To Shrimp Or Not To Shrimp, That Is The Question

As I write this, Southwest Florida is in the midst of its first real cold front of the season. Last night we had a record low of 46 degrees. Just a few days ago we were having record high temperatures in the 90’s. Things sure can switch around weather wise in a hurry. I had to go digging for my Gor-Tex jacket and bibs along with gloves and a hooded sweatshirt. Time to put away the flip flops and get out the boat shoes!

To make things interesting I had a fishing charter right in the middle of the change. Before the front moved in bait was easy to find along the beaches and the bite was steady for days, both in the backcountry and in the Gulf. I guess the fish could sense the change in barometric pressure and knew it was time to fatten up for the impending bad weather.

On my charter day the front had passed through the area. The morning temperature had fallen to 52 degrees and the winds were gusting out of the north at 25 miles an hour, which makes it feel like 40 degrees on the water. The low tide was a scheduled negative low at about 7:30 in the morning but the winds kept pushing the water out until about 10 AM and made for a low tide that exposed sand and oyster bars that I hadn’t seen since last winter. The game plan had to be seriously modified or perhaps not go at all.

My anglers arrived at the marina and I gave them the “lack of bait” and small craft advisory report and asked them how badly they really wanted to do this. The vote was to go if we could, stay in the backcountry out of the wind as much as possible and throw artificials if needed. I decided to give it a go and bought 100 shrimp as a backup plan.

I like fishing with live shiners and threadfin herrings and I often forget just how effective live shrimp can be. I tend to feel that a live swimming bait is going to catch the bigger fish while shrimp will attract only the smaller species. That’s really not true at all. Thinking back over the years, I’ve seen some pretty spectacular catches on shrimp. After all, they are native to our waters and I’m sure they are a major part of most game fish diets. The biggest redfish I ever caught was on a shrimp and jig combo.

We headed off to the north end of Estero Bay. The idea was to fish the many cuts found in the area around the oyster bars. There was so little water due to the low tide and wind that I figured the fish would have to be in those cuts. Heck, there wasn’t enough water anywhere else for them to swim in! The hunch paid off in a big way.

We used nothing but shrimp for bait and rigged them on small yellow 1/4 ounce jig heads. The guys cast them near oyster bar points and in the deepest cuts and then worked them back nice and slow over the bottom. During the course of the day they caught over 30 snook including two slot fish, a couple of nice redfish, keeper trout, a dozen keeper sheepshead, a small gag grouper, scads of mangrove snapper and more than our share of catfish. We had constant action for most of the day and we arrived back at the dock with smiles on our faces and dinner in the box.

The valuable lesson here is don’t be afraid to change gears when things get tough and don’t be afraid to put live shrimp in the well as a go-to bait. As we move further and further into the winter months live shrimp should become part of your game plan. They area easy to get and easy to use.

Best of luck!

Capt. Rob Modys
SoulMate Charters

Fishing the Caloosa Catch and Release Tournament

Over the years I’ve participated in many small fishing tournaments. Most were benefits for organizations I support or group efforts put together by fellow guides for large conventions and the like. I won a few and lost a few and they were always fun. The only pressure involved were the side bets that the guys and gals made the night before over drinks. Sometimes a lizardfish would pay big!

I wasn’t really interested in big name and big money tournaments. I have a successful guide business and that takes up most of my time. The thought of more days on the water working tournaments just seemed a bit much to me. But then a series of things happened.

First, I started running my charters out of Fish-Tale Marina back in early 2009 and by shear coincidence I had seen the flier for the 20th Annual Caloosa Catch and Release Tournament coming up in June. I got an idea to put together a team for Fish-Tale and was lucky enough to land Capt. Brad Brown and Capt. Sean Davis as teammates. We all had been working charters out of the marina for several months and all of us know Estero Bay pretty well but we had never fished together before. Brad had lots of tournament experience and had recently won the Flatsmasters. Sean was also well versed in tournaments and had fished the Caloosa series for 7 years. I was the tournament series virgin with lots of fishing experience and lots of enthusiasm!

