, the fishing is just going to get better and better from here on out!

I started filleting my spanish mackerel after popping open a bottle of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale (aged in used oak bourbon barrels). My cutting board is twenty inches wide, so you can see that the biggest mack of the day was fairly decent sized. Probably 21.5 to 22 inches to the fork.

He'll be lunch on Saturday! Life is good!

Wade fishing Bowman's Breach - Sanibel - 03/16/19

2009-03-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

I started out Monday, 03/16/09, fishing my go-to bank fishing spot at the Sanibel Causeway B-span using my go-to lure for bank and wade fishing - a gold, 7/8th ounce Gotcha. But after 45 minutes fishing a rising tide in clear water that was warming and should have been hot as fresh biscuits, I got nuthin'. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada!

So I executed plan B and went on out to Bowman's Beach on Sanibel. I waded out past the neck deep first gut to the sandbar where I could stand between waist and chest deep. If nothing else, I knew the scenery would be good with all the tourists there on the beach! :)

I diligently worked that Gotcha lure...

but the fishing was slow. Eventually, I got a small whiting that slipped out of my hand while I fumbled for my camera. But I soon followed the whiting up with a small jack.

I caught a half dozen ladyfish, but didn't bother with pictures of them. I eventually hooked something fairly big that stripped drag on several scorching runs before spitting the hook. My guess is that it was a nice bluefish, but that's just a guess based on how it fought.

Dolphin were thick out about 1/2 mile, but none of my dolphin photos turned out very good. One BIG dolphin with a shark chewed dorsal fin surfaced nearby and caused quite a stir with the tourists (they always think dolphins are sharks when they see 'em on the beach!)

But after one whiting, one small jack and six ladyfish, I called it a day. It was not a great day fishing, but it beat working!

I followed the path back to my van...

Then went home and pressure washed my swimming pool deck.

Life is good! :)

Snookin at Bonita Bill's 03/13/09

2009-03-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, 03/12/09, I had to visit Erika at Ft Myers Beach. Erika does the T-shirts for our band, the Yard Dogs, and she had an order ready for me to pick up. But Erika doesn't usually get to her shop on the beach until about 10am or so. As it happened, I was up and about unusually early my ownself so I stopped for a bite of breakfast at Bonita Bill's. Bonita Bill's is like a short walk away from Erika's T-shirt shop and I figured after a couple of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, an English muffin and a cuppa coffee I would meander over to see Erika and pick up our shirts. But I got distracted!

There I am sitting at the bar finishing my breakfast and slurping the last sip of my coffee when a see a fellow by the name of John climbing off his flats skiff tied up right there at the dock. He had a hefty, short, stout bait casting rod and a large, fresh threadfin shad he had just removed from his livewell. He baited a 3/0 hook with a live and lively threadfin, and freelined no more than 6 feet of line down between the floating dock and the fixed dock - right behind the bar I was sitting at. About twenty seconds later, I saw his rod bend double, then heard him cuss as his 50 pound monofilament line frayed and broke on the edge of the floating dock! Woah buddy! He had my undivided attention now! I ordered a refill on my coffee as John walked back to his skiff, opened the hatch on his livewell and netted another threadfin. By the time John was back to drop his line between the floating dock and the fixed dock, I was there watching from a perch on the fixed dock! Once again, six feet of line and a freelined threadfin and THIS resulted!

John proceeded to literally SPANK the snook fishing in between the 3 foot space between the fixed and floating dock! He got a hit every time he dropped his bait in the water, hooked about one of every three fish that hit, and landed about one of every three fish he hooked! The rest broke his line when they dug down deep and frayed it against the dock and pilings! At one point, I watched a fish that had to be 48 inches long suck the threadfin right off his hook! John looked up at me and asked, "Was that a tarpon?" I hated to tell him he had just missed hooking the biggest snook I had ever seen in my life! At this point, I called Erika, told her I would be late picking up the T-shirts, and switched from breakfast coffee to breakfast beer!

Another fellow sitting at the bar, his name was Bob, soon joined me watching John play with the snook there at the dock! John told us he had caught several large snook there the previous day using the technique he was demonstrating to us. He had gone out that morning, spent several hours since daybreak looking for bait, and had finally castnetted a livewell full of big threadfins under the bridge at Big Carlos Pass. John landed three nice snook and lost three times that many to break-offs in the two hour period Bob and I watched him fish! The tide was slack by 12:30, but the bite quit about noon. John said he would be back the next day and Bob and I said we would meet him there!

I was off Friday the 13th - the next day. The tide was running a bit later then so I arrived about 10am with my flow and troll bait bucket full of store bought pinfish and a stout 5 1/2 foot baitcasting rod (my "bridge rod"). John was back with a friend of his and another full livewell brimming with huge threadfins. I started fishing my live pinfish while John and his friend fished their live threads. Before long, our new friend Bob showed up as well!

John and his buddy fished a different dock this day, while I fished the dock at which John had had so much success the previous two days. I watched them both catch slot sized snook (one was 29" and the other 30").

I had one huge hit that I failed to hook up on, but aside from that - nothing. I did enjoy watching some guys painting their sailboat as I fished.

And I enjoyed watching a pod of dolphin having group sex in the middle of Matanzas Pass (though they wouldn't cooperate very well with my attempt at dolphin porn)...

John and his buddy left before noon while Bob and I fished and regaled each other with exaggerated tales of our fishing prowess and bought each other a succession of beers. By the time the tide ended, Bob and I had caught no fish what-so-ever, but we both managed to catch a slight buzz from the beers.

Hey! You can't catch fish EVERY day, right?

Life is good!:)

Keys Day Trip 03/11/09

2009-03-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

I talked my wife into taking a day off work so we could make a day trip down to the Florida Keys. I had recently read an online article in Florida Sportsman about wade fishing the Keys for bonefish. I was itching to give it a try!

The plan was to depart at 4am which I figured would get us to Anne's Beach at mile marker 73 (oceanside) shortly after 8am. I figured I would be fishing by 8:30 and enjoy the last hour and a half of the flood tide which ended around 10am. We wound up getting a 45 minute late start and didn't get on the road until a quarter to 5 that morning.

My wife, Nancy, wanted to take her baby - our new little chihuaua dog, Rocky, along for the trip. We stopped right around sunrise at the MacDonalds in Florida City for a quick pit stop and bite of breakfast. Rocky enjoyed sharing a sausage biscuit with Nancy...

We arrived at Anne's Beach at about 9:30. Rocky lead the way down the boardwalk to the spot where I wanted to wade out towards the grass flats...

We spotted this curlew doing his own flats fishing right at the spot where I waded out...

I was the only fisherman on the flat and the only person there at the beach that was actually in the water. The tide was way to high to spot tailing Bonefish, but I fished until 10:30 blind casting a 1/8th oz white jig head tipped with a clear, silver glittered 3" soft plastic grub. I tried casting into potholes in the weed bottom, into the weeds, into channels in the flat, across the tidal flow, into the tide and downstream of the tide, but didn't have so much as a single hit in an hour. I did take this picture of Nancy and Rocky on the beach though. (They're there just to the left of the little roofed rest area near the center)

We decided to re-locate to the western end of Anne's Beach - near the channel and bridge to the next Key. I fished more weeds and the deep channel that dropped off - again, without success.

Somewhat discouraged, we backtracked back into downtown Islamorada to marker 82 (bayside) to a little place called the Lor-E-Lei.

We enjoyed a couple of adult beverages there...

I had a Key West Ale and a cigar...

And Rocky caught some rays...

We resolved to drive a bit further down into the Keys and stop at likely looking roadside spots where I could throw the red tube lure I had brought along in the hopes of catching a barracuda. Here's a few spots of the many spots where we stopped and I tried the 'cuda tube lure...

The only fish we saw caught all day was a short yellowtail snapper that a young man caught on bait at one of the bridges.

After driving down as far a Duck Key, we decided to turn around and wend our way out of the Keys.

We made the obligatory stop at mm 77.5 (bayside) to watch the tarpon getting hand fed...

They have a guy now that wields a big stick to keep the pelicans at bay...

Robbies has changed a lot during the years we have been going to the keys. It used to be just a little dumpy looking restaurant with a marina and dock out back where you could feed the tarpons. Now it's like a carnival there with multiple booths selling touristy stuff and even an outdoor bar on the dock area. The tarpon that used to fight for the scraps of pilchards people would feed them have become so well-fed and complacent that you just about have to drop the bait right on their nose to get them to eat! And like I said, they now have a pelican knocker guy with a big stick to keep the pelicans from harassing the tourists feeding the tarpon.

I did succumb to a touristy type purchase there though. It's a necklace with a Maori bone carving of a stylized fish hook called a "Hei Matau". It's supposed to provide "safe passage over water". I figured being a kayaker, that would be good mojo to have. And hey! Even though it's a piece of touristy junk, I'm a believer in the power of talismans!

