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".

Tarpon, Tarpon and More Tarpon

Wow, the past few days have been a blast!!! I've been fishing the near shore waters off of Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel and the tarpon have been seriously on the feed. Once located it doesn't take long for the first hookup and they are big boys! Most of the tarpon are over 100 pounds and we landed a few that were easily near 150 pounds.

My most memorable trip was with Sue and Rob Phelan. They are locals and this was their first tarpon adventure. They managed to hook up with 4 huge fish but were unable to bring one to boat side. Sue said that was probably best! She expressed what many of us feel when going after the silver king. The beginning of the battle is the most fun. There's nothing in fishing like the hookup and then the initial jumps of a tarpon, especially when the first jump is right next to the boat!

One of Sue's fish did just that. It exploded straight up out of the water off the stern of the boat, shaking it's head and throwing water and bits of bait everywhere. Sue screamed out loud like she was on a roller coaster ride at Disney! The fish crashed back into the water and then proceeded to do 3 more fantastic jumps before blasting off for Mexico. After fighting the fish for 10 minutes or so she turned the rod over to her husband, Rob. He worked the fish for a few minutes and then one of those bad things happened that's usually associated with tarpon fishing... the brand new Quantum Cabo reel blew up! I later found out that one of the center gears threw a tooth and that ruined several other gears in the process. Needless to say, when the reel locked up we lost the fish. Afterward Sue told me it really didn't matter. She was so juiced on adrenalin her hands were still shaking almost an hour later. Welcome to tarpon fishing!

Sharks, Sharks and More Sharks

It was another fun day out there with the toothy creatures! Paul Stakowicz and his friend David joined me for a near shore Gulf trip. The idea was to get mackerel for dinner and we succeeded. We had five in the cooler in less than 30 minutes. We then caught a couple more and cut them up for bait and chum. It didn't take long for the sharks to show up. The one in the photo is a blacktip that I'd estimate at 5 to 6 feet long. It took David about 15 minutes to land. We released him so he could grow up. :-)

Fishing Report May 11th, 2009

The fishing has been fantastic! Summer weather seems to be here to stay. It's been in the 90's each day and very little rain. I'm actually looking forward to a bit of rainfall. Things are very dry here right now.

I'm still getting on lots of snook and some really nice trout along with few redfish. The real fun has been out in the Gulf in 16 to 20 feet of water. There are lots of sharks! We've been catching blacktips, lemons, bonnetheads, and bull sharks with a few going over 50 lbs. Fun, fun! The photos are of Todd Drew hooked up with a nice 5 foot blacktip.

Capt. Rob

Fishing Report May 6th, 2009

What a great morning on the water! I fished with the Biedlingmaier family from Wisconsin today and the request was to go after sharks. I must confess, it's been awhile since I was asked specifically to go after the toothy creatures. Since the winds finally layed down a bit we headed out into the Gulf and anchored up in 18 feet of water just a few miles off the beaches of Fort Myers. The sharks were there and hungry! I used cut threadfins as chum and it wasn't long before the first fish was on. The final count was 10 sharks on the line with 5 to the boat. The landed fish were 3 blacktips and 2 lemon sharks with one of the lemons going 35 pounds. The group also caught a couple of big spanish mackerel. Fun was had by all!