A Poor Tide and a Cold Front Again Make For A Great Day!
Capt. Butch Rickey
January 3, 2013
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week Ending 12/22/12...........
I had two trips with Rasmus family this week. The first was to be with Kari and Brad on Thursday, and the second on Friday with their sons Joe and Nate. They hale from Fargo, South Dakota. Kari is the niece of my friend and customer Tom Olson, and I was really excited about the trips with this family. BUT! Mother Nature had other ideas.
As we got into the week it was obvious we would have a big cold front be a factor. It just remained to be seen exactly when and to what degree. Well, by Wednesday, the forecast was pretty well shaped up, and I could see that the front would arrive sometime Thursday, and push through probably late in the day or overnight, and then Friday would be a big blowout. The forecast for Friday was for wind to 30 K. I let Kari and Brad know, and they decided to send the boys, Joe and Nate out on Thursday, and then they would go out with Cullen Sanders, whom I had recommended to them.
We had a week of terrible tides, which I had already explained to Kari long ago. I told her there wouldn't be a whole lot of catching going on with such tides, and she assured me that it wasn't that important, because they were just very anxious to get out and explore the Sound. I modified my prospects Thursday morning for the boys, telling them that even though we had an awful tide, if the wind would shift around to the south with the approaching front, and the barometer begin to fall, we would surely see a bite in spite of the tide. It would be all about the timing.
I met the boys who were with their folks Brad and Kari, Thursday morning at Castaways Marina. We chatted for a while and they took off for their trip with Capt. Sanders. It was overcast and breezy as we left the ramp. I made a mental note of where the tide was so that I could gauge its movement throughout the morning. The tide was stalled sort of between the high and the low, and movement was not perceptible. It was supposed to be a falling tide for the whole time we'd be out there, so I decided to chase redfish while there was still some water on the flats.
We made a long run to our first spot, which would allow us to use the prevailing wind direction which was just south of east. We all worked our assigned spots hard. Nothing. A few bumps, but no passion for the food behind them. We made a move to another nearby area that is always fertile redfish grounds if the tide is right. Again we struck out. I had seen reds while moving onto the flat, and knew they were there, but they weren't having anything to do with us. We were nearing the halfway point of our time, and I couldn't see any movement of the tide. Then our break came. The wind flipped to the south and began to blow in earnest. It was time for me to go hunting......for big winter trout. I figured that would be our greatest chance of success.
I moved to and area of deeper water off the edge of our flat where I had spotted large muds. I hadn't seen what was making them yet, but knew that it would very possibly attract redfish, or perhaps other species. As I got close to the area, I spotted the source of the muds. There were three manatee milling around in the water that was just deep enough to cover their backs. I made a cast into the mud. Bang! I had a nice trout on. I made another, and caught another. And, another. Three is a pattern, and I called the boys to come in and fish on either side of me. Once they were there and catching, I moved on to hopefully find bigger trout. There were some keeper size fish in this spot, but most of them turned out to be right at the cusp of keeping, at 14.75 inches.
I made a move to a hole about a quarter mile or so away. I hadn't fished it in a long time, but the wind was lined up on it just perfectly for all of us to fish it if the fish were there. In the first five casts I had five trout, all of which were 17" or better, and including two that were nearly 22". I called Joe and Nate, and they joined me. They'd left catching trout after trout, to come catch larger trout after trout, and I think it was Nate that told me he had a string of 12 fish on 12 casts.
We were on a hot bite, and the trout were nice. We didn't catch any of the big winter trout that will run 4 to 6 pounds out there, but we caught a boatload of fish, and everyone caught at least one redfish in that hole, as well. The biggest was 26.5 inches.
I was now two o'clock, and the wind was building in intensity. We would have to run right up the gut of the wind for a long way to get home, and the brisk south wind had also overridden the tide and had it turned around and coming in. We'd be bucking that, too. We headed in. We all had our limit of trout on our stringers, as well as one nice flounder and the big redfish. A stringer full of fish will definitely slow you down, and we literally had to run our trolling motors and paddle our boats, as well, to get in. It took a little more than an hour to make the voyage.
At the ramp I asked the boys if they wanted to take any of the fish back to their condo so their folks could see them. They knew how to fillet fish, and were glad to take them whole. We gutted and bled the redfish, got a couple of inches of ice in one of my larger cooler bags, and carefully stacked all the fish in the cooler. We headed off to Casa Y'bel.
Kari was out walking the beach, so I didn't get to see her again. But, you should have seen Dad Brad's eyes when we opened up that cooler, and it was slam full of big trout and that big red. He was really excited. The boys were allowed to keep four trout each, as well as the flounder and the big red. They would have a bunch of fish to work on before they went home.
We hung out and talked about the day for quite a while, but I eventually took off. I was getting late, and I still had a lot of work to do. It had been a great day with a couple of young college boys that were great to be with, and very good anglers. The best part for me was when Brad asked them how the trip was, they used the "A" word. They said it was "Awesome". Tips are great, and we live by the tip, but the best tip a guide can get is the "A" word at the end of the day.
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