AFW

By Jason
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Sunday, July 9, 2006

Today we got started about 1:00pm.  With 2 dozen shrimp, we decided to save some time and not catch bait at the Sanibel Causeway, but instead head straight to Southern Pine Island Sound.

We stopped a few times along the way and attempted to catch bait in one of the numerous bait boils we observed, in waters 5-8 feet deep.  We were unable to catch any bait.  I attribute this to the depth and the fact that my cast net doesn't sink very fast (bait had time to escape).  Bait pods were numerous SE, S, and SW of York Island.  

Karla fished the flats west of York Island.  Nothing.

Then we headed to Chino Island.  On the way there, there was an ocassional dead fish floating.  As we entered the channel east of Chino, we noticed numerous floaters, and dead fish and bait on the seafloor.  This continued NW beyond Chino for a hundred yards or so.   We did notice however with all of the death, an occasional live bait fish here and there.  We didn't even bother fishing there.

We fished a few flats and attempted to catch bait again between Chino and Redfish Pass.  Nothing.

Next stop: Redfish Pass!

We drifted the incoming tide over and over for hours:

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Eventually I caught this nice thick lady fish:

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6:54pm

She was quite a jumper and splasher.  Our hours of fruitless fishing finally yielded a result!

Shortly after, I hooked up a 15 inch Spotted Sea Trout!  Unfortunately, the excitement was so high that I forgot to get a picture.  It was certainly an unexpected catch at deep RP!

Time was ticking away and I took this picture:

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8:12pm

Shortly after, I ended up digging the skeg and prop into a shallow area outside of RP, and when I looked back, no water was exiting the pee-hole on the cowling.  CRAP.  I took out the tools, and pulled the panel off that covers the pee-hole port on the exhaust cover.  I removed the hose, and then I had Karla crank up the engine and observed a strong stream of water coming from the exhaust cover pee-port.  Thank God!  I blew out the pee-tube, and confirmed that it was jammed with sand and shells.  Reconnected it, put everything back together, and we were good to go.

As usual, Amber played with the bait well contents which consisted of shrimp, "Sinbad the clawless crab", and 2 other crabs we bottom-netted.

By now it was dark.  We drifted to about 8 inches before I realized it, just inside of RP.  We decided to put the motor down to hold us, and sit there awhile.  Afterall, the tide was incoming.  We began using the new submersible fish light (SFL).  It attracted lightning-fast moving bait fish 2-4 inches.  We heard lot of splashes and jumping in the area.  At one point, we were leaning over and saw what appeared to be a brown colored shark minimum 4 feet spash voilently not more than 10 feet from us.  And another!  Karla and Amber were a little shaken, but we still had a good time.

After a while, we drifed RP yet another time, and then we anchored at the inside south side of RP a few hundred yards in from the pass, in about 6 feet..  With the SFL lit, we observed lots of bait fish, and later in the evening, larger fish 8-10 inches.  I could not ID them

The moon was bright overhead.  It became very windy a few hours after dark.

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11:56pm

We stayed here for hours.  At one point, in the light of the SFL, we saw a large object a few feet down pass by.  It looked like it could have been a manatee, or maybe a shark.  Nonetheless, it just drifed with the fast moving current.  

We finally left RP about 3:45am.  We continued all the way home and arrived about 5am.  By the time everything was cleaned up, it was dawn and I was exhausted.  

It was a beautiful weather day, with no rain whatsoever.

• Seas: mostly calm to light chop

• Wind: light

• Precipitation: none

• Water Temperature: 

• Distance Traveled (mi): mi

• Hours out: 16

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