We decided to take the Card Sound Road cutoff going home and stop at Alabama Jacks for a late lunch.

Back in Florida City, we made yet another pit stop at MacDonalds. Nancy rewarded Rocky for being such a good, well-behaved dog on the trip by sharing her ice cream cone with him...

We enjoyed the daylight savings time as we drove home. Only the last 45 minutes of the trip was in darkness. We were home, fishless, but sand and salt crusted by about 8:15 that night.

Life is good!:)

Bait bust 03/09/09

2009-03-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

I'm planning a day trip to the Keys this week to try my hand at wading the flats for bonefish! I was inspired by this article. I've also been reading up on some of the other Keys flats species which include permit, barracuda and sharks. In addition to targeting the Bones, I had half a notion to spend a little time chumming up some sharks while I was down there, and to do so would require bringing along something with which to chum and bait. The obvious answer? The ubiquitous ladyfish!

Since I had soundly spanked the ladyfish off the sandbar at Bunche Beach the last two times I had fished it on a falling tide, and since high tide was at 12:30, I resolved to fish it early to mid afternoon.

I headed down John Morris Road towards Bunche Beach...

Obviously the beach was crowded. The parking area was full and cars were parked on the roadside more than a quarter of a mile away!

The sandbar was still covered as I waded out...

but despite my best efforts for the next hour, one lonely little lizardfish was the only bite I had...

I guess those "ubiquitous ladyfish" ain't so freaking ubiquitous after all! I should know better. Whenever you head out thinking, "Let's catch ladyfish for bait" - it just ain't gonna happen! I should have had it in my head to catch trout - or spanish macs. Maybe THEN I would'a got me some of them ladyfish! Oh well!

I headed back empty-handed. Enroute to the van, I saw this artist lady rendering quite an accurate picture of the scenery. I asked her if she minded if I took these photos...

Virtually inconsolable over my lack of success catching ladyfish for bait, I nevertheless sought consolation at a nearby haunt - Bonita Bill's!

It's the kind of waterfront joint where you can walk in bare footed with sand crusted toes and not even draw a second look...

Even Bonita Bill's has a FEW rules...

I tried, with mixed results, to take a picture of my reflection in the glass while holding the camera low so it didn't look like I was taking a picture of my own reflection (it seemed like the thing to do after two beers and a Cohiba cigar!)

Some people come to Bonita Bill's to drink AND fish!

This lady had a cool hat - it had a built-in bottle opener in the hat's visor!

Baitless but consoled, I headed home. I'll just have to catch some barracuda to use for shark bait once I get to the Keys!

Stay tuned for the Keys wadefishing report soon! Life is good! :)

Quick stop at Bowman's Beach 03/06/09

2009-03-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

We had a gig Friday, March 3rd at the Mucky Duck out on Captiva Island. I had to be there by 4pm to load in. In order to be on time and allow for traffic on crowded roads on Sanibel, I had to leave home by 2:30 to be sure of arriving by 4pm. After my fun snooking experience Wednesday after loading in at Bert's Bar, I decided to toss my spinning rod in the van and leave early to allow an hour or so of surf casting enroute to the Captiva gig.

I left home in the early afternoon and crossed the Sanibel Causeway around 1:30.

It was a warm day, but the water was still fairly cool as I waded out on Bowman's Beach at about 2pm. Standing waist deep, I started casting my trusty Gotcha lure. The tourists were thick on the beach, but hardly anybody was in the water with me. Perhaps it was those signs they had posted at the parking pay booth that said "Warning swimmers! Sharks have recently been sighted here."?

I only stayed an hour and didn't get any pompano, spanish macs or bluefish as I'd hoped, but I did manage five little jacks...

and one whiting...

Left the water at 3:15, walked back to the van, did a quick change into dry clothes inside the van then headed down the road to Captiva Island...

We had our gear set up on the beachside stage by 4:30.

We enjoyed the local scenery while waiting for our 5pm start time.

Life is good! :)

Snookin' at Bert's Bar 03/04/09

2009-03-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today I had to work. Every other Wednesday, our band, the Yard Dogs, plays at Bert's Bar in Matlacha. Tonight was our night to play at Bert's. But before you can play there, you gotta load your stuff in. That can be problematic at Bert's because they have like just five parking spots in front. If you can't park in front, you have to cart your stuff from WAY down the road. That ain't fun. But we have a solution! We get there at like 10:15 in the morning on the days we play and load our stuff in then while we can get parking spots in front!

Usually by 11:30am we are loaded in, set up, and have finished a sound check. We normally leave and go about our business and return for the gig beginning at 6:30 in the evening. But today was so pretty - and warm in comparison to the cold days we've had in the last few! So I brought my spinning rod for load-in and after sound check I fired up a Cohiba, ordered myself a beer, grabbed the spinning rod, tied on a Gotcha and headed to the back deck (on stilts overlooking Matlacha Pass). I started chucking that little silver Gotcha and within fifteen minutes I hooked a small snook...

That called for a second beer and before I could finish it or my cigar, I had a second snook on the line!

Here's the spot I was fishing from - the end of the lower walkway at the far end of this photo...

This guy was watching me closely...

Here are some shots taken from the spot I was standing on while fishing...

The lunch crowd showed up before I left...

Our waitress friend, Janine (aka J-9) showed up for work on her boat...

I fished for an hour, got two small snook and headed home for a nap before the gig tonight. It's a tough life I lead!

But life is good! :)

W.P. Franklin Locks 03/02/09

2009-03-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

Well as fate would have it, my two days off this week, Monday and Tuesday, are both cold and windy. This is NOT conducive to happy kayaking! So I got to thinking, "Where is a new place I can go and try something different?" Then the answer hit me! W.P. Franklin Locks upriver on the Caloosahatchee! It's supposed to be a snook fishing hotspot with frequent opportunities for over-wintering tarpon thrown in for good measure! Huge crevalle jack are reputed to frequent the locale as well! And I even had an idea of the technique to use and the proper lures thanks to my encounter with Lenny and Lonnie the previous Friday!

So Monday, I ate a quick breakfast at El Tropical then stopped by Lehr's Economy tackle to have two of my Penn 9/0 reels restrung in preparation for some upcoming sharking expeditions. By the time I arrived at the W.P. Franklin Locks campground, it was nearing 1:00 in the afternoon. For the first hour, I had the fishing pier to myself. I snapped these pics to give you an idea of the lay of the land (or water as the case may be...)

This shot is looking back towards the campground from the fishing pier...

Here's one looking upriver. The water upriver is predominantly freshwater. The dam and locks separate the freshwater from the brackish/saltwater below the locks. On this particular day, the freshwater level was about three or four feet above the saltwater level...

This shot is looking across the Caloosahatchee towards the channel and actual locks that the boats navigate through. You can see the water boiling from the overflow that is being continuously, slowly released. This boiling water was where Lenny had told me was the place to cast my grub tailed jig.

This shot is looking downstream. You can see the wall of the lock on the left hand side of the photograph...

Though I had the pier to myself for an hour or so, eventually several other fishermen showed up. Here is the pier I was fishing from - looking downriver. You can see some of the RV's parked in the campground as well...

Lenny had told me to tip the heavy hand cast jighead he had given me with a dark motoroil/rootbeer colored grub tail he also provided me with...

I judiciously cast the jigs into the boil, up next to the dam, downstream from the boil and tried slow retrieves, meduium speed retrieves and even a few fast retrieves with zero success. The fact that the high pressure front had dropped the temps a good 15 degrees from the previous week undoubtedly had an effect on the fishing. Nobody was catching much though one fellow did get a large sand bream (aka striped mojarra). A passerby who was camping at the park did tell me that earlier that morning a fisherman had caught a medium sized snook AND a medium sized tarpon. I decided to perservere despite the chilly day and the biting wind!

I had brought a second pole which I baited with a steak sliced from a frozen ladyfish. I dropped that bait straight down and let it soak on the bottom while I continued to fish the jig and grub. I lost two jigs that hung up on the bottom and while re-rigging with a fresh jig and grub, I noticed the tip of the baited pole start to twitch and bend. That resulted in this fat, two pound catfish which I believe was a freshwater cat. He didn't look like the typical saltwater hardhead cat.

Big mouth on that fat sucker!

Fortunately he was perfectly hooked in the corner of the mouth by the 2/0 Owner circle hook and I handled him with grips and pliers so I didn't get all slimed up! Good thing too as his belly was covered with tiny leeches that wiggled around disgustingly as I snapped this pic!

I counted no less than ten leeches on his belly!

By four o'clock I was cold, tired of not catching any good fish, and I had to pee like a Russian bear! I called it quits and started the twenty mile drive home.

I vowed to return once warmer weather prevails and give the locks another try!

Life is good!

