It's Sunday night and the weather people are talking about a low pressure system possibly forming over Florida. That's a bad thing and a good thing at the same time. It means we could be in for a wet week, but we desperately need the rain. I think they call this Catch 22! When I poked my head out the door Monday morning around 4:00 AM, I knew we were going to be in for a rough day. We already had a wind blowing out of the southwest at 12 to 15 knots, sure to have the Stickbeach all stirred up, maybe to the point of being unfishable! We'd have to see. I met Butch Essigman, of Marietta, Georgia, his ten year old son Chris, and friend Lucky Grissom at six o'clock Monday morning. As the BarHopp'R I pierced the early morning darkness, I wondered what I could do for Plan B and Plan C. I didn't have a good answer. We quickly gathered plenty of bait and were on the way to the Stickbeach by 7:00 AM. I knew the only way I'd really be able to tell if the beach was fishable was to go out there. As I cleared the Blind Pass bridge in just inches of water, I could see 3 ft. waves breaking over the shoal. We had to challenge that shoal to get out of the Pass. I blew my foghorn to alert the shore anglers that I was about to shoot the Pass, and off we went. We took two big waves over the bow, and young Chris' eyes were as big as half dollars as walls of water came crashing over the bow into the cockpit. We made it through, but we had a good ten inches of water trapped in the self-bailing cockpit. It took a good while to drain that much water out of the BarHopp'R. Because of the way the waves climb the shoal, you can't tell what it's going to be like on the Stickbeach until you get there. Well, it was rough, and hard to stand up, but not quite to the point of being dangerous. I elected to stay and see if we had any snook willing to eat. Boy, were they willing. For the next four hours or so, Butch, Chris, and Lucky put a whuppin' on some snook. Lucky landed eight and nine pounders, and as best we could count, each of the trio landed around 15 snook, for a total pushing 50 fish real hard. They lost probably twice that many. Fortunately, most of the getaways were thrown hooks rather than broken lines. If I'd had to tie very many lines out there in that rough stuff, I probably would have wound up seasick. Something about concentrating on tying a knot in the rough stuff will absolutely make your stomach do flips. Toward the end of the morning Chris was starting to feel queasy, and I knew if we didn't get him out of there he'd wind up sick. The bite was slowing, storms were brewing to our west and heading in our direction, and the water was getting rougher by the minute, so we called it a day and were back at the dock by 11:30 AM. It was a great day, and Lucky sure lived up to his name!
Tuesday I was scheduled to do a tarpon and snook trip with Jim Fuller, whom I'd taken out years ago. He was staying in Venice, and wanted to fish Sarasota. As my schedule evolved, all of my trips were in the Sound, and at the last minute I decided that it would be better for Jim to let him fish with someone who'd been fishing Sarasota Bay, instead of getting reacquainted with Sarasota Bay on his nickel. I referred him to my good friend Capt. Tommy Stephens. I haven't heard from Tommy on how they did, but I'm sure they did just fine. I spend the day running errands and working on the website.
Wednesday was a scheduled day off for me, and I managed to get another one right; it rained like hell all day.
Thursday morning broke with just a whisper of a breeze from the east. The forecast was for about a 60% chance of more rain, but it was a beautiful morning. Curt Bashford, vice-president of General Devices of Union, New Jersey, and his good friend Dave Bernot were pumped and ready to take on some snook. More importantly, they were ready to learn how. After about an hour of catching bait, we were off to the Stickbeach. It was beautiful. The first bait Dave put in the water was inhaled by what turned out to be (after some serious coaching) a 12 pound snook. Dave did a great job of following my instructions and brought the silver beast to boatside after an extended battle. What a beautiful fish. Curt took a little longer to get rolling, but soon got into the groove, and before the morning was over Curt and Dave had used every one of the hundred plus baits we had in the well, and every single one of them had been hit. The boys landed the 12, an 11, a couple of 9', 8's and lots of 5 pounders. They also caught two big redfish. One was battle scared around the tail where she had apparently had a close encounter of the dolphin kind, and had one of my rigs hanging out of her mouth where one of the boys had broken her off earlier. She was 12 pounds and 34 inches long. The total for the morning was 2 reds, and around 29 snook, best we could figure. It was a great day, and Curt and Dave were a lot of fun to be with.
Friday morning I was eager to meet two of my very favorite people, Jeff and Lisa Stafford, now of Memphis, Tennessee. They have been with me almost from the start. They've been loyal customers and good friends. We've had some great trips over the years, both in Sarasota Bay and in the Sound. We've fished artificials and live baits. Lisa is one of the coolest gals I know. She coined the phrase "minner dinner", referring to our shiners, introduced me to Zima, was the first woman brave enough to pee in my rear livewell (and left the seat up), and always manages to catch the biggest fish. I had high hopes of putting them on even more snook than we caught last time. It was a beautiful morning, with a fiery red sunrise that was gorgeous. We had a light easterly breeze. I figured everything was perfect. But, the bait had a different idea, and just wouldn't come to the chum. Damn. We chummed here and there and were only picking up two or three baits a throw. I moved to a different area, leaving my bud Rey Rodriguez still working the flat for bait. A mile north we found millions of baits on top, but they were in the 3 inch range; usable, but small and hard to throw. I filled the livewells with those baits and ran back to tell Rey, only to find out that the big baits had finally shown up after we left. We caught a few and left. It was already after eight o'clock, and I was in a pickle about wasting so much time getting bait. I knew we were missing the best part of the bite. Once we got out on the Stickbeach, I found another guide already fishing in my favorite spot. He was catching a fish here and there, but wasn't fishing it properly. He never moved for the rest of the morning, and the fish were slow to bite anywhere else. Jeff and Lisa bagged 4 snook a piece, and missed a lot more. Lisa caught the last fish caught, which after a long struggle during which she tried her best to get one of us guys to take the rod, turned out to be a 37 inch, 16 pound redfish. It was a big, broad-shouldered beauty, and left Lisa trembling from her adrenaline high for the next half hour. After the fish was in the boat, she was glad we had refused to take the rod from her. We decided to go and spend the last hour or so trying to put a few trout in the boat, but it was the noon hour, and I figured that would be a tall order in the heat of the day. We did manage to catch a few undersized ones, but nothing for the cooler. Lisa again hooked the last fish of the day, which immediately set out to spool my reel. I pulled anchor and ran for the trolling motor. As I jumped onto the forward deck Lisa grabbed the spool and broke it off. I didn't realize it then, but she knew perfectly well what she was doing. Right after that we spotted a shovelhead shark of 4 to 5 ft. milling around, and I'm guessing that's what took off with her rig. Lisa didn't want anything to do with that one. For me it was a trying day because nothing went according to plan, the fish didn't want to eat, etc. But we had fun in spite of that. Back at the dock, we sat under the shade tree and drank a couple of beers together while we chatted. I have many fond memories of Jeff and Lisa, and they will always be at the top of my favorites list.
I'm taking Saturday off, but will be back at it Sunday. Stay tuned.