Then a couple of months ago I took over the reins of a fishing radio show called Reel Talk on ESPN 770. The show covers all things fishing in and around Southwest Florida including environmental issues, fishing and boating shows, fishing reports and tournaments. I felt I was pretty well versed in most aspects of the sport but I was sorely lacking in first hand knowledge of tournaments. Also controversy had suddenly entered into the equation. Many of my friends and fellow captains believe that tournament fishing is harmful to the grass flats and to the fish themselves and may even be detrimental to the quality of fishing in our area.

I’ve always felt it’s tough to talk about something unless you’ve experienced it first hand. You can read about parachuting or scuba diving a deep wreck, but until you’ve actually done those things you really have no idea what you are talking about.

The wheels were in motion and it was time to jump out of the plane.

The Caloosa Catch and Release fishing tournament is a 2 day event. The sought after species are snook, redfish and sea trout and you must have 2 of each fish on your scorecard each day. In other words... you have to “double slam” on BOTH days to even hope to finish in the top 10. The scoring is done in inches. The total lengths of all the qualifying fish are added up at the end of the 2 days and the team with the most inches wins.

I had done the math. Based on past tournaments we had to score at least 300 points to be in the top 5. That meant that each fish had to average 25 inches. I can’t remember the last time I saw four 25 inch trout in a two day period! We were going to need some nice reds and snook or this was going to be difficult at best.

Sean, Brad and I had made a pact just days before the tournament. We all agreed to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, winning was important to us but I believe we were more interested in enjoying ourselves while doing well.

Day one went pretty much as planned. We had a big snook and a big redfish on the card early and then added another mid-sized red and snook by 9:30. We then worked on trout and had the card filled by early afternoon. I had caught 4 of the 6 fish on the card and was starting to feel like I was earning my keep along side the “Pros”. We had to be back at the dock by 5 PM for check-in so that gave us time to do some upgrading. Sean had had a rough morning with break offs and a missed fish but soon redeemed himself by landing a big red and a big snook within minutes of each other. We headed for check in with 161 inches of fish. At the end of day 1 we were half way there.

Day two wasn’t pretty. I worked the radio show from 7 until 10 AM while my partners fished. When I rejoined them at 11 AM they had a nice snook and redfish on the card. But the bay was crawling with boats and there was another tournament taking place. It seemed that every spot we wanted to hit already had a boat on it. The decision was made to search far and wide for available space but that didn’t work either. We finally picked up another medium sized snook around 2 PM and decided to hit an area we had fished the day before. Once there, Sean nailed a big snook right away but it popped the hook. A few minutes later he hooked up again and this time was able to boat a big snook for an upgrade. Brad then hooked up with a big redfish but it popped off at the boat! To say we were all bummed would be an understatement. It was after 3 PM and we only had two snook and a red on the card and we knew we had to head back at 4 PM to make the check in on time.

While Brad and Sean worked live bait for another redfish I decided to put on a popping cork and “Gulp” shrimp combo and look for trout. The flat looked good for both species and time was running out. At about 3:30 I hooked a big fish. It was the big red we needed but I was fighting it on the smallest rod I had with me. After a short battle my partners netted the fish and there were smiles and high fives all around. Now it was time to get a couple trout.

Sean got the first one on live bait at about 3:45. We worked and worked to find another one but it just didn’t seem like it was in the cards. At 4 PM Brad told me and Sean to keep fishing for a trout while he got the gear stowed and the boat in order to head for the check in. I was just about to give it up when my lure got smacked. It was a nice trout! We all held a collective breath until the fish was netted, measured and written on the score card and at 4:05 we headed for home with a full card.

We arrived at the dock with 4 minutes to spare and we turned in a total of 154 inches. That gave us a two day score of 315 points. We had made our goal and we finished 5th in the Pro division. We had beaten some of the best captains in the business and we had been beaten by the best as well.

Participating in this tournament has been an eye opening experience for me. I witnessed 68 teams work hard to get to the top of the leader board and I witnessed ethical treatment of the fish and the environment. The Caloosa also generated much needed funds via an auction for Florida Gulf Coast University and the Strong Kids Campaign as well as providing a family event that was enjoyed by all.

I’m still happy to just be a “charter” captain but I have to admit I’m looking forward to the next event in the Caloosa series.

Hey Brad & Sean. Wanna do it again?

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".