Quick Sanibel Causeway visit 02/27/09

2009-03-01T06:53:00.000-08:00

Many people have asked what kind of camera I use for my fishing pics. After killing my little Kodak with salt water exposure, I opted for a waterproof/shockproof camera. I settled on an Olympus Stylus 850SW model. It's about the size of a pack of playing cards and fits nicely in my shirt pocket. It was reasonably priced and has a LOT of special functions (which I have no idea about how to use!) It has 8.5 megapixels too so it'll take BIG sharply defined photos. It is waterproof to ten feet and will take a remarkable amount of abuse getting knocked around! It has a rechargeable battery that seems to last forever! I invested in a memory chip that allows the camera to hold up to 500 of the largest (poster sized) photos and much more movie length than it will without the chip. My only complaints about the camera are that there is no viewfinder - only the liquid crystal LED display on the back. When it's very bright out (like MOST of the time when I am fishing) it's difficult to see the display to frame the shot. My other complaint is that there is too long of a delay after pressing the shutter before the camera snaps the pic. That means a lot of good shots are lost because of that fraction of a second delay. But by and large, I like the camera and would recommend it as a "rough and tumble" outdoor sports type camera.

The other thing I use for my photos is Microsoft Office Picture Manager software. You can use it for basic resize, crop and color adjustments. I like the "auto correct" button it provides on the menu bar which seems to sharpen the pictures and adjust the colors to optimum levels. I snap all my pictures on the maximum size setting so that I can crop and zoom in without losing definition. When I upload my photos to photobucket, it automatically resizes them to the size you see here. So anyways, that's about the extent of my photography equipment for those of you interested.

On to the fishing report...

I had to leave the house by 3pm to allow drive and setup time for Friday night's gig up in Punta Gorda so I had limited fishing time. But the morning was just so gorgeous with low humidity and temps in the low 80's that I just HAD to go fishing - even if it was just a short "hit and run" trip! I threw my gear in the van and headed to the Sanibel Causeway...

My first stop was at the far end of the C-span spoil island (the so-called "restroom island"). I parked the van and waded out chest deep in the still chilly water.

After a half hour of casting my Gotcha lure, all I had to show for the effort was a bunch of seaweed and a severe case of "shrinkage". I decided to go fish the bridge abutment on the B-span where I could dry out and warm up.

My first cast resulted in this little jack...

He was soon followed by four more - all about the same size...

Two bait fishermen there were amazed that I was catching fish while their live bait and shrimp weren't yielding much. They were twins. I learned their names were Lonnie and Lenny and I had quite a fun conversation with Lenny who was the more loquatious of the two. Lenny was fascinated with my Gotcha lure, so I fished out a spare from my tackle box and gifted him with it. Lenny immediately began catching those little jacks and was having a ball! He was amazed at the casting distance the Gotchas offered!

I continued to fling my Gotcha and picked up a fat silver trout...

and a short spotted trout...

I called it quits at 1pm, but not before a grateful Lenny had gifted me with some hand cast 1/2 ounce jig heads and a handful of dark green and rootbeer colored plastic grub tails he swears are magic on snook at the Franklin Locks up on the Caloosahatchee. I'm off this coming Monday and Tuesday and since the weather forecast is not conducive to good kayak fishing, I may just sneak up the river to the locks and try Lenny's secret spot and technique on the snook! Snook season officially opens today and they are still up in the rivers and creeks before their summer migration to the beaches to spawn, so we'll see what happens!

On the way back to my van, I chatted with a friendly fly fisherman. I managed to glean some good tips on technique from him and some fishing spots as well. I can't wait until the snook are on the beaches so I can taget them with my new Redington 9wt!

Life is good!

Snook in a nook 02/25/09

2009-02-26T05:26:00.000-08:00

I'd been wanting to kayak fish the Orange River for quite some time. I'd investigated several possible launch sites and had about figured that launching from Manatee Park might be the best spot. But thanks to a place I stumbled across on one of my peripatetic automobile excursions, and the miracle of Google Earth, I found a better launch site! But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

I had two days off this week and did a bit of wade fishing Monday so on Wednesday, my remaining one day off this week, I really wanted to get the kayak wet. A friend at one of our shows had sworn that the mouth of the Orange River - where it empties into the Caloosahatchee River - is a hot spot for black tip sharks. Though skeptical that they would be there this time of the year, I resolved to give it a try! My friend had recommended large chunks of ladyfish soaked on the bottom while anchored near the signs and pilings at the Orange River mouth. I know there's a resident population of tarpon that overwinter with the Manatees in the warm waters of the nuke plant outflow into the Orange so I figured that if the sharking was a bust, I could go exploring and search for the tarpon instead.

It took an hour to unload the band gear and reload van with kayak stuff, but I got it done. I meant to throw some frozen ladyfish into my cooler as backup bait, but I forgot. "Oh well. No big deal. You can ALWAYS catch ladyfish" I sez to myself!

I'd worked up an appetite with all that unloading and reloading so my first stop was at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria for an omelette and coffee!

My plan was to launch from the Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve - West.

It's one of the launch sites on the Calusa Blueway Trail and it's generally fairly deserted. Located right off Pine Island Road just barely west of I-75, my Google Earth research showed it was just under a mile and a half from the launch to the mouth of the Orange. A launch from Manatee park was a 1.8 mile paddle and required a lot longer drive - so launching at the Caloosahatchee Creek Preserve was a no-brainer!

I was able to drive right to the put-in spot, back the van nearly to water's edge to rig the kayak, then park mere steps away. The launch site is located on a quiet creek in the shadow of I-75.

The first part of the paddle is down a mangrove and palm lined creek for maybe 3/4th of a mile...

It was sort of an eerie feeling to be paddling through what amounts to a deserted wilderness setting while hearing the cars and trucks whizzing by on I-75 a couple of hundred feet away!

The little creek empties into the Caloosahatchee just downstream from the I-75 bridge...

I'd timed it so that I had a rising tide helping me upstream - though I did have a bit of a headwind.

I'd tried trolling my little Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow lures, but the water in the creek was too shallow and I had to get well into the river channel before it deepened enough to allow me to drag the lures as I paddled. I crossed under the bridge and was about half way from the bridge to the mouth of the Orange River when my little blue-backed Yo-Zuri got hit! It was a heavy fish and it was stripping line off the real steadily. Naturally the fish hit the lure that was tied to my lightest rod so I let him take line off the drag when he wanted to. The fish waltzed my kayak around pretty good for maybe ten minutes until I'd worked him enough to bring to the surface. Imagine my surprise to see a fairly large stingray with the lure lodged firmly in his mouth!

Freeing a treble hooked plug from the mouth of a large thrashing stingray while leaning over the side of a kayak is a task best approached with delicacy and finesse! I had a couple of hairy moments, but eventually my needlenose pliers prevailed and the ray (and my Yo-Zuri plug) swam free again!

I saw a school of something blasting bait on the surface near the bird covered island near the manatee memorial sign. I paddled over that way hoping to get into a school of jacks or juvenile tarpon. Whatever it was sounded long before I could get within casting range, so I settled for this picture of the sign, the island and the birds...

Naturally, whenever you rely on catching fresh ladyfish for bait, it ain't gonna happen! I was mentally kicking myself for forgetting my frozen ladyfish when I paddled by the spot my friend had suggested I try for the black tips! Oh well! I supposed it wasn't meant to be that day and opted to explore the Orange River. I was amazed how warm the water was! I had to be in the 80's! I continued to drag my Yo-Zuri's behind the kayak as I explored. I figured a big jack or possibly even one of those over-wintering tarpon was a possibility.

Manatees are everywhere in the river there, but unfortunately I didn't get any photos. I did watch a manatee deliberately thrash and splash three people who were running on a trolling motor in a pontoon boat while attempting to photograph the manatee. That was kinda funny!

I enjoyed the scenery along the Orange River. It's definitely "old Florida" with mobile home parks, interspersed with mangrove shores, old docks and rotting pilings. There are some old-timey marinas too! I think this building must be the "ship's store"!

There was a wide dead-end bend in the river that bordered on Highway 80. Old pilings were every where, but there were deep spots too. It looked like a really fishy nook to me so I decided to paddle up and around that particular backwater nook before heading back into the main upstream channel. As I neared where Hwy 80 bordered the backwater, I saw a shore fisherman emerge from the bushes where he had evidently been venting a beer-pressurized bladder. Not wanting to interfere with his fishing, I started a slow, sweeping turn so as to start my return to the main channel.

But wouldn't you know? My lure on the light-weight trout rod hung up on a submerged piling and the rod bent and line started pulling off the reel as the kayak drifted against it. I quickly grabbed the rod from the holder and started pulling the kayak towards the stump I was hung on. But something weird happened. I felt the piling or stump move! I thought I had dislodged it from the bottom and continued to pull the kayak towards the stump and the stump towards the kayak. All of a sudden the stump came ALIVE! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZ!!!!!! A blistering run, a rod bent double and a screaming drag! You gotta love it!

