The forecast called for clear skies and an incoming full moon tide. Winds were out of the NE 10-15mph for most of the day.
Maybe some of you already know who the special guest is for
this charter from the hints I gave in the last Catching Report. But for
the rest of you who don't know the special guest is Captain Blair
Wiggins from the number 1 rated outdoors show in Florida, "Addictive
Fishing." After seeing the hordes of Tarpon rolling the day before in
our fishing holes, I decided it was time to put Captain Blair on some
"Suburbanite Tarpon." We got started a little later than I would on a
normal charter because of the cameras and extra preparation it takes
for filming. My friend Nelson was kind enough to drive the camera boat
which was the Chew On This BackCountry. We changed over the bait to the 22ft. Ranger
with a 250 Mercury on it. Captain Blair's Ranger was loaded to the
hilt. The Ranger had front rod/storage lockers that we could have laid
down in if we wanted to. The front livewell looked to be 15 gallons or
so and the rear one was even larger. The Ranger also had one of the
sweetest Garmin Gps/Depth finders I have seen and the power pole on the back was awsome. I knew we would use it but I had no clue how often it
would come in handy. The boat also had a Stiffy Carbon Push Pole that
felt about as heavy as a pencil. Before we left the Cape Coral Yacht
Club boat ramp, Captain Blair put on a quick demo for me with the Cape
Fear Rods. He first handed me a 15-40lb class Cape Fear Rod and told
me to pull it up like I had a fish. He then pulled very hard on the rod
bendng it a little over a quarter. Next Captain Blair said "now really
pull like you have a fish" and I almost could not hold the rod up. Those
Cape Fear rods had more backbone than I ever thought possible for a rod
of that size. He then handed me an 8 to 17lb class rod and took the tip
and bent it all the way over until it touched about a foot and a half
down the rod. He didn't stop there either he grabbed the tip and
told me to pull up on it as hard as possible. That Cape Fear rod bent a
little over halfway but the backbone hardly moved an inch. They are
byfar the strongest rods I have ever felt or used.
Fortunately, the late start was offset by the close proximity of
the Tarpon Holes and by the fact the bait was already caught and loaded
in the live well. In about 10 minutes we were on fish and they were all
over the place rolling, tail slapping, and free jumping. Captain Blair
was pumped, the Tarpon were everywhere and after about 45 minutes they
were still everywhere except on our hook. As many of you know Tarpon
fishing can be quite frustrating, especially considering the sheer
numbers of fish that are so close and yet no interest in your bait.
We decided to move on over to another spot where I had seen hundreds of
fish on Sunday morning. Sure enough the Tarpon were all over the
place and we threw bait after bait at them with nothing doing except for
frustration. Captain Blair did not want to leave that spot but I told
him it was in our best interest, so about 5 minutes later we went to
the next spot which was the same one where we got the snook, tarpon and canal
tuna's to hit the day before.
Although we had all that action the day before it didn't mean
a thing today. We only saw four or five rolling tarpon and two or three
baby jacks altogether. The bait was running low and we were completely
out of herring so I decided to make a run for the bait spot. Instead of
throwing the net from the Ranger and getting it all nasty, Nelson threw
the net while I drove the boat and in two casts we had a well full
of threadfin. I jumped off of my boat and got back on the Ranger while
Nelson transferred most of the threads from the BC to the Ranger.
Next it was time to hit the only spot where they bit the day
before. We headed towards the basin and saw several Tarpon rolling as
soon as we got in the area. Captain Blair called over and said they are
here let's fish. I told him to trust me the fish were going to be
thicker a little further towards the spot. We fished the mangroves
where Cory saw 4 tarpon sunning the day before. Nothing!! we fished it
for about 15 minutes without even a nibble. Soon the Tarpon started to
roll in the basin and before we knew it they were rolling all over the
place. Captain Blair fished all of the areas in front of him very
slowly before trolling up a little further. We made three quarters
around the basin before the first Tarpon finally bit. He was not a
large siver king maybe 40lbs but boy was he feisty. It took Blair a
little over 10 minutes before the fish began to tire. We had the fish
landed at the side of the boat and Captain Blair unhooked him and the
fish made one last dash flaring his gill plates while in my hands and
there he went free at last.
Next, we eased on down the basin back to the mangrove shoreline
hoping the Tarpon have returned to the shadows. We timed that one just
right, there was a nice hungry Tarpon waiting for Blairs'Threadfin.
Captain Blair bit the tail off the bait, tossed it in the shadow and
wham that fish skyrocketed in the air and tailwalked about 5 feet. Sure enough the Tarpon tailwalked again, but this time it paid off he shook
the hook loose. During the next 10 to 15 minutes everything seemed to
just quit so we put up the rods and headed for some lunch.
We had a nice meal at Sanibel Harbor Resort while waiting for the
tide to begin moving. When we finished up eating the tide was just
starting to pick up steam. I knew there would be fish there but I
didn't know when they would bite. I had kidded Blair earlier in the day
about getting whooped by some of these fish and he laughed and said
with his Cape Fear Rod he will cross their eyes. The bite soon began to
happen and each time Blair got one of those huge linesiders on he would
get busted off. After 4 or 5 breakoffs Blair had a vendetta against
those fish and he wasn't going to leave until he got one. Two or three
hits later he was so close to getting one of those big snook out but it hadn't happened yet. Finally, slam a big snook is on and the fight is
on. After about 3 minutes Captain Blair had the fish at boat side. We
didn't measure or weigh him but he looked to be somewhere around 13 or
14 lbs. Captain Blair still had not had enough but George wanted to get
back to the Tarpon spot to get some more footage of the area for the Tarpon segment. We nearly had to pull Captain Blair away to get him to
leave those docks.
Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and drag screaming action!!!!
