Well, it won't be long before it really slows down, but for now, there's a full week ahead. Interestingly, all of my clients this week were from Florida.
First up was Jim McConlogue, owner of Aneco Electrical Construction, Inc., in Palm Beach Gardens, a large electrical contractor with offices in several Florida cities. Jim had along his lovely children Jane and Jimmy, who were just delightful. My mission was to put them on some action.
After getting bait up near Foster's Point on North Captiva, we headed for the Stickbeach. There the bite, which had been slow for the last part of the previous week, continued slow. Dad and the kids did get quite a few opportunities to put snook in the boat, but Jimmy landed the only one. The linesided speedsters proved to be more than the gang bargained for in the heavy cover. I decided to move inside onto a flat and try to find some trout and jacks, that might be a little easier for the kids to handle. We set up a drift on a nice turtlegrass flat, and pitched small shiners downwind. Walah! For the rest of the morning we caught trout and jacks about as fast as we could. What fun! By noon we were all worn out, and ready for the ride home.
Tuesday, Scott Gallivan, a native Floridian like myself, was over from Port St. Lucie, with his eleven year old son Mason. They were scheduled to fish Tuesday and Thursday. We got a mixed bag of bait up at North Captiva, and headed for the Stickbeach. Scott, an experienced angler told me not to worry about him, but to just take care of Mason. So, that's what I did. The bite on the beach wasn't intense, but steady. Mason landed a nice, keeping size redfish, and he and dad landed about a dozen snook, with lots of misses. Once the bite slowed, we moved inside to the same flat I'd fished the day before, and again scored around a dozen nice trout and 3 jacks. The amazing thing was that we actually managed to wear out an eleven year old boy. I didn't think that could be done. Scott and Mason were great guys, and I really enjoyed the day with them.
Wednesday, I fished with David Parish, who was down from Panama City. Dave is an experienced offshore angler who had caught one snook in his life, years ago. After catching bait at Foster's Point, we headed to the Stickbeach. As we approached the Stickbeach, it looked as if were disappearing into a cloak of fog. Actually, the Mosquito Control had just sprayed the whole area, and a dense cloud of mosquito fog was hanging in the still of the morning. It was a very Erie looking scene, and we decided to wait until the fog settled before we charged in to fish. No telling what's in that stuff, but I didn't want to breath a heavy dose of it. Once the mosquito fog lifted, we found the water not moving, and the fish not eating. I assured Dave that when the tide started to move, the fish would eat. The fish did eat on the initial surge of the outgoing tide, but the bite stopped as quickly as it started after about an hour. The water had quit moving for reasons I didn't understand. Puzzled, I pulled anchor and started working the beach slowly on the trolling motor, looking for fish that would eat. We caught a few more. Then, as I was moving the boat to the other end of the beach on the Yamaha, Dave spotted fish thrashing and crashing bait up in the trees. It could only be snook. We moved in close and were soon treated to the spectacle of hundreds of snook ravaging bait schools right at the treeline. Two baits in the water, two snook hooked. Over and over we caught snook as soon as the baits hit the water as we followed the moving school down the beach. We ran into another guide and invited him to join us in the fun. We stayed with the snook on the beach for the whole morning, and the bite finally subsided around 11:30 AM. We'd had a great day, and put close to 30 snook into the boat as best we could recollect. Dave and I had a blast, had both been bee bitten by bees angered at being fogged, and made the revitalizing ride home basking in the glow of success.
I was to fish with Scott Gallivan again on Thursday. Wednesday afternoon I received a message that went something like, "Butch, this is Scott Gallivan, we can't fi............................" I called him at South Seas, and left a message, but never heard back from him. I didn't have a deposit for either for the two days, and still haven't heard from Scott. I don't know what happened, but we didn't fish.
Friday's trip was a real trip. Ron Beck, of Davey, Florida, had booked a trip with two of his fishing buddies, Ross of Ross Art, and Murphy, a mortgage broker. Ron said he was through owning boats, and was hunting for good guides to fish with. He'd sounded like a character on the phone, and certainly turned out to be a riot in person. Ron was fascinated with the bait catching process; the Purina tropical fish food and my net throwing abilities in particular. He was also amazed at all the bait I threw away, because it was unacceptable; pinfish, grunts, ballyhoo, and small shiners. Once we were baited up, we headed for the Stickbeach.
We found two boats already fishing the beach. One was in my favorite spot, the other was Capt. Billy and his friend back at it. We moved along slowly on the Motor Guide until we struck fish, then anchored. First thing, Ron starts busting my chops about the double handles I have on all my Shimano reels. He was just raising cane about how he couldn't fish with them, and they were causing him to miss his fish, and the handle was lose, etc. Not really knowing Ron yet, I figured he was just busting my chops for fun, so I decided to have some fun of my own. I stopped Ron for a minute, took the reel from him, removed the handle and put it in my pocket, then told him, "In about a half hour you'll love that handle!" and gave the rod back to him. I turned to get a new handle out of my divebox, and could see the grins on Ross and Murphy's faces. Next thing I know Ron is telling me it's no big deal, he can fish that way. I turn around and find him stripping line in like a flyfisherman. We all had a good laugh, and that set the tone for the rest of the trip. It was like fishing with old friends, and everyone was fair game. Ross, who's an ex bass guide and tournament angler, had a rough day. He was cut off by countless fish, and was seriously questioning his angling abilities by the end of the day, but hey, that's snook fishing at the Stickbeach. Fun, yes! Easy, no! By the end of the morning we estimated we'd put 40 to 50 fish in the boat, including two nice mackerel, three speckled trout, and a couple of mangrove snappers. The rest were snook. We'd all had a blast, and I may have set a new record for lines tied in a single morning. Just kidding, Ross! The boys observed that the other boats only caught a few fish, while we were tearing 'em up. We had shiners, Billy was fishing with threadfins, and the other boat left shortly after we arrived. That's why us live bait guides turn into such bait-whores.
Back at the dock Ron said he wanted to get with me about arranging at least a trip a month for the next year. I'm really looking forward to those days.
I almost forgot to tell you this story. A couple of weeks ago, a couple of fishermen were fishing close to us on the Stickbeach. We were killing the big snook and big reds, while they were catching an occasional fish on pinfish baits. One hooked a huge redfish. His partner laid down his pole (with bait in water) so that he could help his friend land his fish. Suddenly, we were treated to all kinds of deleted expletives as the helper realized that a big red had snatched his $400 plus Shimano Sustain 4000, G-Loomis GL2 combo out of the boat! I suggested back to him that he had learned a tough lesson. You just don't lay a rod down in the boat with a bait on it around these parts.
Well, I've forgotten which trip it was this week, but one of my anglers got hung up and ask for my help getting the line out of the trees. As I showed him the proper way to pull straight back through the unbent rod, something came lose. It was heavy, but as I dragged it up out of the water, I couldn't believe that he had hooked right through the tip guide of the lost G-Loomis rod, and we were recovering it, now. It was all covered with small barnacles, and the guides on the rod were rusted, but was otherwise in tact. What are the odds?
I took it home, and stripped the reel down to the last little part and
put it in a soak tank. Then we bathed all the exterior parts in muradic
acid. You wouldn't believe how that thing cleaned up. We saved
everything but the spool. It will need all new bearings, but hey, it's a
$225 reel. Might be worth the cost. If not, I've got plenty of spares
for the Sustains that I own.