June 9, 2007


Nine-year-old Lyman Ortkiese of New Orleans had the time of his life on a recent outing with Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing. Lyman was in Sarasota for a week-long stay with his father, Scott Ortkiese.
The duo joined us for a half-day outing on Little Sarasota Bay.
Strong east winds plagued anglers for more than two weeks. And wind is always a determining factor when kayak fishing. So, we opted to fish the east side of Little Sarasota Bay out of Vamo.
On an exploratory outing a few days prior, I caught a slam: redfish, snook and spotted seatrout. I found reds and snook around the mangroves and caught them on Rapala Skitter Walks and the new MirrOlure MirrOdine. Trout fell for 3-inch Gulp Shrimp on 1/8-ounce jig heads.
Lyman and his dad caught spotted seatrout to 25 inches, ladyfish and jack crevalle.
?This sure beats riding jet skis,? Lyman said after reeling in a 19-inch trout. ?I want to do this the next time I visit my dad.?
We fished the Intracoastal Waterway on June 8, launching at Phillippi Estate Park. The launch is good, but you have to drag kayaks and canoes at least 200 feet from the parking lot to the water.
I think this will be an excellent fall and winter destination for snook. On our outing, we managed six snook, a 25-inch spotted seatrout, a mangrove snapper and a sheepshead. We caught one snook, a 24-incher, on a Skitter Walk. The rest hit the MirrOlure MirrOdine. The trout, snapper and sheepshead were caught on a Gulp Shrimp and jig.
On June 4, David Shugol of Lakewood Ranch joined us for an all-day outing to The Everglades. We fly-fished canals there and had a fantastic day. We caught nearly 200 fish on No. 10 popping bugs and Myakka Minnows. We used 3- and 4-weight fly rods, floating lines, 7 ? -foot leaders and 3X and 4X tippet.
We caught at least 100 Mayan cichlids, 20 bass to nearly 4 pounds, plenty of hand-sized bluegill and a number of stumpknocker.
Shugol is a financial advisor and vice-president of the Mangrove Coast Fly Fishers.
Canal action is extremely hot now, with low water concentrating the fish. Often, savvy fly-fishers will catch fish or get hits on 20 casts in a row.