It's Sunday morning, and Earl Cox, Derek, and Bret are back for some more fishing. I decided to take them out in "BarHopp'R II" to see which boat they might like better, and to check out my baitwell system. The boat has a single, huge well in the rear deck that's the size of a small Jacuzzi, but I hadn't yet used it. After throwing the net until I was blue in the face we had only six shiners. Not a good test of your livewell system.
We decided to go fishing and see if we could turn those six shiners into six snook, and go from there. On the fishing grounds the first shiner drew a strike and jump from a big snook, but she threw the hook. But the next five shiners brought snook to the boat. Five out of six ain't bad! We were sitting right near a spot that I often catch lots of reds with live bait. I kept seeing lots of mullet working the flat, and once in a while I'd see a pop that didn't look like mullet. Thinking there might be some reds on the flat, I grabbed a spoon rig and flew a Cabella's Live Eye spoon out. After only a couple of cranks on the handle, I had a great redfish hit. Hum!?! I tied on more spoons, and we caught more. I guess we caught a half dozen or more be fore heading for home.
Monday morning was to be the third trip on the new BarHopp'R, and Brian Bateman and his friends Mike and Julie Taylor were along for the trip. I ran up north to get bait, and it was big, beautiful bait. But before we could even get going the bait started to go belly up. I was in a panic. I couldn't believe that bait was dying in that great big well. I assigned Brian the job of stirring the bait and keeping it moving. By the time we got to the first stop, the bait was looking pretty good. Brian, Mike, and Julie were lots of fun, but Julie cracked me up when she struck first blood on a nice snook. She was talking to that fish like a man; puttin some words on it. She really got excited with each fish, and was really surprised at how hard the reds pulled. By the end of the tide the trio had boated 6 nice snook, a beautiful 4 pound speckled trout, and 2 redfish. They'd lost 3 reds.
I spent Tuesday on the water with Capt. Ray Rodriguez. Some of you may already know Ray, as I've been referring him a lot when I'm already booked. He's a very good guide, and lots of fun. We spent a very relaxing day off just goofing around in the north end of the Sound. As we were trolling motoring along in the crystal clear water just off a mangrove island, we both spotted a bunch of redfish laid up under the mangroves. We quickly spun the boat around, anchored, and fished them. It didn't take much chum to get them going, but as usual, it took absolute precision casting with the water way up in the trees. Ray got out of the boat with his flyrod, and tried his best to get one of those reds to take a fly. They were really stubborn. Ray made some beautiful casts, but they just weren't interested. They were interested in the shiners, though, and after watching me drag a few out of the trees, Ray had to join me with a spinning rig and shiners. I guess we caught 8 or 9 reds and 3 or 4 snook before we headed for home. It was a lot of fun, and we had spent most of the day just looking.
Wednesday was a day I'd just as soon forget. I was supposed to fish a fellow named Chuck Darner and a party of three. He left me a message on my toll free line that night saying that he'd be at the dock at noon. He sounded like he was excited about the trip. I was up and on the water at the crack of dawn, and ran way up north to get bait. I tried to call Chuck to see if I could get him to the docks at 10:00 instead of 12:00 o'clock. I left a message and my cell number. Not knowing whether he would get the message or not, I ran back to the dock and waited. 10 o'clock came and went. He was staying at the Sanibel Harbor, so I ran over to their docks thinking he might be there. He wasn't. Noon came. I ran back to Sanibel Harbor docks at 12:02, when he didn't show at the Punta Rassa ramp. No Chuck! I went up into the Marina. No Chuck. I called and left at least two more messages, and ran back and forth between the ramp and Sanibel Harbor, about a quarter mile away, thinking I might be missing him at one place or the other. Finally, at one o'clock I gave up, and pulled back into the marina to see if I could find someone to give all my bait to. While at the dock, Linda came out and said someone from Sanibel harbor had called looking for me earlier. She called back and told them I was there, and was told that my party had already rented a boat and gone fishing. I don't know what happened, but I know that I never got a call on my cell phone, and it seems that Mr. Darner didn't make much of an effort to find me. The puzzling thing is that I still haven't heard from him. I'm hopeful that we can salvage the situation, somehow.
Thursday, I took the new BarHopp'R to Smith Marine for some maintenance, and left her there. The trolling motor batteries weren't holding a charge, and the Motor Guide RF motor didn't work on the third trip. I also wanted bigger bilge pumps with automatic switches installed, and wanted to upgrade the baitwell pump from a 360 GPH to 750 GPH pump. No wonder the bait didn't want to stay alive! Craig and crew will be installing a 24 volt Hawker Trolling Thunder drycell pack, new pumps, and converting the RF motor to a manual. That should put things in order. My wife is leaving for ten days in Hawaii on May 6th, so I took the rest of the week off to be with her until she leaves. During that time, I'm doing things like trying to get the fishing reports caught up. Next project is to get the Angler of the Month section current.
Finally, I took the right days off. Friday and Saturday were cloudy,
windy, and rainy. Usually the days you take off are picture perfect days
when you should be on the water.