Then the stump went airborne a good 5 feet into the air and I'm thinking to myself, "Tarpon! Yeah baby!" I was excited because I'd hung one of those juvenile tarpon that inhabit the area in the wintertime! The fish launched himself into the air again and tailwalked across ten feet of water! That's when I saw the stripe! It was a freaking SNOOK!!! I had a trophy class snook on the end of my line and at that point my adrenaline really shot skyward!

That fish made a series of leaping, splashing, thrashing jumps! It stripped drag until I was sure it would hang me up in the pilings, but each time I managed to get her turned. It dove beneath the kayak dragging my rod tip under the boat! It spun the kayak around in both directions, it pulled me backwards, forwards and sideways! And the fight went on a LONG time!

Somehow in the process, I managed to reel in my other line and stow that pole, remove my camera from my shirt pocket and get it switched on, while still keeping the snook on the line! I tried to get pics of the battle in progress, but when the snook would leap, I would press the shutter but by the time the camera went off all I got was splashes. Did I mention I was doing a bit of whooping and hollering too?

Here's what I was able to snap during the fight...

Eventually, I wore the fish down...

I was able to lead her to the side of the kayak and get the grips on her...

My arms weren't long enough to hold her far enough away to be able to fit the entire fish into the picture!

Her mouth was so big I could have put two of my fists into it with room to spare!

I lifted her onto my lap and supported her while I snapped this picture and assessed how I was going to remove the lure from deep in her mouth.

A quick check with my tape measure showed 39 inches overall (tail was not pinched though). I'm guessing her weight at maybe 17 pounds.

I was afraid I would injure her trying to remove the lure from deep in her mouth and I wanted to get her back into the water and revive her as rapidly as possible, so I snipped my leader off inside her mouth and left the lure to rust out. I lowered her back into the water. After several minutes of pulling her through the water she swatted me with her tail, gave a head shake to free herself, and swam off. She left me still shaking with the remnants of my adrenaline rush!

Meanwhile, the fisherman on the shore had witnessed the whole thing! I paddled to the bank to tie on a new lure and he walked over to congratulate me on the fish! I climbed out of the kayak (still shaking) and introduced myself. His name was Roger and he was vacationing from Minnesota. I offered him a beer, but he was one step ahead of me and already working on one. I grabbed one from my cooler and we spent a pleasant interlude talking fishing, Florida, my recent triumph over the snook and assorted other fishing lies and tall tails. Here's a picture of Roger...

The footwell of my kayak had a few inches of water in it and as I got ready to get back in the kayak, I spotted an eight inch remorra fish swimming happily around! I can only surmize that the remorra had attached itself to that pig of a snook and when I laid the fish across my knees, the remorra detached itself to swim around in my kayak! I set the remorra free, but I suppose technically, it was the third fish I caught that day! (No picture of the remorra - sorry!)

I continued to explore but without further encounters with any fish. I was nearing the Manatee Park launch area but at 2:30, turned around without actually getting that far up river. Between the wind and the current, my paddle back down the Orange and across the Caloosahatchee went fast. I was back at the take-out spot and loaded up by 4:00. Round trip distance was just short of seven miles.

I took my wife out to Outback Steak House for a steak dinner to celebrate!

Life is good! :)

Ladies in Wading, Bunche Beach 02/23/09

2009-02-23T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those low-key days. I awoke fully aware that I intended to half-step through the day. As I sat in my Lazy-Boy recliner, sipped my morning coffee and watched the morning news, I was firmly convinced that any truly productive activity could wait until tomorrow!

I actually did manage to accomplish a couple of small things this morning, even though I was moving at slow speed. I ate a late morning breakfast at El Tropical, dropped some paperwork off at city hall for permits for hooking into the new sewer system, fueled up the van and headed off to do a little wade fishing at Bunche Beach. The tide there was going to be falling about nine inches between 1:15pm and about 5:30pm and I thought it might be enough movement to generate a bit of a ladyfish bite off the big sand spit there at Bunche.

I arrived at Bunche Beach almost exactly at 1:15. The place was slammed with people! Definitely the peak of the tourist season right now! I had to park a quarter mile away. It was a perfect day (aside from being crowded). Temp in the mid 70's, calm air, smooth seas.

Tourists were thick on the beach...

and so were the birds...

I waded about 3/4ths of the way out on the sand spit and then off the spit into chest deep water on the Bowditch Point side of the spit. It was about 1:45 when I started to fish. My first dozen or so casts were non-productive because Flipper and his buddies were cruising the area.

After about five minutes, they moved off into deeper water and right away the ladyfish started pounding my little 7/8th oz "Gotcha" lure! Here's proof!

A friendly kayaker paddled over and we chatted for a bit before he headed off to fish some more...

I waded all the way to the point of the sand spit and the ladyfish action continued...

At 3:00pm, after a little over an hour of non-stop ladyfish action, I called it quits. I snapped a pic looking south to Bowditch Point...

and snapped another one looking north towards the Sanibel Causeway...

Then I headed home.

Life is good! :)

Bonnethead Bust 02/16/09

2009-02-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, after a less than stellar catching day at Carlos Point Friday the 13th, I resolved to spend Monday, my one day off this week, catching Bonnethead sharks at Big Carlos Pass.

I checked the tide charts and saw what looked like a flat tide from about 7am until 10am when it would start to rise slowly until about 4:45 that afternoon. I stopped at the Bait 'N Wait on San Carlos Blvd and scored a couple dozen shrimp and an oxygen tablet for my flow and troll bucket then headed for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage pattys, orange juice, coffee and an english muffin at Bonita Bill's. Don't let the sign there fool ya...

The food is really good there and they start serving breakfast around 6am.

I brought three rods with me and three pvc rod holders. I had an armload of stuff to carry and was glad to finally get to my spot on Carlos Point and get set up. It was about 9am and contrary to the tide charts showing a flat to slight rise, the tide was actually falling. My plan was to set up two rods with fishfinder rigs to bottom fish with live shrimp while I simultaneously cast my Gotcha lure on the third rod. But keeping two baited rods in the water didn't really give me much chance to fish the lure so I mainly concentrated on the baited poles.

Right off the bat, small fish began nibbling my shrimp and stealing the bait. I figured out who the culprits were when I reeled in this sand perch (aka sand bass or squirrelfish).

They are supposed to make great grouper bait, but since I wasn't after grouper, he was set free.

The petty theivery of my live shrimp continued. Soon, I apprehended another culprit - this sharp toothed little lizardfish.

Like somebody flipped a switch, the theivery stopped. Probably due to the tide finally start to come in as predicted. My baits sat unmolested for quite a while. I decided to check them and began reeling one in. I felt a bump and assumed my one ounce slip sinker had bumped across something on the bottom. Not wanting to get snagged, I began reeling really fast to keep the sinker and hook off the bottom. All of a sudden, WHAM! Heavy hit and hookup to a fast moving fish! I didn't figure this was a Bonnethead and I was right! It was a fat, two foot long spanish mackerel!

About this time I noticed birds working bait in the middle of the pass and I could see big boils as predator fish took their shots at the bait from underneath. I figured it was either a school of spanish or bluefish, but it was way beyond my casting range. That didn't stop me from trying with my Gotcha though!

I still had nothing doing in the Bonnethead category and even though I tried to emulate my technique with the spanish mac there was nothing happening there either. In fact, the shrimp thievery started again. This time the culprits were another sand perch...

another lizardfish...

and a Sea Robin...

It wasn't long before all 24 of my shrimp were gone and since my Gotcha wasn't working for me and since it was president's day holiday and I didn't want to get hung up in beach traffic again, I called it an early day. I was foiled again by the bonnetheads!

The spanish mackerel went on ice in the cooler and I headed back to grab a late lunch and a cold brew at Bonita Bill's. My friend, Kirby, was working the kitchen...

Ginger was tending bar...

and I had to snap this photo of my biker friend, Carl...

not to be confused with this guy! (who I've never seen at and doubt has ever been to Bonita Bill's)

I stopped at the smoke shop on Summerlin and San Carlos to renew my humidore's stock of Dominican Cohibas, picked up some thick ribeyes at Publix, and ransomed my pressure washer from the repair shop. I still made it home by 4pm and set about preparing to fillet my spanish mac.

I cooked the ribeyes on the grill that night, but made lunch and dinner the next day from those fillets! Pan fried in butter with a dusting of cajun seasoning! Man, they were yummy!

Life is good! :)

Carlos Point 02/13/09

2009-02-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

I talked my new friend Bill into a wade fishing trip to Carlos Point out on Lover's Key on Friday the 13th.

