December 8 Charlotte Harbor fishing report

DECEMBER 8, 2007

FLORIDA

What would have undoubtedly been a NEW WORLD RECORD for snook was caught from my old Hewes Bayfisher! Except it was out of season and WAAAAY over the slot limit.

I just found out last night that Steve Gastright, who bought the Bayfisher from me last May, was trolling a pinfish off the St. Lucie Inlet off the Indian River last summer when he encountered a major surprise.

?The tide was just coming in,? Steve said. ?I must have seen 500 tails in the water?no kidding?but I was running out of time and started motoring back to Jensen Beach when it happened.

?The reel started zinging, so I stopped the boat and grabbed the rod. I knew it was something big, but I had no idea what it was until I finally got it alongside the boat.

?So there I was, alone, with no camera! I started waving and yelling at some guys in a boat a quarter-mile away, but they ignored me. I didn?t want her to die, so I real quick brought her aboard and put her snout against the push pole, then marked where her tail ended on the other side of the casting deck.

?She obviously had spawned out recently, because her big old belly was flabby and floppy.

?Anyway, when I got home I grabbed my tape measure and it registered SIXTY-FOUR INCHES!?

Using the Florida Sportsman Fishing Planner?s chart to estimate weight, a 65-inch fish with a girth of only 26 inches would be approximately 55 pounds.

The existing Florida record is 44 pounds 3 ounces, and the world record is 53-10!

UNOFFICIALLY, Steve Gastright can claim the WORLD RECORD SNOOK!!! And to think it came off my old boat. Way to go, Steve!

He and his good buddy, John, from Casey Key are coming to the free fly casting clinic we?re giving at Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters on January 13, then we?re going fishing the following day. John has been hankerin? to learn the ?Quiet Sport,? and Steve is looking for ?some new tips.?

I told him ?there?s no way I?ll even SUGGEST that we?ll catch a fish to rival that snook of his, but I expect we?ll have a good time, anyway!

I was in upper Charlotte Harbor yesterday with Admiral Bob Parker, and Tony Soviano?formerly of Chicago?s South Side. Redfish, and some huge, gorgeous Spotted Leopard Rays, were abundant.

The reds were huge, too. I mean fish in the 20-pound class! Unfortunately, neither angler could get a fly in front of those monster reds.

We had a negative-three-inch tide around 9am, so I waited until about 10:30 to start fishing the West Wall. Even with a slight east wind there just wasn?t much water on that side.

I decided to run out to the main channel, and my Garmin 172C showed a lot of fish in 12 feet of water, but even with a sink-tip line The Admiral couldn?t hook up.

By the time I got over to Hog Island, on the East side, we were about a third of the way into the incoming tide and that?s when we found those big reds in about a foot of water.

Plenty of redfish, my friends. Just none in the boat yesterday morning!

Those rays certainly gave us a few minutes of exciting anticipation. They were just far enough away, and the sun was glinting off the water at just the right angle, to make the tips of their fins look like tarpon tails in the deeper water drop-off.

A pair of them finally thrashed and trashed about 10 feet from the boat and I saw what they were.

Just about all of Charlotte Harbor has been fishing extremely well for redfish the past week, including many, many, many tailing reds in the backcountry.

Tarpon also are still hanging around because of the unseasonably warm water temperatures. It was over 70 degrees yesterday, down only slightly from Monday, when a pod of poons in the hundred-pound class were frolicking in the clam lease behind Sandfly Key!

Spotted sea trout, bluefish, and pompano are prevalent in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) around Venice. Night snook fishing also has been extremely good in ?Snook Alley.?

I?ve got a full load of charters next week, and during Christmas week, so keep checking the Fishing Report for the latest updates on southwest Florida.

MICHIGAN

It?s overcast and 19 degrees in Wellston today. So, if steelhead are what floats YOUR boat, dress warmly and make sure to take a spare rod along.

Yes, there are fish in the Manistee River below Tippy Dam, and the Little Manistee also has been producing a fair number of fish according to my pals at Schmidt Outfitters.

Just remember to work small black stonefly nymphs, or Hex nymphs, very slowly across the bottom.

We?ve got more than a foot of snow on the ground in Deward, and the fly-only stretch of the Upper Manistee between M-72 and CCC Bridge also is calf-deep with the white stuff.

Personally, I?d recommend hopping an AirTran flight into Sarasota!

ENGLISH SETTER UPDATE

I took Ghost (who will be 11 years old in May!) and Heart (who just turned six months old) to Dream Lakes of Florida last Tuesday for some quail.

Barry O?Sullivan (yep, that?s really his name) and his Springer, Yankee, joined me. So did Joe and Andrew Lock with their yellow lab, Charlie.

Each dog got to work two sessions and three of the four were draggin? their tails in the pasture. Ghost, however, was a dervish! She covered ground like an F-16 on a strafing mission?back and forth through the bare areas and tall grass and even back in the thick Michigan-like trees.

Our Michigan vet, Paul Mesak, put her on a new pain reliever named Previcox before grouse season opened and it?s an absolute Miracle Drug.

Despite arthritis in both hips?and having had the steel plate from the TPLO two years ago removed November 15?this new medication is unbelievable. She ran Tuesday as if she was going to turn FOUR instead of ELEVEN!

The puppy, who we have nicknamed Conan The Barbarian, had a lot of fun discovering the joys of fresh cow pies until my repeated yells of ?LEAVE IT!!!!!? began to sink into his brain-pan.

Once we got THAT out of the way, he showed some very stylish points. He wasn?t very stylish AFTER the shot, however. He?d grab the quail and take off running.

?Whoa?? Never heard the word before.

?Right Here?? Only when I turned away and started walking back to the guys. THEN I?d feel a nudge against the back of my leg and Heart would be there with a puzzled ?Why aren?t you chasing me?? look.

And then I had to PRY the bird out of his mouth. Which is why I called my old friend Brian Bilinski at Fieldsport in Traverse City on Wednesday.

?Got any of those studded harnesses to cure a puppy of a bad case of hard-mouth?? I asked.

?Yep,? he said, ?three different sizes.?

?Quail,? I said, and made sure he had the Florida address.

One other interesting little episode involving Heart took place just last night.

I was going to read in bed for a few minutes after a day of shoving the Hewes around, but the phone rang. It was Steve Gastright confirming our casting/fishing plans for next month.

When I walked back into the bedroom?mere minutes later?Heart was happily, and quite messily, lapping Burgundy from my wine glass!

Wonderful. A bird dog who?s going to demand HIS dram of Hunter?s Hearth Liquor at the end of the day, too! Not a chance, Conan, not a chance.

Tight Loops,
Capt. Tony