Spring Like Weather
In between cold fronts we have had some spring like weather. On two different days last week the mercury climbed to near 80 and the winds calmed to make very enjoyable fishing trips. One was just that, a fishing trip. The other one had a little more activity.
On Monday we had had four anglers on a two boat charter on the Banana River. The morning started of a little cool but calm. This was the first really calm morning in days. The excitement was high but the fish did not cooperate much that day. Two excellent anglers, Jeff and Michael were aboard the "Finding Equilibrium" in search of redfish. And, that's exactly what we did for part of the morning. We searched for redfish. We found no redfish. So, looking for a bend in our pole we changed areas and began blind casting Rip Tide Mullet imitations and began hooking a jack here and there. This in itself was a little unusual since we don't normally catch many jacks this time of the year.
We used the Rip Tide 3 inch mullet, mostly in new penny and electric chicken to catch and release several jacks up to about 3 pounds. As we were moving from one spot to another we spotted some diving pelicans and decided to check it out. The result was several silver trout on the Rip Tides plastics. These were small fish and we decide to continue on to do some dock fishing. The docks and inlets to some residential canals produced a couple of spotted sea trout to round out the day with three species. Especially with the trout, both kinds, the retrieve was slow and deliberate which is normal for this time of year. With the jacks, a faster retrieve worked better.
On the following day Jeff and Bev from Ohio joined me for what began as another beautiful East Central Florida morning. We once again started the day in search of redfish but with no success. We went were the jacks were the day before and found even more of them willing to bend our rods. Between the two of them, Jeff and Bev must have caught and released about 25 of the ornery jacks, up to 4 pounds. There were many more jacks on this day, and they tended to be larger. They were caught on various colors of the 3 inch Rip Tide mullet but Jeff probably one the numbers game on his glow colored Rip Tide. Bev added plenty of jacks on new penny, rootbeer, and electric chicken. The jacks like the plastic fished much faster today and with hard close together twitches that give the mullet imitation a frightened darting action. During the process of chasing the jacks Bev and Jeff both added bluefish to the variety.
The warm weather and calm wind was a welcome relief to the fishing conditions we have been experiencing lately – but don't get to excited about it, another front is on the way.
Other Notes of Interest
Keep in mind that its a new year and a Florida Sportsman Fishing Show will be coming to a location near you. The first one is in Ft. Myers. If you are in the Ft. Myers area, come on by the Florida Guides Association booth and pick up a free sample of Rip Tide lures. I hope I see you there on February 3rd or 4th.
Don't forget that snook season is closed. The winter closure is December 15 – January 31.
Spotted Sea Trout have opened again as of January 1, 2007.
As always, you can visit my website at http://www.inshorefishingadventures.com/to view pictures of the fish we catch. That's what it's all about. Good fishin'.
Capt. Ron Presley
Phone 321-454-7285