AFW

By Jason
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
" Memorial Day Weekend Outing "

Yesterday we had expected it to rain early on in the day just like it had all week.  But as the day progressed it turned out to be a fishing opportunity missed!

So today we got started somewhat earlier than we usually have, leaving land about 9:30am.  On board was Karla, Amber, Spike, and myself.

First stop an island Amber wanted to explore with Spike:

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10:00am

Then we were off to catching bait on the north side of Picnic Island.  I chummed for a while and threw the net quite a few times to yield about 7 very large pins and an unknown.  Needless to say catching bait was not easy this time.

Then we headed to the center of Sanibel Causeway Span B and anchored for a bit right by a piling, but not a single bite.

Karla, eager to catch fish, suggested we move so we moved to the flats on the gulf side of Span A.  The tide was very very high today so we had no problem going over this very shallow region.  We drift-fished on the inbound tide at a subtle 0.4 mph.  This is when the fun started happening.  On one if those big pins I almost immediately caught this nice trout:

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12:48pm

Then a short time later with another big pinfish I hooked up on a bigger trout (20 inches):

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1:15pm

That was a blast.  We continued to pass over the same area over and over but the bite really slowed down.  At one point my pinfish was bitten cleanly in half so I am pretty sure that was done by a small shark.  Also our drift speed eventually picked up to a swift 1.5mph.

Meanwhile, Amber dissected this pinfish after it died.  She's been dissecting all kinds of small creatures in school lately.

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4:41pm

As the day progressed we found shiners turning up all over the place, so we caught a big baitwell full of them.

Then we headed to Fort Myers Beach for a pitstop.  After that the sky looked threatening so we hi-tailed it to SC Tripod in search of those fun Spanish Mackerels.  There was one boat anchored there already, and so we fished for a while but no one was catching.  

Here's a grand cloud formation over Sanibel Island near sunset.

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7:37pm

So then we headed to the deep cut next to the Sanibel Pier and caught the outbound tide around the lighthouse and west along the island.  Karla ended up catching a small trout just east of the Sanibel Light House in the shallows right around sunset.

After sunset we went back to the Sanibel Pier and this time drifted inbound all the way through Span C while running a submerged fluorescent green light next to the boat, and seeing what creatures it aroused.  Among other things, we saw an occasional shrimp.  I believe it is too early for what I call "the big shrimp migration" that usually occurs in June in this area. 

After this we headed back.  We were back on land about midnight.   

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