Southwest Florida's getting HOT!
MARCH 18, 2008
FLORIDA
Brothers, sisters, in-laws, outlaws, even babes-in-arms trooped down to the boat ramp at Higel Park on the Island of Venice Saturday morning.
All to watch ?Dad? (Dave Harnett) get the surprise of his 60-year-old life!
?Hey, Doc,? I yelled, while casually leaning back on the console seat of my Hewes Redfisher 18, with my feet propped up on the casting deck. ?You wanna go fishing??
Naturally, he looked around at everyone. Puzzled by the question. ?But in my head, just before you said that, I was thinking to myself?there?s a charter captain waiting for his client,? Dave told me later.
?Sure you do!? I continued. ?Because I?m your birthday present. Well, not ME, really. The boat. C?mon. Let?s go fishin?.? At which point everyone broke out in a rousing rendition of ?Happy Birthday.?
Dave dutifully hopped on board along with his youngest child, Matt (who had booked the trip), and eldest child, Trevor (there are two sisters separating them) and off we went.
Nearly five hours later, they were back at the dock with tired arms and happy smiles. It was mercifully one of those no-brainer days in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) around Venice.
Without the need to exaggerate one iota I can tell you that the three of them boated 70 fish (?I?d says more like 75,? Matt proclaimed), mostly using the jigs I?d tied using my ?Champagne Gobi? fly pattern. You can look it up on the Photo Gallery and New Fly Pattern dropdowns.
But it was such a crazy day that Matt kept hooking fish (they were mostly all ladyfish) even when the jig he was using had been shredded to the point where it was a bare hook.
?They even chewed the red paint off the head,? Matt crowed. ?Man, this is unbelievable! I?ve NEVER had a day of fishing like this!?
Ah, the words a guide loves to hear. Especially since Matt continued, ?since Dad has the condo here (since 1979), you?ll be seeing a lot of us over the next 30 or 40 years!?
Uh-huh. MORE music to a guide?s ears!
Earlier in the week, Charlie Wells and his son, Bruce, had fun playing with spotted sea trout in Lemon Bay before Bruce had to fly off to London, where he works three weeks out of each month.
?It gets hectic sometimes,? he said, ?but London?s a great place and the people are really nice. Except some of the older folks still grumble that us Canadians and you Yanks should still be part of the Empire.
?I don?t hear that from the younger people, but it amazes me to hear the 80-somethings say that.?
He also mentioned that a half-day of fishing in England costs $600USD! CRIKEY, mate! ?And finding a place to fish is pretty hard even at that.?
Strong wind forced me to keep Bob Strayton and his son Rob inside Fork Creek for most of our trip the following day, but the snook and snapper co-operated nicely so everybody had a good time.
Bob had planned a trip with me last month with his son-in-law Bruce, but once I got out into Gasparilla Sound the boat was rocking like a yo-yo we went home.
Steve Sherman joined me on his fourth annual outing on Thursday. He couldn?t decide whether he wanted a shot at redfish, trout, and pompano during the day, or snook under the lights. So, we did both!
Steve, who was absolutely THRILLED to get away from the massive snowfall Syracuse has been hit with this winter, met me at 3pm and we headed to Lemon Bay.
After boating a variety of species we drove to Casey Key and dropped the boat into ?Snook Alley,? where he caught a very feisty jack crevalle before getting into the snook.
Mike Thomas, who was another victim of mechanical failure (the helm on my steering failed), and then high winds the previous Sunday, brought his pal Ken Ayres along this time and they also hooked a wide variety of fish in Lemon Bay.
Sunday was a lot of fun. My Florida vet, Dean Ebert, brought his 12-year-old daughter, Natasha, in search of redfish. Dean (?I want FOOD?) grew up in Poland, Ohio, not far from my home town of Niles.
Must be that Youngstown Thing. Dean doesn?t see the logic in spending time and gasoline fishing or diving if you?re going to come home empty-handed.
?Now we?ve gotta stop at Publix before going home,? he said as we parted at the Indian Mounds ramp.
?Well, here?s what you do,? I replied. ?Take Natasha into the store with you. Get the fish out of the case and toss it to her. That way, when you get home you can truthfully say yep?she caught it.?
Natasha giggled. Dean just smiled.
ENGLISH SETTER UPDATE
Heart celebrated his nine-month ?birthday? last week. MAN did he celebrate. Of course, that?s really nothing unique.
He bounces off the walls. He jumps over my comfy chair-and-ottoman. He even has been seen using the living room coffee table as a launching pad onto the futon.
Ghost, who I had feared would have long-since shredded this interloper, mostly takes it all in stride. Occasionally, she gets exasperated and head-butts him the way she did when he was a mere pup.
But the FUNNIEST thing is when Heart grabs a sofa pillow or something and Kate tells her, ?Ghost! Get him!? At which point she runs over and glares at Heart until he abashedly drops whatever contraband he?s been illegally chewing.
Then she either menaces him for a few seconds, or chases him around the house until he drops onto the carpet and rolls over onto his back.
What makes it particularly hilarious is the fact that he?s now taller and heavier than she is. He even jumps clear over her back when they?re tussling in the back yard. I guess we?ll just have to wait and see how long this routine continues.
But those of you who know Ghost are aware that she?ll never back down. Ever.
Well, I?ve got to tie some flies and jigs for tonight?s snook trip.
Tight Loops,
Capt. Tony
