No Tarpon, But Nice Snook and Redfish to Catch
Capt. Butch Rickey
July 4, 2013
Pine Island Sound - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week ending 5/25/13........
My friend Don Marano was back on tap for a kayak tarpon trip on Thursday. We fished around this same time last year for poons, and when I got us to the spot, tarpon were everywhere. Don and I threw at the poons all morning long, and they just refused to eat. We finished up the day with a few quick redfish.
There are lots of poons out off Knapp's Point and in the passes, but I hadn't yet seen any in the area we planned to fish in the kayaks. But, that doesn't mean they aren't there. It should only mean that they're just not showing. But, since I hadn't had the opportunity to try to fish them in advance, and since the redfishing in the lower Sound had not been easy of late, I wanted an alternative plan.
I'd bought about $60 worth of the new DOA CAL Airhead plastics that recently came out, and promise to be great tarpon baits for those of us who sling artificials. My plan was dual purpose. I would take Don to the poon waters, and then leave him there to fish the poons while I went to a spot very close by to see if I could put some live ladyfish on the stringer for use both as tarpon bait, and later for redfish bait if the poons weren't biting. Don never saw a poon fin on the surface, and I recommended that he slow troll the Airheads in the deeper water.
Meanwhile, at my spot I caught a few trout, a jack, and had lots of ladyfish on, but they were hard to get to the boat without loosing them. I wound up with only 3 ladies on the stringer. Plenty for redfishing, but certainly not enough for poon fishing and redfishing.
I rejoined Don, and asked him whether he wanted to stay with the poons or turn to redfish. He was all for chasing some reds, given he'd seen no evidence of a tarpon in our area. We moved in on to the flats and went to work. Although we never got a redfish hooked there, Don did catch a nice 30" snook. I had gotten enough hits to know the redfish were there, and felt sure that once we got into the last couple of hours of the full moon tide, the fish would break loose and feed. I suggested that Don stay where he was, and that I would move to another redfish flat and go to work there. We would thereby increase our chances of getting on feeding reds before the tide was over. I took off.
Fifteen minutes or so later I was anchored and fishing and I knew I had plenty of redfish there. I was bringing my spoon in with the weedguard bent flat repeatedly, had a couple of break-offs on my static lined ladyfish baits, and lots of other hits. I tried calling Don on the radio for 45 minutes, and couldn't raise him. I had visions of him being so busy hauling in redfish that he couldn't answer me, but figured he was probably having radio problems. I kept watching in his direction, hoping that he would decide to come join me, and he finally did. I guess we ended the day with 5 redfish and that very nice snook Don boated early.
It wasn't a big numbers day, but it was a fun day, with great weather, and a great fishing partner, and Don and I always have a lot of fun.
Target Species:
Tarpon and redfish
More Fishing Reports:
