2007 FAOL Florida Fish-In Reports...

[saltydancindave]

Mark, fly fishing friend extraordinaire; got into southwest Florida about noontime last Friday after starting a couple of hours drive in the pouring rain to BWI at 3:30 in the morning to catch his flight. We pre-fished Snook Alley that evening with Kevin of Casey Key & had plenty of casts to the intended catch, but only hooked one snook out of who knows how many in the 20 knot winds & sea fog. We finally called it a night around 12:30 AM ! Saturday we pre-fished Lemon Bay flats with temps getting into the mid 80's. Lots of mullet jumping, pods of finger mullet & glass minnows along with gobys made it look like a feast for any game fish that ventured onto the flats! Only a ladyfish was caught out of all the bait that was getting busted on the water. Thunderthumbs had called & met us as we were leaving for the evening so he would know where to fish the next morning & he hooked up with a pompano, rat red & a ladyfish Sunday before the picnic. More to come......

[saltydancindave]

Sunday morning Thunderthumbs was out in the kayak fishing while FL Skibum & Les met us at the Lemon Bay flats. We had some winds when we started flyfishing & they just got stronger as the day went on, much to our dismay as it put the fish off the feed. Saturday Mark had found a big snook that was chasing the baitfish every half hour or so after it came out from behind the waterside mangrove trees it was swimming behind while the winds were from the south. When the winds shifted to from the north & an afternoon sea fog rolled across the bay the snook slowed in it's appearances; so with the thoughts on Sunday of that big snook being where it was the afternoon before the flyfishing continued until we all realized Thunderthumbs had been on the water early enough to hook a few & we'd all have better luck catching a bite to eat over at Capt Tonys'! The meet & greet with libations and informal introductions progressed into flyfishing & outdoors story swapping while snacking before the burgers, sausages in barbeque sauce, panfried sausages & South African homemade sausages grilled & provided by Thunderthumbs were served. Kate made chocolate chunk cookies for her birthday & we all had some great food & desserts in celebration! The decision to meet for breakfast the next morning before fishing on Monday morning! More.... when the memory isn't so wind whipped & other attendees fill in between the lines & behind the scenes!

[GILs_GONE_WILD]

More.... when the memory isn't so wind whipped & other attendees fill in between the lines & behind the scenes!

I've heard it through the grapevine (otherwise known as my cell phone ) that KevinC from Casey Key Outfitters put Thunderthumbs onto a bunch of Snook Wednesday night. I hear tell they're headin' out again Thursday night. They should be out there right now or just about to finish for the night.

I'll let someone who was/is there (and with pics I'm sure) tell the rest of the tale.

[saltydancindave]

Monday mornings temps were in the mid 40's after the two cold fronts passed thru Saturday & we met for breakfast at the Kingfish Cafe fashionably late. SW Ladyfishes' party got in late Sunday evening & was to join us Monday as we enjoyed talking about flyfishing, etc. over coffee & tea as the decision of where to fish when it warmed up was discussed. On the Lemon Bay flats Saturday, as Mark was adapting to saltwater fishing again since he hadn't been striper fishing for years being more accustomed to technical trout fishing on Pennsylvanias' spring creeks & limestone streams where pin point casts between the weeds to trout, following in the footsteps of George Harvey with Tricos & BWO's in #20 hook size are the norm; there were bait fisherman catching trout over the grass flats. A gator trout of about 24" was pulled out of the channel, caught on finger mullet not 10 yards from the truck. A couple of wading fishermen with bait buckets of shrimp had caught a few more sea trout farther out towards the Intercoastal Waterway. Back to the Lemon Bay grass flats where the kayaks were paddled about chasing down whatever fish showed themselves in the 20-30 knot winds was ruled out, even though Mark had perfected those 70 foot casts in between the red mangrove leaves & the tide level, casting at will to the back of the mangrove shaded water where the fish usually hole up. He had caught a ladyfish & got bit by a crab which was fishing for food, but needed to hook something more memorable so todays fishing was going to be out of the wind in Coral Creek in the Cape Haze pennisula area of Placida, with the expectations of warmer waters & lots more fish! More to come.....