We jumped on breakfast at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria in Cape Coral, then headed out. I enjoy pointing out some of my favorite spots to newcomers in the area and felt it my solemn obligation to make a quick stop at Bonita Bill's under the Matanzas Bridge so Bill would be able to find it for future reference! Of course, since we were there we had a quick pre-fishing brewski then headed on out again.

We had a pretty decent incoming tide until around 3pm and I had high hopes as we made the half-mile hike out to Carlos Point. It was a beautiful day and Bill had a brand new spinning rig that he was christening this day. While we were rigging up, I saw the fellow fishing 50 yards away pull in a nice little bonnethead shark. He was fishing with live shrimp and we watched him catch a release a total of 9 bonnetheads that day.

Bill was first with his Gotcha lure in the water...

but the first fish catch was mine with this little Sea Robin that hit my Gotcha...

The second fish of the day was a toothy little lizardfish...

We weren't skunked, but fishing was slow. While we were fishing a nice couple vacationing from Indiana strolled up. The husband had a spinning rod in hand with a DOA shrimp tied on, but he was frustrated at not being able to cast it very far. He was fascinated with our Gotcha lures and wanted to know where they were sold so he could go get some. I like to see people catch fish - especially our landlocked friends from up north vacationing down here, so I dug into my tackle box and gifted the gent with a gold, red-headed, 7/8th oz Gotcha and demonstrated how to work the lure for maximum effect. He offered to pay me for the lure but I told him it was a gift. I kinda felt like giving it to him was good mojo - and I need good mojo more than the four bucks that the lure cost me! Plus I wanted to see him catch a fish!

He did not disappoint! He started working the drop off from the sand bar right next to us and after about five minutes we heard a whoop and looked over to see his rod bent as a sizeable ladyfish jumped then stripped drag. His wife was almost as excited as he was from catching that fish! He had a couple more jump and self release in the next half hour, but Bill and I were not even getting hits. We decided to go buy some shrimp and see if we could emulate the success the guy down the shore was having with bonnetheads.

As we walked off the point, an eerie fog bank suddenly appeared out in the gulf...

Within minutes, the air temperature dropped and the fog started to thicken...

As we walked off the beach I snapped this pic...

As we continued to walk, visibility dropped to less than 100 feet. I was glad I hadn't been caught in that while out paddling in my kayak! Just about every fisherman we passed who had been fishing with shrimp had scored bonnethead sharks. We had high hopes!

By the time Bill and I walked back to the cars, drove to a bait shop for shrimp, drove back and walked back out, the tide was done. But so was the fog! Very weird! The air temp warmed back up when the fog dissipated.

We rigged our shrimp on 1/0 circle hooks and dropped them on the bottom - same as the guy we saw earlier. But the tide change stopped the bonnethead bite. I did manage a large lizardfish that picked up a shrimp...

And while soaking live shrimp, I continued to work my Gotcha on my other rod. I collected this small jack...

But no bonnetheads were to be had.

About 4:30 we liberated our remaining shrimp, packed up our gear and headed home. It had not been a great day of catching, but it was a fun day of fishing. I resolved to give the bonnetheads another try when I was sure of catching the incoming tide.

I also forgot about weekend beach traffic. It took me an hour and a half to get off Ft Myers Beach and another half hour after that to get home. My wife got off work early and had been home since 4:30. I was afraid she was gonna be mad, but she was sweet and in a good mood.

Life is good! :)

Judd Creek 02/11/09

2009-02-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

I'd been wanting to launch my kayak and explore the Judd Creek/Hancock Creek areas for quite some time. With warm weather in the forecast - but also high winds, I figured Wednesday, February 11th was the perfect day to give it a try! I would have a falling tide until about noon, then a rising tide - a perfect compliment to my float plan! By keeping inside the creek channels, I would avoid the worst of the wind. I picked a mid-morning start figuring the water would be warming a bit by then and I could fish the last of the ebb and the first of the flood tides that way too.

I rigged one rod with a soft plastic grub on a weighted hook and tied a trusty Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow on the other rod.

It was a very pleasant paddle through mangrove lined creeks and lagoons...

and lots of the shoreline looked really fishy...

I saw treeloads of Turkey Vultures lining the banks...

and otters frolicking on the shore as well...

Portions of the paddle were through residential areas, but all day long I only saw two other boats on the water so it was like having the whole place to myself. I took this picture because I was envious of all the mangos the family that owns this tree is gonna have come summertime! (Judging from the number of blossoms on the tree).

In the process of paddling to the mouth of the creek at the Caloosahatchee River, I crossed beneath two bridges - Pondella Road and Hancock Bridge Road.

Somewhere between the two bridges I caught my first fish. It was a deep bronze colored trout that was very fat and more than likely a keeper, except for the fact that it self-released when I leadered it. Oh well, no pic of THAT fish!

As I continued towards the river, I got hit again by a scrappy 12 inch Mangrove Snapper that I invited home for dinner!

Near the mouth of the creek in a wide section of water, I saw what I thought was a juvenile tarpon roll. I staked out and casted repeatedly but could not entice any action there though.

I actually considered paddling out into the river and down the half mile or so to Pincher's Crab Shack for a bite of lunch, but when I nosed the kayak out into open water in the river I was immediately hit by high winds and a vigorous 2 foot chop (which measures about 4 foot peak to trough!) Discretion being the better part of valor, I headed back up the creek (Hancock creek - not that proverbial creek) and WITH my paddle! It was an easy paddle as the tide had turned and was now helping me upstream.

I staked out the kayak several times and fished snooky looking drop-offs, mangrove banks, deep channels with both soft plastics and my Yo-Zuri, but couldn't get much going.

I paddled past the cut off to Judd Creek in order to explore some of the twisting creek above Judd. I marked the entrance on my handheld GPS because as you can see, it's easy to miss the entry if you aren't careful!

I was basically just exploring at this point, but whenever I paddle, I troll something behind the kayak. Way back up in the sticks and skinny water in an area well away from residences and any sign of boaters, I caught this little puppy redfish that hit my Yo-Zuri.

He was a pretty little guy, no?

As I was paddling back to the Judd Creek entry point I was assaulted! No kidding! Actually it was a case of assault and battery! As I was paddling, a mullet launched himself aggressively from a twelve o'clock low direction, sailed over the bow of the kayak and nailed me right in the breastbone! It hurt! He dropped into the yak between my legs and I grabbed him! Time for a quick photo op!

Despite the assault, I bore no grudge and released the assailant into his native habitat where he can become food for something I'd rather catch!

After loading up the kayak, I made a quick stop at Pincher's for a cold snack and chatted with some of the locals who live on the banks of the creeks I had jusd paddled. Then I headed home to fillet the snapper for supper.

Life is good!

Sanibel Causeway, Bunche Beach and the grasshopper 02/09/09

2009-02-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

I have a new friend. He's a fellow ex-army guy, a helicopter pilot, a recent transplant to Cape Coral and to top it all off, a new Yard Dogs fan! His name is Bill, and prior to moving to Cape Coral with his lovely wife, Susie, he had never fished in his entire life! Bill stumbled across my fishing blog when he Googled "Cape Coral freshwater canal fishing" or some such thing and now he actually believes I am some sort of fishing guru! (Hey! Have I got him fooled or what?)

Bill and I exchanged emails, met in person at a Yard Dogs show, chatted a few times over the ensuing weeks at subsequent shows, and talked a bit about fishing. Bill lives on a freshwater canal and managed to catch his first fish in his life off his back dock a few weeks ago. He even managed a 4 pound bass! Not bad for a beginner, huh? But Bill had never caught a salt water fish and so I suggested we go fishing together one day - fairly confident that I could engineer his first salt water fish catch. (The only thing you really have to do to be considered an expert by someone is to know just a tad more about a subject than they do, right?) So Monday morning, February 9th, I played "Master Po" to Bill's version of "Grasshopper" and set about teaching him to snatch the pebble from my hand - so to speak.

We met up at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria on Hancock Bridge Road and both of us chowed down on the #4 breakfast (huge omelettes stuffed with cheese, onions and several types of meat). We slathered ourselves with sun screen, tossed a few cold snacks in the cooler and headed out to the Sanibel Causeway.

We both tied on "Gotcha" lures and as fate would have it, I hooked up on my very first cast as Bill watched! It was just a lizardfish, but Bill was most impressed that I managed a one cast - one fish intro to saltwater fishing! I merely nodded sagely and said something to the effect of "Yes, Grasshopper. To catch a fish, one must be one with the fish" (or some such nonsense!)

Bill had spooled a little ultralight spinning reel with heavy braid and matched it up with a spin-casting rod which he held upside down. He was having a bit of difficulty getting much casting distance out of the rig. Meanwhile, I had caught a second fish (a small jack) and the first of twelve trout (all in the 12-13 inch range).

