It's the first of June, and I'm back from an all to short, but much needed couple of days off with my wife, who I saw only five days during May. Today would be the third day with my British friend Roger Barrey. Roger loves to fish, and doesn't care how. He carries fly, spin, and casting tackle. He's a very good angler, and a real sportsman. Everything is catch and release. The first thing he said to me before we even left the Sanibel Harbor pier was, "Mate, please let me do my own thing today." That was a polite way of telling me to stay the hell out of his way and let him do for himself. Roger wants the total experience of tying his own lines and hooks, using his own tackle, baiting his own hooks, making the cast, and getting the blast. He gave me the day off. I'm used to waiting on my customers hand and foot most of the time, and it's a hard thing not to do. But, all Roger wanted me to do was take him to the fish. Wonderful! The wind was northwest at 10 to 15, and I was worried that it would make the beach too rough to fish. But, if you want to catch lots of snook this time of year, you have to go where they are, and they are on the outside to spawn. Turned out it was bumpy, but not undoable. My favorite piece of shoreline started out real slow. I was worried that something might have moved the snook out again. We caught a few trout and a couple of snook, but it wasn't what should have been going on. This should be pandemonium on the beach! So, I moved down, and moved down, and moved down, until we started catching. I really figured it was not a matter of the fish being in my favorite spot, but rather, the bite just wasn't on. I think I was right. After we started catching, I moved back to my favorite spot, and we caught snook after snook. We were also treated to a fantastic show of hundreds of snook thrashing bait in what can only be described as a feeding frenzy. The fish were going completely airborne as they slashed and bashed the bait on the beach. What a spectacle! Roger had never seen anything like it, and as many times as I've seen it over the years, it still amazes me. Roger masterfully boated the snook of a lifetime, a 35 inch beauty that weighed around 14 pounds. He did it on his rod, on his knots, his bait, his cast, etc. He was absolutely thrilled with that fish. We took some nice pictures, nursed her back to health, and high-fived each other as she swam away. We ended the day just after noon, with about 36 snook and 4 trout in the boat. God only knows how many we missed, but it was a bunch. Tomorrow we go for tarpon.
Tomorrow is here, and the wind is howling pretty good out of the northwest again. Damn! I knew this would be a tough day to chase tarpon before we left the dock. None of my fellow guides were too thrilled with the wind, either. I headed south out around the big pylon where there had been lots of tarpon the day before. We rode and looked, rode and looked, rode and looked, but all we saw was whitecaps, a large sea turtle, and porpoises. No tarpon. We rendevezoued with my friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez, who'd been on the water hunting since five o'clock. They'd not seen a fish, either. One rule of tarpon fishing is to have patience. We continued to hunt as the water got rougher. Finally, around 9:30 I headed up the Sound to look at some of the inside tarpon haunts. Things weren't any better there. We looked at every area known to hold tarpon from the causeway to Useppa Island. Nothing! I suggested we look at Captiva Pass, and then Redfish Pass. There were quite a few boats in Captiva Pass, but I saw no fish caught. We went to Redfish Pass to see if we could drag a big snook out of the rocks. Nothing doing there, either. Roger told me we could head in any time. "I'm relaxed, it's been a great day, and I've got my big snook. You don't have to feel like you have to find me a fish today to make me happy, cause I've had a great time." On the way in Roger explained that his wife had dropped him a subtle hint that she would like him to spend the last day with her and the kids instead of fishing. I know it was killing him to miss his last day of fishing, but like the true gentleman he is, he did the responsible thing and gave the day to his family and paid me for the day. I sure hope I see Roger again in the future. I feel like I've made a friend for life. In fact, he invited me to come visit him and his family in England, which I just might try to do. We said our "good-byes" and vowed to keep in touch via email. Cheers, Roger. You're a great chap!
After using the much needed day off to catch up on some maintenance and get current on the fishing report and web page, I was ready to take Paul Funk, of Hattesburg, Mississippi, out for some serious snook fishing. The wind was still northwest, but not bad enough to keep us off the snook. The fish were hungry, and I thought Paul might have a chance to put the "Angler of the Month" position in the bag. He landed 32 snook to 7 pounds, 4 trout to 20 inches, and a 28 inch redfish. A great morning. The month is still young, so we'll have to see how everyone else does, but Paul should definitely be in the running.
The next morning George Speicher, an oil futures man from Houston, Texas, and his good friend Bob, who's an independent well driller, and his stunning wife Laura were up to try their luck at the snook. There aren't many snook in Texas, except way south, and those are very small. I've noticed that we're getting more and more Texas boys over here to fish for the wily snook. We drew a beautiful day with winds light and variable. Perfect! We also had a pretty good bite, but the snook proved to be quite different that what George and Bob had tangled with before. The snook's disposition coupled with the cover they hang out in make them very tough customers for the first-time snooker. Through the course of the morning George only managed to boat 2 snook, and lost a bunch. Bob only boated one, and likewise, lost many snook. Laura boated 3 nice snook, and I think that was enough for her, but she missed a lot of fish, too. She was content to spend the last part of the morning watching the guys miss fish after fish.
The next morning George and Bob were back in full battle armor, ready to take what they had learned the day before and get serious about boating some snook. Laura wasn't back with the boys. I think she'd talked Bob out of the platinum charge card, and was going on a raid. I had put a new 18 pitch 4 blade Turbo prop on the Yamaha 150 after fishing the day before, and the prop seemed to work very well. Unfortunately, I had split the end of my right index finger wide open on the old prop. It was only about 4 months old, and I couldn't believe it could be worn so sharp so quickly. It was! What's worse, my hands were absolutely beaten up with fish cuts, line cuts, etc., and I knew the next few days would be tough. I was about out of places to pull knots tight against. Back on the fish we had an incredible bite. The fish were so willing to eat, that I think Bob got bored, and started talking about going to fish the trees for redfish. I was surprised at that, as they have plenty of redfish in Texas. We fished the snook until around eleven, and George and Bob reported a total of 25 in the boat, and over 50 getaways. Then we went inside to find a red or two, and caught one and lost two before calling it quits.
It was another week of great fishing and great people. It is
unbearably hot already, but once you get out there and tangle with all
those snook, you forget all about the heat.