Great Weather, Great Friend, and Good Fishing Make A Great Day!
Capt. Butch Rickey
November 8, 2012
Estero Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week Ending 11/3/12
I was scheduled to fish Estero Bay with my good friend Frank Faust, from Iowa, on Tuesday, but the lingering winds in the wake of the hurricane prompted me to move our day to Wednesday. And, of course, Wednesday was slick as glass all day long.
I was to meet Frank at the Subway on Estero Island at 7 AM. We planned to have a breakfast there, and have some monster sandwiches built for us to take for lunch. I was 35 minutes early, and listened to radio and enjoyed a cup of coffee while I waited. I noticed that the Subway did not open or even have a light on by 7 AM. Frank arrived about five after, and still no lights or cars in the area. We opted to head back up the island and hit the only McDonald's for a couple of breakfast burritos. Frank ate his burrito while I drove us back down the island to Subway. They were open. While Frank went to get us sandwiches, I worked on my burrito.
Frank was taking a long time, and I could tell something was amiss. Finally, Frank came to the van and asked if I had any change. I had some in one of the drink holders on the van dash, but we were a nickel short. Frank went back in figuring they wouldn't argue over a nickle. Wrong. The girl who spoke very little English, took the sandwich away from Frank when she realized he was a still nickel short!! Frank went outside and approached a guy who was buying his morning paper, and he gave him a quarter. He finally came back to the van with our sandwiches, madder than a hornet. She wouldn't let him slide for a lousy nickel. I think we'll be re-evaluating our patronage of Subway. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.
Finally, we were at the Lovers Key ramp getting the boats together and into the water. We still managed to get there and into the water before the outgoing tide was done. We headed to a spot I like to fish that is a sort of underground punchbowl. It almost always has plenty of trout, as well as ladyfish, jacks, and other surprises. I got Frank staked out where I wanted him, and proceeded to the spot I was going to occupy. Before I even got there, Frank had a nice trout on his first cast. Then another on his second cast. And, on and on, nearly every cast for a while brought Frank a trout. I wasn't catching in the deeper water I was fishing, so I went back and anchored off Frank's starboard side a cast away. I managed to catch a few before the tide quit with the stopping of the outgoing tide. We would have an hour or so of dead time on the change of the tide. Frank told me that was the most fish he'd ever caught at one time. He was pretty happy with those trout.
Frank's primary mission on this trip was to mark the spots I took him to on his new GPS, and also take videos as he made a circle around each one of the islands on the low water. This he could use for future reference. Knowing what's under the water is critical to success when you're back fishing these spots on later stages of the tide. We decided to leave our fish and use the dead tide time as travel time to our next series of spots. We did very little fishing there. Frank shot video and recorded GPS coordinates for future reference. I did wet a line a little and caught a keeper red and lost a red. We had one on the stringer. We needed another for Frank.
Once we were done with mapping that area we moved on to the next. The water was moving well now, and getting higher, beginning to cover things up a bit. Frank and I parked on another key and went to work. I worked my way around one end of it to the other side, and immediately stuck another redfish. I called Frank to come join me, as I've routinely caught lots of reds there. But, before Frank could even get off anchor and join me, a couple of commercial boys in a small Carolina Skiff pulled in on top of me and began throwing their mullet castnets. They had already worked over another nearby key, rendering it wasted for the rest of the tide. They acted as if I didn't exist. A few years ago I would have drawn my 9 mm on them and invited them to get the hell away from me. But, older age and better judgment prevailed, and Frank and I moved on and let them have it. It's always an option, though.
We moved on to an area than I've never fished, because I've never had to deviate from the route that I normally fish on the incoming tide, to catch fish. As Frank was coming around to join me, he ran his (my) Ultimate 14-7 onto a large oyster bar. I figured at the least the motor and prop would be all torn up, and at the worst, so would the hull. A short distance later, his motor quit working! I went over to Frank to see if I could ascertain what had happened. I held his prop with my hand and turned the motor on. It had so little torque I could easily hold the prop from turning. The leading edge of the prop was pretty carved up.
We were very near the top of the incoming tide, and decided to head on in. Frank would paddle. He did so for a couple hundred yards, and then asked if I could tow him the rest of the way. I had him tie off the lanyard from his stake-out pole to my rear handle, and instructed him to hold on to the other end of the pole keep it dead center on the bow. He didn't quite do that the first try, and was soon sideways to me, which stopped us dead in our tracks. We got lined up again, and this time he kept his boat straight on the pole and we made it on in.
It had been a great day of fun with a good friend. Frank is often a laugh a minute, and is a great fishing partner. The redfish action had been slow, as it has been there for me the last couple of times I've fished Estero, but we had a lot of fun and had our limit of reds. That makes it a great day.
Target Species:
Redfish and Trout
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