Beach and Bayou Fishing
Capt. Butch Rickey
July 14, 2014
Sanibel - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week ending 6/28/14.........
I had two outings this week before shutting down for the summer. The first was a beach snook fishing trip with Steve Austin, of Jacksonville, Florida, and his good friend Wendell.
We were to meet at the Circle K near my place at 5:30. I'm always very early, and it happened that Steve and Wendell showed up at 5 AM. Great! We would be on the beach at first light. We loaded up and headed first to the Captiva side of Blind Pass, and walked north. There were a surprising number of anglers already there, as well as lots of beach walkers. We fished for about an hour and a half, and didn't have a bite, and saw not one fish caught. So, we packed up, and headed for Bowman's beach, and fished south down the beach.
Unloaded and on the beach things were still slow, but Wendell got a hot rod. From where I was standing I thought he was catching a few ladyfish, but they turned out to be trout. He did get one ladyfish, and got the only snook of the morning. Steve got a jack crevalle. I spent the morning trying different baits, looking for that one that would entice some snook bites. Wendell caught all of his fish on the green and silver Mirrodine.
From there as the morning passed, we moved up to the Sanibel Lighthouse area and poked around there, but didn't fish. It was pretty late, and I showed Steve some water he didn't know about. It had been a hard day of catching, but Steve and Wendell were great guys who understand fishing. They were happy with the day, as they had learned where to go and what to do to continue his surf snook quest. They wee going to stay and fish the weekend. I hope they did well, but haven't talked to Steve.
My Friday trip was with Dr. Patrick Holbert, who has recently moved to Bokeelia, on Pine Island. Patrick is a kayak angler, but has not been having much luck thus far. He wanted to do an instructional trip. Normally, I would have fished with him in his waters, but because of my time restraints right before going on vacation, Patrick was nice enough to come to me. The body of water can change, but the rules of success don't.
We met Friday morning at the Circle K at 7:30 AM, and were off to Bowman's Beach to fish Clam Bayou. It's beautiful, quiet, private, and has some great fish. Once launched, we made our way down the Bayou away from civilization, and then stopped for the first part of the instruction. I began the morning with a casting clinic, which encompasses far more than just casting, like line handling for accuracy, safely putting the brakes on running fish, how to totally prevent wind loops, etc. We spent hours with me bending Patrick's ears, and I joked at one point that I had run my mouth enough. Patrick told me to keep on talking, as he was learning so much. But, it was getting late in the morning, and it was time for us to wet a line for a while before the weather became an issue. Time to put things into practice.
The fish certainly weren't in an eating mood. But, Patrick and I had a good time doing some good fishing. I had a few hits, and I think Patrick did, too. But, we only got one nice red of 25 inches. I had been keeping one eye on the sky, and one eye on my target all morning, and I could see storms brewing early in the distance. They appeared to be coming our way. And, they came fast. Before we knew it they were blowing up on us, and Patrick and I made a run for it. We ran our motors on high, and got to the ramp and just had the boats on the trailer and the fish cleaned when the storm hit. It was a big one, with lots of lightning, and heavy rains. And, of course, we got tied up in traffic and it took us over an hour to get off Sanibel. Finally, we were back at Circle K, and we had to wait a few minutes there for the rain and lightning to taper off. When Patrick and I got out to get his fish and stuff, the two Ultimates were probably 7/8" deep with rain water. I got a battery and showed Patrick how well the bilge pumps worked laying in the two outer hulls of the boats. In a matter of seconds the water was on the ground!
We continued to talk for some time. We're kindred spirits, and hit it off from the start. Patrick was very complimentary to me, and told me the trip was worth twice what he'd paid for it, and assured me I hadn't talked too much. I promised him that when I returned we would get together over lunch or something with a laptop, and I'd teach him about tides and how to use Google Earth and Bing.maps to find good fishing spots in unfamiliar waters. I'm looking forward to that.
Target Species:
Snook and redfish
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