2007 FL Fish-In : Good times, great friends...

Wednesday morning the temperatures had gotten back into the 50's, quite a change from the 49 degrees Sunday, 46 Monday & 41 on Tuesday. Mark had to catch a late afternoon flight, so instead of him only catching an embroidered snook on a baseball cap, there was only one plan of action to take. Couldn't send him home without giving a few more tries at some warmer snook waters! Ironic that everywhere Thunderthumbs, aka Hugo was sent out onto unfamiliar waters he caught fish. Hu-go there & Hugo catches fish, Hu-go over there & Hu-go catches more fish! Hugo went to Snook Alley & we'll have to wait to find out the obvious.......Mark says it's Marks' luck, but I had better ideas. We drove over to the Spring Lake boat ramp where snook had been caught the morning before & after we were there. There are a number of piers to spot the prey & despite the alligator warning signs Mark was wet wading, casting parallel to the mangroves where the glass minnows were absorbing the sunshines warming rays. Nothing took the fly. The journey continued to the Charlotte Harbor Alligator Creek Environmental Park off Burnt Store Road. I had been there from the Charlotte Harbor side by way of boat & knew there were fish in the waters, but didn't realize it was about a half mile hike in from the parking lot ! South on Burnt Store Road we drove to look at the weirs where snook waited for baitfish to be washed over the dams for an easy meal, but since there wasn't any measureable rainfal for the past 3 weeks, no water was going over the weirs. Farther south to the Cape Coral / Burnt Store boat ramp leading out to the Cetus Boat Lock was another spot that had held fish in the past, but the lock was broken & hadn't been repaired, so odds were just like the weirs, freshwaters above to the east, saltwaters below & to the west. Pine Island Road was only a mile farther south & then west to the fly shop where there was a private pay to use boat ramp at the marine store. The fly shop had been in the process of remodeling from the hurricanes destructive winds for the past year, but didn't realize that the knowledgeable fly fisher was no longer in their employ nor was the fly shop going to reopen as they had sold off all the fly tying supplies, leaving only a few rods in the racks. There was one more county park south on Stringfellow Road off Tropical. The drive thru Matlacha & it's regrowth since the hurricanes into an artsy community let the eyes wander onto a new boat ramp sign directing a left turn. There was a regardened park with water access that had a number of spin & baitcasters plying the waters, but with the construction noises on a new house going up across the canal echoing off the waters, it seemed better to continue on the snook quest. The park at the end of Tropical only has parking for a half a dozen vehicles & we got a parking place. We faced east towards Pine Island Sound, just south of the power lines which are south of the Matlacha Bridge which is known as " the fishingest little bridge in the world ". Pine Island Sound has some of the lushest grass flats in Florida. Spartina grass is good, but the turtle grasses of the sound hold more fish than maybe anywhere else in the state. There are so many mangrove islands & creeks that flow into the sound which in turn provides more shoreline than even Florida born natives might be able to fish in a lifetime ! The waters were clear & held glass minnows, finger mullet & mullet; the dinner table for the gamefish was set with the teperatures now getting into the 80's again! There is a narrow boatable canal running just south of the access road to the cul-de-sac parking lot. Islands to the north & south with mangrove lined shoreline as far as one could see acroos the flats. Mark tied on a Golden Bendback & after along while had a hit, & then he had changed flies to a Clouser to fish the deeper waters of the canal after I had walked down the asphalt looking into the canal from areas that had been trampled down to provide fishing access thru the red mangroves to spot some fish for him to cast to. There were some little redfish & snook, too small for a size # 1/0 fly; & a flash of silver from a deep hole in the channel may have revealed a baby tarpon with no apparent way to even get a cast to present a fly thru the mangrove roots & overhanging leaves. A lady in a sit-in-kayak with a spinning rod had paddled back from the northern islands shoreline complaining there were no fish in this area anymore, despite seeing a couple of small sea trout! After taking a few pictures & asking a couple to take our picture together, we headed off towards lunch; which obviously wasn't going to be a snook dinner! The flight was supposed to be at 5:30 pm, later it was found out to be more than a few hours late departing southwest Florida ! Maybe the concept of call waiting should be applicable to airline departure schedules, then I could have driven out to Punta Russa at the foot of the Sanibel Causeway where Mark could have flycast his way into ripping the lips off a snook on the fly instead of having to wear that embroidered one until he gets back down to paradise again ! 8)