[KevinC]

no fishing wednesday night Took thunder and one of our customers out last night, crappy tide but we did geta few snook. water temps are at 68 and getting warmer. Steve (another reg at the store) went to caspersons beach yesterday and caught 50 spanish macs!
KevinC

[KevinC]

east winds 5-10 on monday boys!! (According to noaa) hit the beach!!! I might have an open spot if you want to go dave. spanish are off the beach, I want to see if the little tunny are making it in for the spring run.

[saltydancindave]

After arriving at Grande Tours in Placida, the kayaks were unloaded & readied. Mark was still apprehensive about kayaking, more accustomed to a bass boat with lots of footing as a former guide on the Potomac River before getting into running a fly shop,& as he tells it " I swim like a rock!" Thunderthumbs had a 2 man yak & after a bit of coaxing with the procurement of a more than adequate lifevest, we watched a baby manatee swim upstream in the warmth of Coral Creek. The oyster bar laden waters lined by mangrove shorelines & palmetto bushes, you might know these better as hearts of palm in the grocery stores but in Florida it's swamp cabbage if prepared correctly & a delicacy; wouldn't be that stark of a contrast to Lemon Bay where dolphins swam in search of a snack while palm trees on the sand dune called Manasota Key swayed in the winds that pelicans glided on & sea gulls soared with. Warmer waters meant better chances of finding game fish that seek out these areas when the Gulf of Mexico temps drop below tolerable levels. FL SKIBUM graciously let me use his Tarpon 140 again, just like in the 06 Fish-In, as he had added a rudder to the Tarpon 120 he now favored. The Tidy's had cartopped their kayaks down from Maryland & Thunderthumbs had driven his in from Missouri. Mark was going to get chauffeured in this yak, just like Friday night snookin' with Kevin C & what ever waters I drove to & all stops in between. The first pools off to the right held some fish basking in the warmth of the darker mud bottom, and while not sure what they were, the flyfishing commenced. Thoughts of the advice of a local guide came to mind: there were baby tarpon up in the headwaters of Coral Creek this past summer & just maybe they were still growing on the abundance of shrimp, crabs & mullet that fill the backcountry waters. No hits & finally just spooked them off with a wind blown cast, so off to find the others somewhere north. There was a long stretch of faster water where something was busting on the baitfish that most had stopped to fish. There were sheepshead spotted in the area, but the only way to tell was to catch one, as black drum juvies grow in these same waters & have barbule whiskers which the sheepies don't. After getting the sun at my back across the creek in the yak, the best guess was that they were the silver flashes of finger mullet swimming the direction of our paddling. There were some ospreys, blue herons & egrets watching our futile efforts ! Farther up the creek waters were noticeably warmer near the northeast shoreline from the afternoon bluebird sky sunshine. As seems to be, Hugo went & caught a snook off an oyster bar island point where he thought he had seen another one. Mark was casting his now 3 days old on the waters 9' #8 weight 4 piece TFO TiCR-X, a dark blue color with the speed & precision of producing static electricity that could be heard with every double-haul but couldn't be seen. The royal blue Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters baseball cap he had purchased at the fly shop Friday evening before we went out on the intercoastal in Kevin C's Hewes 17' Tailfisher could be seen from a good distance, as Thunderthumbs produced about the same sound when he double hauled going after those elusive gamefish standing knee deep in waters behind some mangrove trees. Since we had to be back at the put in by 5, but only got started around noon, the group had had a good day but the fish had a better one! Back at Grande Tours we talked with Dirty Dave, the resident kayak flyfishing expert & got to see some of the new yak models from different companies while Dave explained the virtues & downfalls of each yak for the flyfisher. It was time to wash down the yaks, talk about how there's never a camera around when, while trying to untangle the leader at the top of my flyrod & as I tried to get out of the Tarpon caught my foot in the stake out pole rope, stumbled, caught myself with the left hand in the water & promptly spun around resulting in a partially wet tush. Time for dinner across the road at The Fishery, an authentic old Florida restaurant on the shore of Gaspirilla Sound serving everything fresh seafood, except for the mullet Gil was looking forward to. Going to have to stop emailing FL Skibum & inviting him to this area; for fantastic snook fishing, he got more blisters than snook; & one of the few remaining restaurants in Florida that usually serves mullet on a daily basis hasn't had any for 6 months, & the Fish-Ins where he has to work so hard to catch a fish after bringing his kayaks that the fish should now just swim to his fly by now since he has that secret fish call all Florida natives are born with, otherwise he might just get more grey hairs on his vacations than relaxation ! More on Tuesdays fishing coming.....

