It's hard to believe that over the last five days of snook season we never attempted to catch a snook. Actually we were targeting sharks and other large creatures. Over the week I fished a group of anglers from Denmark that camp on Cayo Costa State Park and aren't really interested in snook, they want a bigger challenge. These guys are hard core, they fish from the beach all night then some go with me each day on the boat while the others fish from the surf.
Each morning I would arrive with a well full of live shiners and our first task is to convert them to shark bait. That was the easy part as the spanish mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish gladly cooperated each day as did some dandy sea trout. We also had to load up on mackerel for dinner as these Danish anglers prefer them grilled over all the other fish we have caught over the years.
While we caught sharks each day we did not catch the size or numbers as in years past. (this same group of anglers fish here the same week each year). Most of the days we had to deal with the wind that made it near impossible to fish some of our favorite areas. Most of the sharks we caught averaged around four feet and were sand bar or black tips. We caught them about everywhere we fished that included the southern side of Charlotte Harbor, Pine Island Sound inside of Captiva Pass and on the Gulf side of Redfish Pass. The sharks were there we just did not find the big ones. They never caught any larger ones from the beach at night either.
We did catch a first on my boat. While fishing the Gulf side of Redfish Pass we hooked up and just about had the line stripped from the reel before we pulled the anchor to follow. After a very hard battle what we thought was going to be a large shark turned out to be a huge spotted eagle ray. The funny thing was ten minutes earlier we had seen some cruise by and I told the guys I had never seen one take a bait. Well there he was all six feet of him on the other end of our line. Once we got it closer we could see that the circle hook was foul hooked in the big rays wing. I never realized how large and impressive these rays are until we got up close and removed the hook. They also are one beautiful creature. The big ray swam away and earned our respect. That thing fought hard, like a large southern stingray on steroids except it never sucked on the bottom.
This great group of Danish anglers are already planning their trip for the same time next year. The winds have laid down at the end of the week and the tarpon are beginning to show. I plan on doing some tarpon trips this week and also get back to snook and red fishing, and of course whatever else is biting.
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Have a safe week and if you get the chance GO FISHIN'.
"Catch The Action" with Captain Bill Russell