The Good, Bad, & Ugly of southwest Florida fishing

FEBRUARY 5, 2008

FLORIDA

When I was a fledgling journalist in my first year of college, I lead off a story by writing: ?Sometimes you get the bear. Sometimes the bear gets you. And sometimes?it just doesn?t pay to go into the woods.?

My sports editor, a senior, loved it.

Well, I?m sorry to report that we?ve sorta had a similar circumstance the past few trips. UNLIKE the spectacular fishing we?ve been having in Lemon Bay, the Myakka River and upper Charlotte Harbor were tough, Tough, TOUGH last week!

The Good part was when Denise Depaepe boated her five-pound snook in?naturally?Lemon Bay. Even though husband Jim had rough going with just a couple of small snappers (he missed several other fish), it was judged to be a very fine day indeed.

When the wind started howling as we were headed to Marker 17 for lunch, I suggested we ?finish? the full day trip on Tuesday, the 29th.

?Let?s go look for some baby tarpon,? I suggested. ?We haven?t seen them lately, but who knows what we might find.?

?Sounds good,? Jim said.

And it did. Sound good, that is. Except I forgot to call ahead and alert the tarpon that they were supposed to participate in the day?s events. So, they were notably absent.

Which definitely was NOT the case January 31, when Scott Liggett and Chris Creed met me at the Albee Road ramp for an evening of snook under the lights.

The fish DEFINITELY were in attendance. Thirty, forty? Yeah. Lots of fish finning around and routinely slurping down a glass minnow or small shrimp.

They were not, however, sufficiently impressed by the flies and jigs I had tied. Chris boated one small snook??I can scratch that species off my need-to-catch list,? he said?and a scrappy jack crevalle.

Mind you, these are the very same patterns that my clients have used to put impressive numbers of fish into the boat during the past several years. In fact, I counted twenty-two different flies that Scott used that trip. So, what gives?

Guess I?ve ?educated? them. The same thing happened with a nymph/emerger pattern I developed in Michigan more than 20 years ago. We absolutely HAMMERED browns and brookies on the Manistee River. Then, seemingly overnight, we couldn?t BUY a fish on that bug.

I ?retired? it for two or three years, then it started producing again.

Hmmmm. Perhaps I?d better twist a few new wrinkles at the vise. And since tonight?s one of my free tying classes at Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters, this will be a good time to start innovating.

Let?s see. Denise?s fine snook was the GOOD.

Scott and Chris? night snook was the BAD.

Now, I regrettably must tell you about the UGLY.

?Why bother to mention it at all?? Bill Riccardi asked while we were driving back from the El Jobean ramp.

?Because,? I answered, ?I always tell the truth in my reports. No matter how painful it might be sometimes. I owe that to the people who base their fishing decisions on what they read in them.?

?So,? Howard Mullin offered from the back seat, ?that makes us the uglies!?

?Yeah,? Bill chimed in. ?Team Ugly. Waddya think about that, Howard??

Howard allowed as how he ?wasn?t ever going to win any beauty contests? he didn?t suppose it much mattered.

The crazy part is that every part of the component was perfect yesterday. Water temps ranged from 70 degrees to nearly 74. Air temp was pushing 80 with very little wind. Incoming tide was everything you could want.

Heck, the Garmin 172C was even painting fish all around the boat.

Perfect.

Well, not EVERY part of the component was perfect.

The day?s tally?

Howard boated a 10-inch trout and a five-inch Sea Robin?one of those strange little creatures that have gills, fins, legs, and wings.

Without intending to be blasphemous, I sorta think the Sea Robin was one of God?s mistakes. Like the human knee (to weak for what it does) and the avocado (the pit?s WAY too big).

The sea robin just doesn?t know if it?s supposed to swim, fly or crawl off into the mangroves.

I?m telling you we cruised around a lot of acreage in Charlotte Harbor to catch those two little fish!

My mistake, obviously, was location, location, location. Lemon Bay?s still on fire.

How hot? John Donohue told me at our Mardi Gras party Saturday night?between Coronas?that he nailed seven fat redfish the day before. Seven over-the-slot redfish.

In Lemon Bay. Where I?ve been having megafish days. And where I?ll be once again with my clients during the coming week!

MICHIGAN

Dark, dank, dreary, with yet more snow.

MONTANA

Don?t even ask!

Tight Loops,
Capt. Tony