I was worried that Bill was getting frustrated with his short casting distance so I swapped rods with him to enable him to see the difference a lighter line, larger spool and regular spinning rod made. I was more than a bit embarassed to catch a trout on Bill's rod while he was experimenting with casting my rod - especially so when I learned he had not yet caught a fish on that brand new rod! We swapped back quickly after that and it wasn't long before Bill landed a feisty little jack! It was his first salt water fish ever and I think I was as proud of him as he was!

Unfortunately, casting distance was crucial to getting the lures out to where the trout were lurking there at the causeway, and by 2pm when the tide was nearing full flood, I had fifteen fish to Bill's one. I figured we could scoot on over to Bunche Beach, wade out on the sandbar towards the point of the bar and possibly catch some ladyfish on the falling tide. I wanted to show Bill some spots he could go to himself to fish and at the same time, wanted him to catch some ladyfish - knowing they would give him an exciting fight compared to that small jack.

Even at peak tide, it was a fairly low tide and we were able to wade out quite a ways on the sandbar. Once again, my first cast equaled a first fish in that spot!

But it wasn't long before Bill let out a whoop and holler and was tied into his first ever ladyfish!

Bill was quite surprised at how hard that ladyfish fought and jumped and he was happy as a kid with his catch! I was proud of how he had expertly played and landed the fish!

We fished the sandbar there at Bunche Beach for the better part of an hour and caught a total of 18 ladyfish. Bill had a ball and as we walked off the rapidly draining sandbar and back down the beach...

Bill was already making plans on visiting Lehr's Economy Tackle to shop for a new spinning rig!

Life is good!

Skunked at the Sanibel Causeway 01/28/09

2009-02-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

I am like two weeks and four fishing reports behind on updating this blog! I've been busy with work and on the off days, I prefer to actually GO fishing rather than sit at home editing and uploading photos and writing about fishing. I gotta leave for work in three hours and I have a lot of preparation to do before I leave, but I'll at least try to finish this post before I go so that I'll only be three posts behind after this one!

So okay... January 28th was a Wednesday and my third day off of the week. I had the kayak loaded up Tuesday night and by 9:30 (shortly after low tide) I was nearing the causeway. You can see how low the tide was from this shot snapped at 55mph as I neared the causeway...

We'd had a bit of a warming trend in the previous few days and I had high hopes of really spanking the speckled trout on the grass flat just off the Sanibel causeway B-span. I really like to fish that spot on a rising tide and conditions looked good with sunshine, a warm day and southerly breezes of just 8mph in the forecast.

I parked the van and rigged the kayak in record time...

I like to stake out the kayak near the sign visible in the upper left of the previous photo. Casting north, south and east from that spot you can cover the grass bed and usually score heavily with trout. Casting to the west into the deeper channel off the B-span you are more apt to connect with spanish mackerel and bluefish when the bait is running heavy.

But this day the water looked barren. No bait visible whatsoever! Not even glass minnows! The water was quite clear so I could easily see the bottom several feet below - but no bait was evident. There were no birds working bait either. Undaunted, I worked the spots that have always yielded fish before, but didn't even get so much as a bump on my little Yo-Zuri lures.

After a good hour I stowed my spinning rods and rigged my large rod with a cork and frozen shrimp on a circle hook. I thought the shrimp might entice a bite from a stray trout or even a small bonnethead. I pulled up my stick-it stake out pole and let the breeze drift me towards the oyster bed just off Fisherman's key. Here's a shot taken at the start of the drift...

and one looking east as I drifted...

This is a cool shot. You can see the oyster bed in front of Fisherman's Key in the background and there are two kayak fishermen standing up in their kayaks fishing to the west (left) of the oysters.

Eventually, my drift took me right up to the oyster bed...

I staked out the kayak in the crystal clear water and wade fished the periphery of the oyster bed with plastics.

Those two kayakers were still fishing standing in their kayaks just west of the oyster bed...

While I was fishing, the two kayakers started their paddle back to their launch site way over near the A-span. I could hear them bantering back and forth as they passed south of me. I heard one guy saying "Yeah, eight miles per hour my ass!" It was then that I realized that the wind had freshened from the gentle breeze to a stiff wind in the mid teens straight out of the south. Paddling back to my launch site would entail paddling straight into the wind AND the strengthening incoming tide. I don't have any pics of that because if I had stopped paddling just for a moment to snap a pic, I would have lost ground against the wind and tide. It proved to be a grueling paddle back, but I made it shortly after noon and loaded up the van with my stuff...

It's not often that I get totally skunked, but this day proved to be one of those rare times when it happens. I sought solace at a favorite local watering hole - Bonita Bill's under the Matanzas Pass Bridge.

While enjoying lunch and a cold snack, a local fishing boat arrived after doing some offshore reef fishing. They had a nice mess of gags and red grouper.

I joined the crowd watching them be expertly filleted...

The crowd was not necessarily all human...

Splash, the resident bar cat, got his share...

As did this guy...

All in all, it was not a bad way to end a slow fishing day!

Life is good!

Matlacha Pass - Tuesday, 01/27/09

2009-02-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

It had been way too long since schedule and weather cooperated to enable me to get out and wet a line. I hadn't fished at all for eight days and I hadn't fished out of my kayak for three weeks! I spent Monday doing errands and work related stuff (even though I was technically "off work" that day since the band didn't have a gig scheduled until Thursday). But Monday had been warm and calm after a solid week of cold, windy weather, and Tuesday was predicted to be even warmer!

Low tide at Tropical Point on Matlacha pass was at about 9:30 and that's when I got the kayak in the water. You can see that the stretch of beach was pretty wide since the tide was about -.5 feet.

looking north...

and south along the Pine Island side of Matlacha Pass...

you can see that the water was low which was good because it would enable me to see structure and bottom profile and mentally map the area for days when the tides run higher.

I tied on a soft white plastic grub on a weighted hook on one rod and a small Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow on the other. There was a channel of a few feet of depth that ran out over the marl and oystershell bottom and I followed it out for ease of paddling. Within less than a minute, a small speckled trout hit the plastic grub lure...

No sooner had I unhooked and released the trout and begun to paddle again when his twin hit the Yo-Zuri plug...

I paddled to a nearby oyster bar and staked out the kayak to wade fish the bar...

I was hoping to pick up a redfish on the oysters, but the tide still had not started to move in very fast and it was no joy on the redfish. I continued on paddling south against the beginning of the tide towards Rag Island. Enroute I picked up a couple of ladyfish, including this one which was foul hooked...

I basically circumnavigated Rag Island fishing weeds and shorelines. The tide was still very slow and aside from more ladyfish I had nothing working for me. When I rounded Rag Island and headed thru a narrow cut back towards Matlacha Pass I could tell the tide had finally started moving! Paddling through that narrow cut was like paddling upstream in a fast flowing river! I spooked a school of nice sized snook as I crossed a sand bar just outside the cut. I staked out the kayak and fished the spot for a good half hour but could not entice those snook to bite. Continuing out into the pass I had a big hit on the white plastic grub but when I reeled in I found the grub bitten clean in half - just behind the hook of course!

I decided to paddle across the pass towards Punta Blanca near the mouth of Matlacha Pass in hopes of possibly picking up a cobia like I had a few weeks earlier. I replaced the grub with a jig head, but stowed that rod and tied a large Yo-Zuri on my tarpon rod and dragged that behind as I paddled towards Punta Blanca. You can see the Sanibel Causeway in the distance beyond Punta Blanca in this photo...

Naturally, when you come loaded for bear, you don't see no bears! And THAT'S a fact! So despite a two mile paddle, I got no cobia. I did drag the kayak up on a shell beach at Punta Blanca and enjoyed a short break with a beer and a sandwich. I finally stowed the big rod, put a shrimp tail on the jig head and dragged the jig and the Yo-Zuri behind as I headed north. I was moving with the tide and wind and it was a rapid paddle of about two miles up to the Underhill Creek area where I had hooked a nice snook a few weeks earlier. Enroute to Underhill Creek I had this little trout hit the shrimp tipped jig...

I continued north.

I was paddling in about 4 or 5 feet of water when all of a sudden I thought a depth charge had gone off underwater right beneath me! There was a huge explosive geyser that popped my kayak several feet straight up in the air, then a dual muddy, foaming wake like two runaway torpedos streaking a good 100 yards away towards the middle of the pass. It scared me so bad I nearly pee'd myself!

Once I calmed down, I figured out what had happened...

After a week of cold weather, two manatees were evidently sunning themselves in the shallow water over a dark, muddy bottom which collects solar heat. I was paddling stealthily enough that I was right on top of them before they noticed my kayak! They exploded away in fright, nearly capsizing me. I recovered just in time to snap this pic of their wakes before the wakes disappeared.

I don't know who was more startled by this chance encounter - me, or the manatees! When this happened, I just thought it was a single manatee, but reviewing the photo definitely shows two separate wakes streaking away!

