REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING 11/19/05 by Capt. Butch Rickey It was a busy week, mostly with old friends. But, we managed to work a couple of new folks in, too. The Talon was ready for business, as my long-time mechanic and friend Danny Fowler, of Fowler Marine replaced my blown trim and tilt unit with a like new one off a Honda 130, at a great savings. I was thankful. I didn’t know until Danny enlightened me that the manufacturers like Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, and OMC are beginning to use standardized parts like the trim units. The only difference is the color. And, unlike the days of just a few years ago, they don’t have to dismantle the motor to replace it. The week was to begin with a snook fishing trip with a very old friend, Don McDaniel, the older brother of my best friend Jim McDaniel. Jim and I go way back to high school days at Fort Myers Senior High. Don was about four years ahead of us, but over the years both Jim and Don have been like brothers to me, and I’ve been very fortunate to be one of their family. As our date drew closer Don’s presence became tenuous. He’d had a very nasty bug of some kind, and was having trouble breathing. When I talked to him over the weekend, he wasn’t sure if he was going to make it. Meanwhile, I had invited my neighbor at Camp BarHopp’R, Dave Meredith, to join Don and I. I knew he loved to fish and be on the water, but had never had the opportunity to get out there with him. Sunday night Don called and said he was going to see a doctor on Monday, so that left Dave and I to go it alone. After catching bait at Chino Island we were off to the first stop; a beautiful place that is usually full of big trout and snook. The snook weren’t interested, but the trout surely were. We caught a bunch of beautiful speckled trout before moving on in search of snook. At the second spot the snook were awake and willing to play. We caught a good dozen or more, including some keeping size fish, and a snapper and flounder or two. Once the action slowed, we made a change of scenery. I was hoping to find some redfish that would eat, but we didn’t find much of anything that was interested. Finally, we Dave brought a 27 inch snook to the boat on a nice cut bait, and I promised to cook him a snook dinner he wouldn’t soon forget as I put her into the well. We weren’t out to set any records and had enjoyed a beautiful morning of fishing, and decided to head on in early. That night Dave came over bearing libations and grits, and I cooked a broiled snook and grits dinner to die for. Tuesday morning I met my old friend Bill Odel at the Waterfront Restaurant for a day of fishing. He had just gotten back to his home in Punta Gorda, and was ready for some fishing. We hadn’t been out in quite a while. A stop at Chino Island again put plenty of bait into the well, and Bill and I were off to enjoy the day. The first stop was for trout, and we caught some beauties. The snook weren’t interested at our first stop. We moved on, and at the second stop we caught several nice snook including the first keeper of the day. We decided upon a change of species and scenery, and went to catch some grouper. Although they weren’t biting well, we did catch several gag grouper and Jewfish before moving on. We made another change of scenery, and turned our attention back to snook. At the exact spot where Dave and I had gotten a nice 27 inch fish the day before, Bill and I got a couple more keepers including another 27 inch fish. You could tell we were under the influence of the full moon, as the fish just weren’t much interested in eating. We moved on to a beautiful spot up in the mouth of Matlacha Pass, where we only managed one more snook. But we finished the day with four keepers, which ain’t bad on what was a pretty tough day of fishing. Of course, once back at the Waterfront, we had one of the gals take a picture or two of the two of us with a couple of snook. Bringing fish into the Waterfront dock always draws lots of interest from their customers. It had been a hard, but good day of fishing with a great friend, and Bill went home happy to have a snook for dinner. Wednesday was reserved for another good friend I hadn’t fished with in some time; Gary Goodenow, of Cape Coral. Back in 2001 when I broke both of the old BarHopp’Rs just a couple of months apart, Gary was the first man to offer me the use of his boat until I could get another boat in the water. I was so amazed that he would do that, and have never forgotten. I was wearing a Jack Daniels hat, with “Talon” and “Capt. Butch” embroidered on the back of it by his lovely wife Kathy. She had given it to me one evening when I was over for dinner with them, and I have been wearing it proudly. Gary thought I was wearing it just because he and I were fishing together that day, but I assured him that I loved the hat, and wore it every day. Of course, he had his Jack Daniels hat on, as well. Gary and I headed up to Chino Island for bait, and found many of our guide fleet there already. We