A Short Week in the Talon
Capt. Butch Rickey
October 31, 2010
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Only one trip this week, but it was a fun one with Blain Stobinski and his wife Julie. I fished with Blain around the same time of the year in 2008, and we had a great day. At the end of the day Blain told me it was the most fish he'd ever caught on a Florida charter. I hoped it would be another day that he could say something like that.
We met at 0700 hours, and headed out under the A span to the B span flats for bait. We already had a brisk southeast wind and blowing against a hard charging outgoing tide, it had the mouth of the river and the Sound all chopped up. My last Talon trip it had taken only three throws of the castnet to load the well to the gills. Blain and I got an slower start, but were loaded up in about six throws. We were ready to fish.
With the water blowing out of the sound and already getting low, I decided pothole fishing would probably be the plan. Actually, I had already decided on the plan the day before, but still needed to see what was happening. We headed up into the Sound to the first pothole. We certainly didn't get the reception I was hoping for. We caught a flounder and some ladyfish. Julie was sitting out, but seemed to be enjoying being out on the water. After working the large hole over well, we moved on.
At the next stop, another good sized hole, we had pretty good trout action for a while, and Blain put a beautiful trout weighing right at five pounds in the well, along with gafftop sail catfish, and lizard fish. That big trout was caught on a jig. Once the action slowed we moved to another small pothole where we caught a trout or two. Then we were on the move, again.
The next stop was a dud. Great hole, but no bite. So, I decided to take Blain grouper fishing at the same spot we'd caught around 20 nice grouper back in 08. We caught a few no-name fish and sealed up the Trashcan Slam, and Blain got cut off in the rocks by the only grouper that bit. The wind was doing strange things with the outgoing tide. It had basically stopped it in its tracks long before the tide was supposed to be done. I suggested we go eat, and then hit another spot or two after lunch.
We pointed the Talon toward the infamous Waterfront Restaurant, and with the tide now laying flat the bad chop was gone. We enjoyed a great lunch, and I saw JD, the owner, and hardly recognized him. He told me he'd lost 130 pounds (I believe it was), and he looks absolutely fabulous. And, of course the food was fabulous.
Back on the water I pointed up to a beautiful snook hole close by. With the wind now pretty much out of the south, it was the perfect spot to have the wind at our backs. I hadn't had a hit on a chum all morning long, but when I tossed a bat full of shiners into the hole, the snook crushed them all over the place. Also, there were big schools of glass minnows (also known as rain minnows) all around us, and the snook were raiding them constantly.
We tossed bait after bait into the busting snook, and nearly every one came back scaled. But, they weren't eating the bait. Frustrating! But, finally persistence paid off and Blain had his first snook. We fished the area hard, excited by all the feeding action, and caught another small snook or two before calling it a day.
I think we did pretty well for a day with wind gusting to 20, and outgoing tide, a moon still on the backside of full, and with Blain under the weather all day. And, I think Blain agreed. It was great to spend a day on the water with Blain again, and great to meet Julie.
That was the week. Next week I have one Talon trip and two kayak trips, and I'm hoping that the second half of my fleet, a 14.5 ft. Ultimate and Manta Ray will arrive sometime during the week. They still have to be rigged, and I've already learned that the Watersnake trolling motors are really taking off in the canoe/kayak community, and are not even available for shipment until November 18th.
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