I collected a fourth trout shortly after the Manatee episode. This one was just barely at the 15 inch legal minimum but I decided to let it go free to grow. It wasn't really big enough to make a meal from by itself.

At Underhill Creek I ventured back in to my secret snook hole. Up inside the creek mouth I was tearing up the ladyfish while trying for snook. I think I caught eight in this spot bringing my fish total to 4 trout and 12 ladyfish for the day.

But despite wading sandbars and fishing the drop-offs and channels back in the mangroves, I just couldn't seem to manage any snook. I decided to head back for my take-out site at Tropical Point. It was a long, two mile paddle east - crosswise to the tide and directly into the wind which has freshened considerable by this time.

I dragged both the Yo-Zuri plugs but unlike my January 6th trip, did not get a single hit all the way back.

As I neared Tropical Point...

I reflected on my day on the water. Though a bit disappointed in not having landed any cobia, snook or redfish - or even keeper trout, I had spent a fun day on the water and bent a rod more than 16 times, covered more than 9 miles by kayak, enjoyed a few beers and left my cares ashore at least for the day.

life is good! :)

Under the causeway again 01/19/09

2009-01-27T15:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

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

Playing with the new fly rod 12/30/08

2009-01-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

I got bit hard recently by the fly fishing bug and after considerable research decided to purchase my first salt water fly fishing rig! I picked it up Monday. It's a Redington RedFly2 model, two piece, nine foot, 9wt rod with a Redington reel. The reel came pre-loaded with backing and a floating fly line. It's a decent entry-level salt water fly fishing outfit and I got a good deal on it too - $50 off the regular price at Lehr's Economy Tackle in North Ft Myers! I also got three ten pound tapered leaders and a roll of 20# flurocarbon to use as bite tippets. I picked out an assortment of a dozen or so flys (from the economy tray). I tried to get ones that mimicked small sardines or glass minnows. I was good to go!

I had to work Tuesday evening, but decided to try wade fishing Bunche Beach on the low tide that morning. After a quick stop at Mickey D's for a sausage and egg McMuffin and coffee, I hit Bunche Beach about 9:30 - just before low tide. I quickly assembled and rigged the new Redington...

I tied on a "Clouser Minnow" fly and headed out.

My plan was to head out to the point of the sandbar, get there about 10am - right at low tide - and fish the tide change and incoming tide. I figured this was a good plan for several reasons. It was a wide open, unobstructed area in which to practice fly casting. There would be few people on the sand bar thus lessening my chance of hooking an innocent bystander with my backcasts. I could wade out quite a ways over a sandy bottom which would minimize damage to my feet and the chance of getting my leaders cut off on rocks or oyster shells. And most importantly, I know there are spotted seatrout and ladyfish just off that sandbar point and I figured I might just hook up a few fish while practicing my fly casting and stripping retrieves on the tide change and incoming tide! Oh, and did I mention? The prevailing 10mph wind was out of the northeast so it would be at my back while I was casting.

I was amazed at how low the tide was as I walked out. You can see the Sanibel Causeway way off in the distance in this photo. The point of the sandbar where I was going to fish you can see curving off to the left in this pic. And you can see just two other people up ahead in the whole wide sandbar area!

I had done a little dry-fly fishing with a 4 weight fly rod for Arctic Grayling nearly 35 years ago when I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, so I vaguely remembered the rudiments of fly casting. But I found it to be quite different with the heavier 9wt rod and relatively large fly. I started getting my old technique back after a short time and found I could make 50 foot casts fairly routinely and 70-80 foot casts when I did everything exactly right and the fly casting gods were smiling upon me. Those were a lot longer casts than I ever had to make grayling fishing on Alaskan streams!

Fishing in Alaska, we would cast, then let the current flow drift the fly past the fish, so the whole concept of "stripping" the fly in a retrieve with my non-casting hand was new to me. I actually had five ladyfish hit my fly during the hour and a half I was fishing, but failed to hook any except one ladyfish (who self-released after just one jump). After the fact, while reading my Lefty Kreh book on saltwater fly fishing, I figured out why. Rather than pointing my rod tip directly at the fly while stripping it in, I had my rod tip slightly elevated. So when a fish did hit, the flex in the rod tip precluded a solid hook set. I'm used to striking the fish with my rod in spin fishing, so striking the fish with my stripping hand while keeping the rod tip down will take some practice!

I practiced my casting until noon then headed home. I was surprised to see just how much the sandbar had been covered up by the incoming tide in two hours! Check out the "before" pic...

and the "after" pic taken from about the same spot... (note the kayak dude in the distance!)

I'm gonna practice fly casting and stripping while wading another couple of times, then give it a shot from my kayak once I hone my technique a bit.

life is good!
Tarvus

the day after the day after Christmas 12/27/08

2008-12-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

It was such a nice day - clear skys and temp in the low 80's. I just had to get out and do some fishing! I decided on a quick "hit and run" wading trip to Big Carlos Pass (Lover's Key).

I stopped for a late breakfast around 10:30 at Bonita Bill's. Barb was working and served me my eggs and sausage. I quickly finished eating and headed over the Matanzas Bridge to the beach. Looks like quite a climb uphill from this angle, doesn't it?

Off to the left was a good view of Matanzas Pass and the shrimp fleet (snapped at 35mph).

Coming off the Matanzas Bridge into Ft Myers Beach I could see just what a beautiful day it was! Sunny, warm, and crystal clear skies! I don't want to live any where else if we have mid-December days like this!

I parked and paid my dollar at Lover's Key and started the half mile hike to the point at Big Carlos Pass...

Saw this critter fishing in the lagoon as I crossed over the bridge...

I took this photo as I arrived at the point of the pass...

I don't have any pictures of fish to show you because I got totally, absolutely, definitely skunked! Not even a nibble! I fished for about an hour with nothing happening. So I got bored and snapped pics of boats and stuff. At least you can see what a nice day it was!

Everybody and his brother was headed to the beach as I drove home! It was about 1:00pm and traffic heading to the beach on San Carlos Blvd was backed up all the way to Pine Ridge Road! Thankfully, I was going the other way!

I got home around 1:30 and took my wife, Nancy out to lunch at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria.

Life is good!

Tarvus

Three "hit and run trips" 12/16-12/19

2008-12-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

I've been lazy lately and haven't felt like unloading all the gear out of my van to load up the kayak. But the weather has been great this past week and I just couldn't resist getting out to at least wet a line and do a little wade fishing. I call these short trips "hit and run" trips because I hit my spot, fish a little bit, then run off to other adventures. At least I get my fishing fix in though!

My first trip was Tuesday, December 16th. I fiddled around at home most of the morning. Not sure I got a lot accomplished, but by late morning I decided to go fishing. I just threw a light spinning rod in the van along with a pair of needlenose pliers, added a few backup lures to the cargo pocket on my Native Kid shorts and took off!

My first stop was a hunger abatement stop. As I approached the Matanzas bridge enroute to Ft Myers Beach, I felt the urge for a fish sandwich and I knew just the spot to satisfy that urge! I hung a right at the foot of the bridge, and immediate left, and a left again at the stop sign and ran straight to the Dixie Fish Company a short block away! If you haven't tried the food there you owe it to yourself to do so! It's AWESOME! I opted for a grilled red snapper sandwich and a cold beer. The snapper filets were so big they overlapped the bun by a good half inch on all sides! Well fed and happy, I headed over the bridge and to the far end of FMB to Big Carlos Pass.

I parked at the Lovers Key lot just over the Big Carlos Bridge, paid my dollar, and walked to the point about a half mile away. I got there at about 1:30pm. The tide was incoming and ripping along pretty fast. The big schools of bait I had seen there before were not in evidence. But undaunted, I commenced casting and jigging my silver 7/8ths ounce Gotcha lure.

Not much was happening though. No bait, no birds, no action. But, ya know?, I didn't really mind that the fishing was slow. The day was gorgeous and the scenery was great...

The air was warm, the water was clear, the sun was shining and I had my legs in salt water and my toes in the sand. Life was good! I watched a biplane (I think it was a "Stearman") cruising along overhead and along the shoreline - probably with a sightseeing customer aboard.

I persisted with my casting and eventually felt a bump on my line, but missed the hookset. A few casts later, the same thing happened but this time I connected! I brought a feisty little spanish mackerel to the shore...

And within moments of releasing him, I had hooked his twin!

I also caught a couple of lizardfish...

but had no more action after that.

I soon called it a day and trudged back to my car. I headed in the direction of home, but made an obligatory stop enroute at Bonita Bill's where my friend, Kirby, served me a cold brew. I bumped into friends I had met at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri during the band's summer tour and we swapped tall tales and stories for a short while. But I left shortly later and made it back home by about 4pm.

