It's Thursday, the 21st of June 2002 at 8:30 in the morning. The forecast called for cloudy skies with a tropical wave approaching from the east. The tide was outgoing for most of the day with the a waxing half moon. Winds were out of the NE 5-15mph for most of the day.
Today's guests were Liz, Cory, Lenny, and Joey. I talked with Cory the night before and the weather didn't look very promising at that time. We decided we would give the stick beach a shot if we weren't getting stormed out. I had to talk Cory into fishing over there, he likes Redfish Pass and wanted to catch the outgoing drift. I believe we made the right choice because as we pulled up to the area
where the sticks start the first bait was exploded on. Over the next 5 minutes we all caught at least 2 snook apiece. Cory got the first keeper size fish. She looked skinny but was 26 inches long. Then we caught 4 or 5 more snook over the next 5 minutes.
We continued drifing the bank along the beach with the outgoing tide. After 2 or 3 more short snook. Liz got a nice one on, her drag started screamin and she was pumpin that Racing Mullet out of the cover. That snook went on two or three solid runs. After about 3 minutes Liz landed a nice size fish that went over 30 inches.
Next it was Lenny's turn, he tossed his bait up into the middle of the down fallen logs and Wham!!! Big Snook ON!!! Lenny has a tendency to over pump his fish because of his upbringing fishing the docks at the harbor. He really layed into that fish and it went on several runs along with 2 or 3 jumps. We all knew it was big and Cory
had already got the boga grip out ready to land the fish. When Lenny finally managed to get the fish to the boat Cory grabbed the leader and went to Boga Grip the fish. I always tell anyone who fishes with me not to grap the leader when landing the fish because that is probaly the easiest time for a snook to get off. Sure enough one last shake of the
head and there he went back to his haunts. I really wanted Lenny to get a pic with that monster but it just wasn't meant to be.
After drifting the bank at stick beach 2 more times we ended with a total of 62 snook by 11a.m., 3 keeper sized fish to the boat and two of them over 30 inches. We completely ran out of bait, I mean there was not even one left in either of the wells. It is always nice to leave
them biting. We needed to get bait so we headed up to the bomb holes at Redfish Pass and blind casted for bait. After about 30 minutes we managed to get about 30 pinfish and a few white bait.
Next, we went over to Redfish Pass to do the outgoing drift for snook and Reds. There were at least 20 boats doing the drift at the pass along with a pontoon boat that had anchored in the middle of the drift. We all baited and did the drift down the pass banks. We didn't even manage one bite or hit and neither did any of the other 20 boats from
what we saw. That was all we needed to convince us it was time to head over to the Causeway and get some bait and finish out the day at Sanibel Harbor. Luckily for us bait was easy at the Causeway. In three throws, we had both of the back wells loaded with bait. We even had enough to give an older couple that was down a couple of pilings finding no luck with bait. Off we went to the Harbor for some Mogan
Action.
When we arrived at the Harbor there was already one boat in there trying their luck. They actually did pretty well and managed to get in a nice 38 incher. We fished a few slips down from them with no action and then we found the hole. Cory got one on, Lenny got one on, then Liz managed to get a biggun on and so did Joey. I believe every fish they had on either broke them off or the hook pulled. 0 for 4 not a very good average is it? Things would get better however. After Lenny lost two more fish attempting to get them in and after a little ribbing from me, Lenny managed this nice Racing Mullet. Lenny had one heck of a time getting this fish in. Those Harbor Snook are relentless. They try
to knock you out with the first two or three hits and runs. He did a good job as you can tell by the nice pic.
Next it was Joey's turn. He was getting busted off left and right. He actually got Ko'ed at least 4 times. Persistance pays off however. The next fish that tried to tangle with Joey, got his in the end. Joey is just the opposite of Lenny and dosn't usually put enough pressure on the fish and usually ends up getting broke off by the large ones. Not this time though, he powered that racing mullet out of those pilings and after a couple of more punches from that hard hitter, Joey had won the war.
Finally, after 10 or 11 more fish lost and one small one about 25 inches caught by me, it was time to put the finishing touches on the day. Cory, Joey, and Lenny all were busted off by snook in this one corner, that's when Liz tossed her bait in there. WALA!!! A big fat snook. The snook slammed her bait and made a B-line for the opposite
set of pilings. Cory had Liz open her bail and they both hopped on the dock and managed to finagle that fat boy out of his lair. As usual the girls always out catch the boys. Liz put it in on us all today.
To conclude, we had one fine day and luckily the weather man was off again. Although we had to race the storms back home, we made it back just in time. Don't forget this weeks "Addictive Fishing" episode "Suburban Style" with me in it, airs tomorrow June 21st at 9:00am and Sunday at 10:00pm and Wednesday at 9:30p.m. Don't miss it!! If you want to catch some Mogan snook now is the time to do it. Give Captain Chancey a call @ (239)540-7529
Until next time may you have line singing, leader fraying, and
drag screaming action!!!!