Watching the weather report for this weekend & another cold front is coming thru. I can envision Mark going around to his boss, his significant other & his airline ticket procuring cousin trying to get another few days in paradise instead of having to wait out another ice & snow storm with bone chilling temps ! It would be like Capt Tony & Kates' award winning bird dog going around at the picnic with those big sad eyes watching every bite you ate waiting for you to drop a piece of food, but Ghost doesn't get people food; just like the flyfisherman formerely known as Mr Falling Spring only gets 1 barber shop pole sunburn on the legs in the Florida sunshine per diem! Guess I'll have to call & complain about having to shovel the heat & humidity out of the driveway when they get that storm in the midwest that's headed his way ! Without a doubt, when three (Ken, Les & Mark ) former flyshop proprietors get together; and they all seem to continue with their outdoors writing professions on some level; with a relatively new fly shops' business manager ( Kevin )it's instant friendships, advive & accolades for being in the business despite the obvious loss of fly fishing time with a gain in knowledge he wouldn't have gotten without meeting. There's always the old pirates that haven't gotten to attend the new events, but started the tradition & then there's some like me that showed up on a day years ago & wished there had been more time to attend for an extended visit to learn a few more things from those with similar interests of ripping lips off of saltwater species! Just to go from a wanna-be-pirate to a full fledged swashbuckling pirate weilding the long rod instead of a sword; whether it be wading, kayaking, boating or just wishing I was flyfishing, daydreaming I'm flyfishing, flyfishing on the internet or dreaming I'm flyfishing.....great friends made this years event a really good time! Some details were obviously overlooked & omitted since this is just one perspective & recollection; long winded & continuous ... just the facts ma'am, just the facts ! :!:

Dave, the body of water accessed from Tropical Point is not Pine Island Sound, but Matlacha Pass. Tropical Point is on the eastern side of the island, and Pine Island Sound is located to the west of the island. In my experience (fishing there about twice a month), fishing in Matlacha Pass has, indeed, regressed, and I think it is because of the annual discharges of fresh water from the Caloosahatchee River (draining Lake Okeechobee). Pine Island Sound, however, does not seem to have been affected as drastically by the discharges, and the fishing is still good there.

Didn't realize that was what I typed, but then again I haven't fished there in years since Hurricane Charley came thru. The power lines to the north should have reminded me that there's something not natural in the mangrove shoreline to get my bearings. Did fish upper Pine Island Sound last summer when we took a lunch break on North Captiva after fishing the flats around Useppa before going back on the Gulf side of Cayo Costa tarpon fishing. Thanks for updating the wind whipped memory & good luck fly flinging in the area ! 8)

http://www.publicopiniononline.com/sports/ci_5509127

Hi Mark,

Glad you had a good time at the fish-in. Sorry I could not get a few more days to enjoy the good times,but a good friends passing took me away. I enjoyed the article,"Florida sojourn was great"Florida fishing is a wonderful experience for all avid Flyfishers. And yes I also have a Yak. Hope you can attend next year,enjoyed your company.

Les Maynard

Is there some reason that the Florida fish in was not posted?I couldn't make it last year, and was waiting all year for the date if there was going to be one this year.
Bob.K.

krausebb,

Truly sorry you missed it. I'm not sure if the Florida Fish-In was posted on the main board but for about 2/3 months there were a number threads and posts here in the Saltwater Fly Fishing board asking who could make it and what would be the best dates to hold it and a schedule of "events" for the week once it was decided when it would be.

Perhaps a little closer contact with LadyFisher to get it on the main board "Menu" next time would help, if that was the problem.

Again, sorry you didn't hear about it.

I'm a fresh water fisherman, and only checked the list of fish-in's on the menue.
Thanks.

You'll have to check the pirates board next time ! As far as I know, the information ( I had provided what was outlined the year before for getting it posted according to FAOL guidelines to Capt Tony) & with the updated info that provided for this year was emailed by Capt Tony to FAOL but somehow it never got there or posted. Glitch......have fun reading about our misadventures & plan on being notified for the next year! 8)