had started a bit later because of the tide. The first thing I noticed as I got things ready was that everyone was moving around. I told Gary that wasn’t a good sign, because it meant that they weren’t catching. Most of them had been there since before sun up. We chummed a nearby spot, and although we got plenty of pins, we didn’t see the first shiner. I’ve learned not to fall in love with bait spots just because you got bait there the day before. So, I didn’t waste much time before moving. I moved to where I usually get bait when it seems to have dried up out on the bar. After chumming for just a short time, Gary swore he saw a flash in the black, tannin stained water, and I decided to throw the net to see if he was right. Well, he was, and we had lots of very nicely sized shiners in the net. After two subsequent throws that loaded our well, I called my friend Capt. John Objartle, and told him to come to where we were and bring the fleet with him. WE WERE ON GREAT BAIT!! I kept Gary chumming to hold the bait there until John could idle over. We bid them good luck, and headed out to our first spot of the morning. And a great spot it was! We not only caught lots of great speckled trout out of the hole, but caught 6 or 7 nice snook, too. We had a pretty good day of fishing right there. When things slowed with the incoming tide, we moved on. At our next stop we again got into snook, and caught a bunch of them. We also got into some snapper, flounder, and a big jack or two. It was a great spot. Once it slowed, I moved to a spot I hadn’t fished since last spring. It’s usually good for snook, big trout, snapper and grouper. Last winter I got into redfish there more than once. It wasn’t on fire, probably because the tide had given up well before the NOAA tide charts said it was supposed to do so, but we did manage to catch several snook there, too. By all accounts it was a great day. It was the first day in quite some time we hadn’t managed several keeper snook, but heck, Gary doesn’t eat fish anyway, so it was a moot point. We’d had plenty of action. Thursday was a hard, but fun day with my old friends Drs. Alan Kingston and John Bond, over from Apopka, Florida. They were here for several days, and had brought John’s boat, as they usually do when they visit. They love to fish our area. We headed up to Chino Island to find the fleet in disarray because no one was catching any shiners. Even in the spot that we had loaded up the day before. I wasn’t for wasting a lot of time and the best part of the tide trying to catch bait that probably wouldn’t materialize, so after trying several spots I headed north to the north end of Regla Island. There was a lot of bird activity up in the very shallow water just inches deep, which usually means glass minnows, or perhaps threadfins. As I worked my way in toward the birds in a couple of feet of water, suddenly the water was alive with threadfins! Fortunately, my net was laying in a mess on the deck of the Talon, but I’m sure I set some kind of record for folding, and throwing a castnet that morning, and the net was full of threadfins. I knew they wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours because they’re so fragile. They just won’t last a morning in a well like shiners, especially if you keep lots of them. For that reason, we call them deadfins. By the time I got the Talon ready for the run to the first hole, we had a big ladyfish feed going on right near to us. Ladyfish are great fun to catch and can be great redfish bait, as well as good bait for snook and big trout when the water is cold. We stopped a caught a few reeling the threadfins back to the boat very quickly, and on DOA TerrorEyez. It was a fish or two every cast! But, we wanted to catch the glamour species, so we moved on. At our first stop we caught lots of big, beautiful trout and one snook. Oddly enough, once the tide turned around, the expected action did not materialize. Strange. We headed out to our second stop, and I went across the shallowest water I’ve ever attempted in the Talon. I had her fully trimmed and up on her air cushion, and we went across water that couldn’t have been any more than 4 or 5 inches deep, at the most. I was totally puckered, because I didn’t think she’d make it. But, she did, and I was trimmed so high that I blew my entrance to the hole. I had no steering, and couldn’t get the motor down quickly enough to get it back! Once situated, the first thing we noticed was that the whole area was full of threadfins. They were everywhere, and so were the snook, blasting them out of the water all over the place. The deadfins we’d caught a hour or two earlier were already dying in mass and plugging up my well, so I got the net out and caught a new batch. They were smaller, but we used them to catch quite a few snook, more speckled trout, some snapper and flounder. I spent the last hour or so showing the guys some winter pattern places to fish, since we’re basically in a winter pattern, already. In fact, one of the places I showed them, would be magic for