After taking our daughter to Disney for 4 days, more than enough time had passed since the last time I was out on the water. I had one big problem though, one of the gaskets for the rebuild on my carbs had not arrived. Which kept my good friend Nelson of Sparky's Outboard in Cape Coral from putting them back together. I had to find a way so I gave Captain Butch Botelor a call and we scheduled a little outing for the next day.

Captain Butch picked me up over at Tarpon Pointe Marina around 10:00a.m.. The tide chart called for high tide at 9:00a.m., but the wind was blowing a good 15 to 20 knots which held back the water quite a bit. We fished for ladys at the mouth of the river and we caught 10 or 12 nice ones before we decided to fish the big snook spots. On our way to the snook holes we ran into a steady 2 to 4 foot chop in the bay. Even though we knew it would be quite tough to fish the hole, neither one of us could resist it. When we arrived we set the anchor up and were in perfect postion, except for the waves that kept crashing over the transom of the boat. It only took us 15 or so minutes to have a change of plans and vacate the spot.

Next we went to catch some threadfin for some creek snook fishing. In 10 or 11 cast we managed to catch enough bait to last the day. Off we went to tangle with some linesiders. Little did we know the bite would be tough. We found fish but most of them did not seem very hungry. We did run into one small school of 20 to 50 pound black drums. They swam right underneath the boat without paying a lick of attention to us. We tried cut ladyfish as bait but they didn't bother with it, we tried live threads and white bait but again no action. Soon we headed off to another mangrove shoreline. When we arrived we automatically saw several snook sunning themselves in the midafternoon sun. Capt. Butch tossed his thread to them but they couldn't catch it and soon disappeared.

Although the action was slow, we continued to work the shoreline and I'm glad we did. I tossed my weighted thread underneath a mangrove. After 20 seconds or so my drag begins racing off of the Fin Nor 4000 megalite. I set the hook and began to attempt to turn her head. As I bent the Cape Fear rod double she surfaced and changed directions. She sure was big and when she turned and took off I was just hoping she wouldn't head for the mangroves. Luckily for me she stayed out in the open and went for the anchor rope instead. Eventually she calmed down and wore herself out. Butch thought we had dinner but I knew she was too big. Sure enough when we measured her, she went a little over 35 inches. Not a bad fish for underneath the mangroves.

In conclusion, if it wasn't for that big ol' snook at the end, we would have had a very tough day. Seeing as how I hadn't caught a fish like her in over a week, it sure felt nice. As the month progresses the Tarpon will continue to move into the canals and creeks along with the snook and canal tuna. I have been hearing reports of 100 pounder Tarpon lurking around and have even seen a couple myself.

If you are looking for some tackle busting, leader fraying, excitement then give Captain Chancey a call @ (239)540-7529

Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and tackle busting action!!!!