Slow is still the operative word. I only have one trip to talk about this week.
It was a really nice day with my old friend Jim Dougall, who lives in Cape Coral. Jim is now 70 and has survived a bout with cancer. H not only looks just great, but has remained in possession of his great sense of humor.
I met Jim at the Waterfront Restaurant Thursday morning at 6:30 AM. I didn't want to double back some five miles to the flats at the Sanibel Causeway for bait, primarily because of fuel usage concerns. So, we headed on north, stopping at the York Island flats where I had last caught beautiful bait. But, that had been a week earlier, and there was no bait to be had there, now, other than very small shiners and pinfish.
We moved on to the flats at marker 32. There was a lot of small bait spraying there, but most of it could swim right through the net. I tried several spots in the area, but was never able to get descent bait. I was getting weary in the heat.
Jim told me he'd gotten good bait on the flats at Kiesels the day before, so off we went. The water was very clear there, and bait hard to get, but as the tide began to move we eventually got plenty of bait to fish with. It was mostly small, though, with only a very few larger shiners mixed in.
We'd been talking about how good snapper are to eat, and the fact that we both loved them. So, we headed straight to a spot where I'd been catching lots of nice snapper, along with snook, flounder, and the occasional redfish. But, the fish weren't much interested in eating, and we only managed a couple of snapper and several small snook.
We moved on when we were sure the short-lived bite was over. Jim had asked me about fishing in the area of Charley's Pass, and I thought I'd show him a beautiful, productive spot there. We were actually arriving there a bit early on the tide, and I didn't know if there would be a bite, or not. But, as we worked the area with a little patience, we did find the fish right where they were supposed to be, and managed to catch 3 or 4 redfish and a couple of snook.
We decided to finish up the day trying to limit out on snapper, and with the hard pull of jack crevalle. We headed to another spot I'd never taken Jim in Matlacha Pass. We had a bite from the time we arrived, and Jim had fun catching several more snook, another redfish, a jack crevalle, and a bunch of snapper.
It was early afternoon, now, and Jim and I were starved and overheated. We headed back to the Waterfront to end the day with a great lunch, carrying a limit of redfish and snapper. It was the perfect way to end a good day with an old friend.
