Got out with Capt. Mike Manus of Flats Captain Charters,
www.flatscaptain.com this past Friday. We put in at El Jobean (mouth of Myakka River) and fished the West Wall of Charlotte Harbor. Bite was slow although the day was perfect to be out.
Sunrise
Started off with a puglisi colored to match the tannic-colored water:
Although the bite was very slow, I did manage my first redfish. Caught on intermediate sinking line with a olive-green over white puglisi. Good hard fighting fish!
Then two casts later I got a flounder up off the bottom:
That was it - bite on, bite off. No more takes the rest of the day although we did see a few of these on the way over to Gasparilla Sound:
We hit a flat over there that was full of turtle grass and saw some tailers. Hardly any wind and these guys were spooky! I did get about two or three shots when we could get close enough without spooking them, but they either weren't interested or just didn't notice my fly with their noses down in the bottom. Saw some other boats out there that didn't look like they were having any luck either.
Family went out to eat later that evening; Jack my son tried his first raw oyster. See how clean his little plate is? It wasn't that way just a few seconds after I took this pic:
But my niece and two nephews wanted more! This little guy was so hungry waiting on the main course to come out that he resorted to chugging leftover ranch dressing:
Next day, I went out a bit with my folks' skiff to see what I could do up in the Peace River/Shell Creek area. I don't really know much at all about fishing this area or this style of water. I was messing around and an old-timer just two spots down hollered from the bank 'You're fishing in the wrong spot!' I said something about not knowing anything about the area while wondering if he was trying to heckle me or what. He then proceeded to point out an area about fifty feet to the left of where I was fishing that was a deep hole made by the current. After he tried to give me some of his frozen shrimp, I invited him onto the boat. Fred proceeded to catch a couple of under-slot reds:
Nice fella. He even took me out into the bigger water to show me another nice hole that he has had success in. He was hard of hearing and told me it was because his transport truck was blown up when he was serving our country in Korea. Everyone other than him was killed in that explosion where he was thrown 200 feet from the site. Tough old coot climbed up and down that bank to and from the boat without any reservation. Way to go Fred!