I finished the day back at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria enjoying deep fried pork chunks, black beans, and sweet plantains! My lovely wife decided it would be cool to take a picture of me taking a picture of her, taking a picture of me...

I worked Wednesday. Thursday, I ran errands. I had breakfast at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria (3 egg omelet with bacon, ham, sausage, green and red peppers and onions, a cuban cafe con leche, and a 12 ounce jar of mango juice - all for $6.31!)
I then hit Walmart, Home Depot and Target for Christmas gift cards, filled the van up with gas, bought a few items at Publix, and found myself heading south on Skyline Blvd. Since I still had my spinning rod in the car, I decided to hit a spot I had never fished before, but had often wondered about - the Bimini Basin at Four Freedoms Park. It's a large salt water pond in the Cape Coral canal system located just off Cape Coral Parkway. I figured the water there would be warmed by the sun and perhaps I might snag a snook warming himself in the sun there.

The Bimini Basin is a pretty spot right in the heart of Cape Coral...

I had my same Gotcha lure that I'd used Tuesday. The water in the basin was clear, albeit a bit tannin stained...

I made four casts with nothing happening, but on the fifth cast, my Gotcha got nailed by a fat trout in the seventeen inch range...

his back was a deep bronze color from being in the tannin stained water...

But after the trout, nothing more happened. I did the obligatory four dozen casts and called it a successful "hit and run" day after spending less than a half hour there. I stopped for lunch at the Twisted Conch on 47th terrace and had a cold Yuengling beer and a grilled grouper sandwich before heading home.

I wasn't planning to fish Friday. My wife had talked about working a half day and taking the afternoon off. But she called mid-morning to say she was going to be tied up at work all day after all. It was such a beautiful day with the temp destined to be in the low 80's, and since my spinning rod, pliers and spare lures were still in the van, I checked the tides and headed out.

The low tide was supposed to be at about 11:45 that morning. I decided to hit my spot at Big Carlos Pass again, catch the last of the outgoing tide and the first of the incoming tide. I made the half mile walk out to the point and was there by 11:30. I shared my spot with this fellow. He watched my every move closely...

I got the skunk off the beach with a hungry lizard fish...

My bird buddy watched close as I unhooked a second lizard fish...

After the two lizard fish, I caught two fish that sort of looked like lizard fish from a size, shape and coloration standpoint, but they had large wing-like pectoral fins and what looked like pincher like legs in front of the pectoral fins. I dunno WHAT kind of fish they were, but here's a few photos...

I sucessfully released the first of the two, but the second one flopped off the hook onto the sand and bird-buddy was there to snap it up at my feet! He headed off into the brush to enjoy his fish lunch unmolested!

The tide was late. Slack tide wasn't until 12:15 and it was about 1:15 before the incoming really got moving. With the incoming tide movement, I started seeing both glass minnows and sardines make their appearance. They weren't in huge abundance, but there were enough that I figured the predator fish would begin showing up soon. Right at 1:30, boom! My little Gotcha got hammered and something started stripping drag on my reel! It proved to be a respectable length spanish mackerel that was quite chubby! Definitely a muscular fish! He fought well above what I would have expected for a fish his size!

I didn't have my law stick with me, but I guessed his length at about 23" overall. I decided to call it a day and to keep the mackerel for my supper! I gutted and bled the fish right there, then hiked back to my car. A quick stop at 7-11 yielded ice for my cooler to keep him cold until I got home. I pointed the van in the direction of home, but as I passed the Shamrock Irish Pub on the right, I noticed my friend Kirby's car, the "batmobile" there. Kirby works both Bonita Bill's and the Shamrock, but the Thursday and Fridays he works the Shamrock is normally at night. It was unusual for him to be there in the early afternoon!

I hung a quick right into the parking lot there and joined Kirby for a quick libation. I watched the locals shooting darts and listened to some loud, un-Irish like country music while I nursed a beer. I said my goodbyes to Kirby and headed out.

It was still early and I was quite hungry so I stopped at Bonita Bill's and let my friend Kendra the bartendress serve me meatballs and noodles for lunch. I bumped into my friends Dick and Ann there. Dick is a retired New York cop and we had fun discussing local handgun ranges, handguns and target shooting for a while.

I was home by four and set about filleting my spanish mackerel.

I put the filets in a casserole dish with butter and lemon juice, sprinkled a bit of Season All and some Essence of Emeril on them and broiled them in the oven for 10 minutes. Here's the "before" pic...

and here's the "after" pic...

The filets were flaky, moist, lightly seasoned and delicious!

Life is good!

Tarvus

Big Carlos Pass 12/10/08

2008-12-11T06:18:00.000-08:00

Well, the engine is shot on the kayak beatermobile and it's not gonna be economically feasible to bring it back to life. The US Congress has been deaf to my pleas for a bailout for the beatermobile (they like to pour good taxpayer money after bad into automotive lost causes, but they wanna deal in BILLIONS and all I needed was thousands - so I was SOL!)

So anyway - I tossed a light spinning rod in the van, left the kayak at home and went wade fishing. It was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the mid 80's and it seemed a shame to waste it without at least wetting a line! I drove to Big Carlos Pass, parked at the Lover's Key parking lot there, paid my dollar and wandered over to the bridge.

I made my first cast from the exact spot I was standing at when I snapped the above picture and I was immediately hooked up to a fish! It turned out a small ladyfish had hit my little silver Gotcha lure! A second cast was POUNDED by a fish which immediately began stripping line! I worked the fish for a minute or two - long enough to see a big FAT redfish come up and wallow on the surface before spitting the hook! So far, two casts, two fish on! Not a bad start to the day! It took five more casts before I had another fish on and this one took off stripping line against the drag as well! It ran to the left and basically did a big 1/4 circle nearly beaching itself in the process! Quite a weird fight! When I finally saw the fish - I saw why. I had foul hooked a sting ray at the tip of it's left-hand wing. After dancing a jig around it's lashing tail, wielding my needlenose pliers in one hand and my rod in the other, I finally managed to get it unhooked without injury to myself or the stingray. I snapped this pic before teasing him back into the water...

I tried a few casts on the opposite side of the bridge - fishing the shadowline and the structure of the bridge itself, but had nothing doing there.

Looking out to the mouth of the pass, I could see birds working bait on my side of the shore - right at the very point. So I decided to walk out there...

Glass minnows were thick in huge schools and the birds and predator fish were having a field day! By casting roughly parallel to the bank at about a 30 degree angle to the bank in the downtide direction and using a fast retrieve with quick snaps and jerks, I started getting some fat ladyfish.

There was another older fellow fishing nearby - maybe fifty yards away. He didn't seem to be having much luck though. He and I both watched a boat motor across the pass, drop it's trolling motor then proceed to motor not 10 feet off the bank we were fishing right in front of first him, then me! Unbelievable! The jerk in the flats boat has the whole pass to fish yet insists on BLATANTLY and deliberately intruding on the water we were fishing! I was fuming! This was totally rude and uncalled for! And I let hime know too!

(sarcastically) "Hey, thanks so much for motoring right through the water I was fishing. That was VERY considerate of you! I really appreciate that!"

(him, mumbling) "The water belongs to everybody"

(me, glaring openly) "Yes, but MOST fishermen are considerate of others and try not to disrupt their fishing unnecessarily! You might want to give that some thought!"

The jerk driving the boat had two older gentlemen with him. They appeared uncomfortable with the boat driver's actions and kept their mouths shut. They were so close to me standing on the bank that I could have literally reeled my Gotcha to the end of my 7 foot spinning rod, reached out my arm, snagged the jerk standing at his trolling motor in the bottom lip and jerked him off the front of his boat onto my little piece of turf! I thought about it too! Maybe in my younger days I would have done it, but now I am older, supposedly wiser, and perhaps more forgiving. Besides that, i just wanna have fun without hassles! But still... it was a tempting thought! They lingered in the area for a short time, then fired up their outboard and roared off. I waved bye bye to them with my middle finger.

I tried to get the other fisherman to fish from my spot. I had the ladyfish dialed in and told him where to cast and how to work his lure for the hookups I was getting. He was fishing with a bass pole baitcasting rig and had a Mirrodine on a 6inch wire clip-on leader with huge swivels and a big bullet shaped worm weight. Tactfully, I tried to tell him that if he got rid of the surplus hardware and tied the lure directly to his mono, he would get more hookups. Be he didn't listen and he didn't cast where the bait was and he didn't get any action that I saw. There was one other fisherman sharing the area and he seemed to have his technique down pat! He was nice and quiet too and didn't intrude on our territory!

All told, I think I caught a released about 10 ladyfish off the point there. Around 3:00, I headed back to the van.

Got home about 4:30, grabbed a quick shower and took my bride to Kumo's Japanese Steak house to celebrate our 14th anniversary!

Life is good!
Tarvus