me on Friday. I hoped they would be able to do well over the next several days on their own. Friday dawned a miserable looking day with a miserable looking tide. All the conditions were bad for fishing. We had a big winter type low tide at around ten o’clock. It was a -.5 before any wind effects, and we had a pretty good north wind blowing behind a front that was just passed through. We had little or no bait, the full moon effect, and bad freshwater intrusion everywhere. The weather alone was enough to shut the fish down. I was as sure as I’d ever been that the fish wouldn’t eat, and I laid out the facts as I saw them for Dr. Joe Blanda and his friend Dave. It was our first trip together, and I didn’t want them going out there with false expectations. Yes! I needed to work, and hoped they would still want to go, but I wasn’t going to take them out there without leveling with them on how I saw our prospects. I told them that it was a day for trout and ladyfishing. And, I’m sure we would have done quite well at that. They told me they really wanted to try for snook and redfish. I told them that with the tide we had, and the expected wind, we might very well get into a hole in the backcountry, and not be able to get out until late in the day. We could literally become land locked. They put their heads together and decided they wanted to go. I didn’t even stop as we passed the fleet at Chino Island. I knew it was pointless. I went to the spot where we’d caught the threadfins the day before. There was nothing there. The fleet must have wondered what I was up to when they saw me going back south a few minutes later. I learned only today that there was no bait to be had, and that many of them had wound up canceling their trips. I decided to fish an area that would give us lots of fishing opportunities if we indeed did get stuck there for the whole day. Besides, I knew once we were in there, we would be stuck there for most of our fishing day. We got in with no trouble. I knew I could get in on the available water as I had over many winter tides past. It was dark, cool, and very overcast. Seemed a perfect day for topwater plugs. So, I rigged one topwater, one DOA TerrorEyez, and one jig. The first fish came on the topwater plug, but then many came on the DOA and jig, and I figured that if the fish were eating the TerrorEyez, they’d probably love a Rattletrap. I was right. Before long, we were all throwing 1/4 oz. rattletraps in blue/chrome, black/chrome, and gold/black. We were having a blast catching nearly every species we have to catch, here. The great thing about having these two guys in the boat was that they were very good casters, and good anglers, all round. You can’t fish lures with just anyone and be successful. But, Joe and Dave were the right guys at the right time, and they caught snook, redfish, gag grouper, Jewfish, mangrove snapper, etc. all morning long, and into the afternoon. At one point, I saw what appeared to be a white Lake and Bay flats boat go roaring by in the distance. I told the guys to listed carefully for the sound of the boat running aground and the motor kicking out of the water. I hadn’t gotten the words off my lips when the unmistakable sound of a boat running aground came across the waters on the wind at us. I knew he’d be there for a long time on this tide. And, in fact, later that day as we headed home, he was still there waiting on the water to come to him. We spend nearly our whole day in that area catching, and as best we could figure we caught somewhere between two and three dozen snook, including a couple of big fish, and lots of shorts. We also caught 6 or 7 reds, and nearly a dozen each of snapper, gag grouper, and Jewfish. Joe commented that if this was a bad day, he’d love to see a good one. Once we had enough water to safely leave the area, and safely get into another, we took off. Joe and Dave were interested in seeing some more of the area, since this was their first time to fish our waters. They normally fish the Banana River area when they vacation in Florida. We went into a beautiful area in Ding Darling, where we caught a couple more redfish, and a nice gag grouper. Dave lost a fish or two. As we made our way out to head home we were greeted with another big ladyfish feeding frenzy. Well! We just had to stop and catch a few. How could we not? After catching ladyfish on every cast for a while, we headed on in feeling great for having decided to go fishing instead of canceling our trip. It was a great day indeed, with a couple of great guys, and I’m betting they’ll be back to enjoy our waters, again. And, that’s how it went. Now, can you believe that as I write this we have yet another tropical system brewing down in the Caribbean? Don’t think it will do much more than give us some wind and rain, but what a tropical season we’ve had this year. Lots of records have fallen! Not much doing next week because of the Thanksgiving Holidays. I’m supposed to fish with my friend Mike May on Tuesday, and I sure hope Mother Nature let’s us get ‘er done!