[GILs_GONE_WILD]

the fish should now just swim to his fly by now since he has that secret fish call all Florida natives are born with...

Yeah, it goes .... "Here fishy fishy fishy, heeerrrre fishy fishy...

Good Times!!

Keep writing!

[saltydancindave]

During dinner Monday evening the question of where to fish Tuesday became a topic of discussion. Sunday at the picnic Capt Tony had suggested that the yakkers should put in at Vamo Road & float down to Blackburn Point bridge & Kevin C said that he & Stacy, his fishing companion who was at the picnic with her son, had been catching lots of fish in Little Sarasota Bay north of Venice in the same area. Since the temps were in the mid 40's Monday morning & the winds were out of the north at 20-25 mph, this was open water that would not have been conducive to flycasting, so we ended up at Placida. I had heard reports of there being bull reds on the east wall of Charlotte Harbor, & also kmowing the Flatsmaster Tournament had been held over the weekend in Punta Gorda where the some 150 boats ( biggest tourny in Florida )were fishing artificials for the biggest & heaviest redfish, snook & sea trout to be weighed & released; thought I'd take the boat out & thought the yakkers should come on down to Prt Charlotte. They were milling over the idea of the Vamo to Blackburn float when the evening ended with FL Skibum heading back to work after all his hospitality. Tuesday morning had the temperature at 41, so Mark & I loaded up the boat with what he determined was every gadget the marine industry has to offer for an hour & a half. Drove down to Ponce de Leon boat ramp & put in. The motor started up & then conked out after 30 seconds. Started the Mercury up again with high speed idle because the temps were just getting into the upper 50's by 10:30 am. There was this click that happened the 3 or 4 times the ignition key was turned. Since Hurricane Charley blew thru I only had the opportunity to put the boat on the water 3 or 4 times, replacing the water pressure gauge & hose along with the trim tab hydraulic fluid tank as a boat is all maintainence. Forgot to replace the batteries as the Minn Kota battery tester only registered a 1/3 charge, even though I faithfully ran the outboard once a month; the heat & humidity had taken it's toll in the 2 year life of the batteries. At least Mark got on the flats boat while it was in the water & got to handle the lighter than it looks 18' graph-glass push pole before trailering back to the house for a quick rinse down & some of the doggie bag leftovers from some of the restaurants we had eaten in. Guess I'm still in delayed hurricane stress syndrome! We decided to drive back to the Lemon Bay Flats that afternoon & see if we could catch the fish that had been there the previous days. Thunderthumbs, now hailing from the show-me-state of Missouri was in "SHOW-ME-THE-WATER" mode, as just about every bit of saltwater he was directed to he pulled fish out of better than any magician pulling rabbits out of a hat! The Tidys said they had seen some fish, but they didn't bite in the 20-25 mph winds that were still blowing from the north, despite the fact that it had warmed up into the 70's for the afternoon making the shallow flats waters also warmer. Three weeks of 80 degree temps & great fishing conditions had given way to what may have been the last cold fronts of the season, putting off the bite for this years FL Fish-In ! Have forgotten where they had said they were fishing, something about putting the yaks into the Gulf of Mexico on Blind Pass Beach, but the wind & waves were more work than making flyfishing pleasurable. Allan, head cook ( actually a graduate from the NY culinary institute with exemplary gastronomically delightfull skills in the kitchen) & chief bottle washer at the Kingfish Cafe was to fish with us out of his kayak, but unfortunately Tuesday the group hadn't called with where they were fishing so I couild relay the location, so I guess he was fishing in the creek out behindhis house hooking up redfish he had been catching out of the potholes most of this winter! The Tidys' were going on the road Wednesday looking for a Florida home & Wednesday was also Marks' flight back to the snow & cold of Pennsylvania. After some goodbyes, only Thunderthumbs got to the fly tying at Casey Key Anglers & Outfitters; where rumor has it he was out in Snook Alley with Kevin C at night pulling yet more fish out of the waters! More to come.....

[KevinC]

Thunders Night Snook-


KevinC