It's Saturday, the 8th of June 2002 at 7:00 in the morning.
The forecast called for clear skies early and a 50% chance of rain in
the afternoon. Early tide was incoming, high around 1:00pm.
Winds were out of the SSW 5-10mph for the first part of the
day.
Todays Catching Report starts with the First annual "SW Florida Forum Causeway Classic." Joining me in the days tournament festivities was my
wife Angela and daughter Lexis. As usual we got a late start, the
tournament started at 7:00am and we arrived promptly at 8:30. I picked
up the log sheet at the check in on the second Causeway Beach and off
we went to get bait. In one cast of the BaitBuster cast net I managed
probaly 20lbs. of Threadfin. Over half fell out of the net when I put
them in the well. Believe it or not that was a good thing. Everytime I
load the net with threads and dump them in the well, at least half of them end up
dying.
All baited up we headed to a grouper spot very far away. In about two
minutes we were anchored and fishing. About 5 minutes later I caught a
Jewfish about a pound. Once that one Jewfish bit we started to get hit
after hit. Angela caught two grouper to my one jewfish over the next 30
minutes. We probaly were broken off at least 7 other times. If we could
have managed just one of those break offs we would have had some dinner
to take home.
The bite became nonexistent as the tide began to slow. I changed a
couple of rigs on the rods to freeline the surface for some spanish
macks we saw busting threadfin on the top. We had a couple of nice hits
but most of the time the bait would be eaten except for the head. At
12:00 we decided it was time to try somewhere else. While reeling up
the last freelined bait something nailed it and burned of about 10 yds
of line. I was sure I had a big spanish or something. It turned out to
be a 5lb canal tuna. Those things fight harder than any fish I have
ever caught.
The next spot we fished didn't even produce a bite. I believe it had
more to do with the tide than the fish though. Time to hit the next
spot. We went to a flat over at Tarpon Bay. The trout are usually thick
over there and it was close to the Causeway so I didn't have to run far
with Lexis and Angela in the boat. We caught one very small Blacktip
on the flat and a small trout. The bad black clouds started rolling in
and Angela started to get nervous, so we decided to fish our first hole
one more time, especially since it was close to the home base of the
Classic.
We fished the hole for maybe 30 minutes. I caught two grouper and had
one keeper sized bust me off on the wreck. That is a big problem with
wreck fishing grouper, the big ones almost always seem to bust you off
and then all you end up with is small ones. Angela had one bust her off
that was mean and she also caught one more. The three grouper she
caught today were her first ever. She made a comment that went
something like this "Boy if those fish were any larger I wouldn't have
a prayer on getting one in. Here is her best one. Oh Yeah, I also
picked this one because I promised Ironraider from the Addictive
Fishing Board a bikini and fish pick from the tournament.
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Finally, it was time to head to the Tuna Wagon. We were flirting with
going on home because we knew the storm was close and it looked bad. We
stopped in at the homebase and they convinced us the bad weather was
going to pass. We took heed to their advice and decided to stay. I was
glad we stayed, eventhough they were wrong. I managed to meet alot of
people from the forum. It sure is interesting when you first meet
someone and you call out your screen name as your own name. We had a
good time. My family enjoyed the outing and more importantly, we all
enjoyed each others company. Oh!! I almost forgot the results.
Krazysnook won with a 137 pts total. I think he caught 38 trout or so.
Capt. Rob came in third with a little over a 100pts. Our log sheet got
wet in the rain so we didn't even turn one in. But we still had proof
because of the digital camera. We rushed out right after the great
spaghetti dinner in order to beat the storm. Guess what!!! We didn't
beat it and believe you me hitting rain at 45 mph, it hurts. It kind of
feels like hundreds of needles poking into your face.
Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and drag
screaming action!!!!
