It's 70 degrees in Venice and the fishing is Great!
JANUARY 25, 2008
FLORIDA
One of my regular clients, Bob Mathieu, had the audacity to go fishing on his own boat yesterday while I was guiding Bill and Mike Delaney on a quail hunt.
Then Bob exacerbated his sin by calling the shop (Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters) while I was conducting the fly tying class last night, crowing that ?I caught 90 trout in Lemon Bay today!?
Now that, my friends is an impressive feat! Of course, you do know when a fisherman?s lying to you:
His lips are moving!
I would never impugn Bob?s character by lumping HIM into that category, you understand. He is FAR too fine a gentleman to stretch the truth about his prowess. Even if he IS from Toronto.
Seriously, Bob?s fished with me a number of times and most always has done very well. Heck, he even caught a zebra (sheepshead) on fly during a trip with me last year.
His experience yesterday really illustrates how well Lemon Bay has been fishing this season. By far, the most spectacular of the 12 winters I?ve been here.
I was there last Tuesday with John Bachey, Dick Ritter, and Dan Teich, and we had an excellent day of ?catching??not just ?fishing.?
I met Dick last summer in the parking lot of McLean?s Ace Hardware store in Grayling. The back hatch of his Jeep was raised, and he was sitting there petting a fine-looking English setter.
Anybody who knows me understands what came next:
?Nice-looking dog,? I said. ?I?ve got a setter at home and another one on the way in a couple of weeks!?
Forty-five minutes later, I finally bought whatever it was I?d originally intended to get, and headed north to Deward. Setter people simply LOVE talking dogs!
So, it really was no surprise when I got a phone call from Dick one day last bird season.
?One of my pals just bought a house near Venice,? he said. ?He and a bunch of us are getting together at my cabin on the Au Sable tonight. How bout coming over, if you have time.
?I?m making prime rib, and I make it pretty darn good. You?re welcome to join us.?
Now, would YOU turn down an invite like that? Well, Kate had to because she was on deadline with a copyediting job, but told me it would unquestionably prove that I?m CERTIFIABLY CRAZY if I didn?t go.
So, I bundled Ghost and the pup?Heart?into their crates a couple hours later and we were off to the old fishing camp known as Edgewater, just upstream from Gates Au Sable Lodge.
We had a great meal, lots of laughs, and Dick?s 91-year-old father absolutely fell in love with Heart.
?He STILL talks about that pup,? Dick said when we were fishing the other day. I asked if his dad still tries to get out in the field and Dick looked at me like I?m nuts.
?HE?S 91!?
?So, I replied. ?Maybe the open areas?? Dick just shook his head. And promptly caught his first fish of the trip, a schoolie snook on one of my Glass Minnow patterns.
John, meanwhile, was having an absolute field-day. After every snook or snapper, he?d laconically comment how, ?It?s all about picking your spots!
?You don?t see me wearing myself out. I just KNOW where the fish are. Then I make my cast.? And, brother, you should have heard the barnyard residue fly when I netted his 22-inch, four-pound snook!
Dan lost a really big jack crevalle, and a couple smaller snook, before finally nailing one that warranted Pentax Attention.
We stopped for lunch at Marker 17 Restaurant, a waterfront joint near Stump Pass, then headed back out. The tide was nearly full by then, and the pickings turned slim. A couple more small trout and it was time to head in.
?Tell me again when we need to be here for tarpon,? John asked. ?Late May to early July,? I replied, and he nodded thoughtfully.
The next day, I was running Will Bouck around Lemon Bay.
?Nice boat,? he said of my ?07 Hewes when he met me at the ramp. ?Looks like it really flies.? Which was appropriate, since Will spent 17 years driving Navy F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats for a living.
Since I drive ?little stuff? (or used to, anyway, before I started spending every day on the water) we spent a lot of time talking aviation.
It also allowed me to use flying terms while helping him learn a lot more about his newly-beloved sport of fly angling.
?I?ve been at it six months,? he said, ?and thought I was halfway proficient.?
?You were,? I replied. ?Now you learned the other half!?
?OUCH, that?s COLD, Tony! Really COLD. Worse than if you?d been yelling at me!? He was smiling when he said it, though.
Will boated two snapper and used the proverbial ?long-line-release? on several more. He also castigated himself mightily for using the ?Yankee Lift??raising the rod tip like dry fly anglers from ?Up North.?
?Great, Billy,? he?d mutter. Or, after dropping the fly line when casting to the mangroves I?d hear, ?Billy, you botched THAT cast!? Finally, he explained ?When my wife calls me Billy, I know I?m in trouble!?
All things considered, he didn?t do badly. And Lemon Bay has been superb!
ENGLISH SETTER UPDATE
Yesterday was low 60s and pretty humid, but Ghost and Heart had an absolutely marvelous time running like the wind up at Dream Lakes of Florida.
Until they caught a whiff of quail scent, of course. Then it was SCREEETCH!!! And a solid lockup on point.
Between the two of them, they located about 30 birds for half of The Delaney Brothers family?Bill, and Mike. Kevin had hunted with us last season. Now we need to finally get Vinny into the field.
?I can never get over hearing that,? Kate said again last night. ?There?s this fine Irish family of boys?William, Michael, Kevin, and?VINNY? It just doesn?t fit. ?
?That,? Bill told her once, ?is because my middle name is Patrick! So, baby brother got stuck with Vinny. Mom had run out of all the classic Irish names.?
The puppy?who?s just over seven months old?did an outstanding job pointing (and holding point) for Bill and Mike. However, Heart still goes berserk after making the retrieve.
He obviously is so ecstatic about birds that he simply HAS to race around the field with his prize firmly clamped between his jaws.
Yeah, I know. But I already did that. Bought one of those little studded harnesses, I mean.
This contraption belts around a quail?s body. The premise is that when Pup chomps down on the bird, those prickly little studs immediately let him know that hard-mouthing is a no-no.
Did it deter Heart?s exuberance? Not one blessed bit! He chewed on that studded harness while running like Sherman going through Atlanta!
?What?s next?? Kate asked, after I regaled her with the details.
?Not sure,? I answered. ?Prayer, maybe.?
Till next time!
Tight Loops,
Capt. Tony
