Working the Back Country

Fishing in the back country of Estero Bay has been great. I've been lucky enough to spend time with a lot of return clients and that makes my job a bit easier. I know what they expect and I can focus on making it happen.

Neil Eisner joined me for 4 days. We tried to hunt for tarpon but the wind blew a bit too hard and the fish were tough to find. The first day was spent on the outside and we eventually wound up near May Reef. We caught some nice grouper and lost a bunch of big fish. They had a bad habit of grabbing the bait and then heading for the rocks! We also lost a small grouper to a very large barracuda.

While all four days were memorable I think day two was the most fun. When Neil got to the dock he told me he had never gotten a back country slam. It consist of a snook, redfish and trout all caught on the same day. I told him that I didn't think that getting the snook and the trout would be a problem but the redfish was another issue. You see, redfish were in the midst of a disappearing act and I hadn't SEEN one in over a week.

We began the day by catching a trout and a snook in less than half an hour. So far everything was going pretty much like I thought it would. The mission now was to find Mr. Red. Long story short... I hit 7 different areas and we caught fish in each and every one of them, but no reds.

Toward the end of the trip I decided to pull into an unnamed cove on an unnamed island. I'd never fished the area before but it just sort of looked right. After casting a couple of baits up near the mangrove edge Neil hooked up with a big fish. It pulled a lot of line off the reel and did it's best to run back into the bushes. Suddendly it rolled up near the surface and the unmistakable copper color of a redfish reflected sunlight. I told Neil, "You've got your red and it's a big one!" He fought it like a pro and after a 10 minute battle brought a 31 inch redfish to boatside. After we got a couple of photos and exchanged "high-fives" we released the fish. Neil finally had his slam!

Most of us that guide or work on the water have our own names for areas that we fish. It's a way of identifing a special area that has produced a memorable catch. The spot where we caught the redfish is now called "Neil's Cove".