Two trips logged this weekend. Our temps have dropped some and even though it is getting into the low 80′s late in the day our water temps have been in the high 60′s every morning.

Sat. I met with Bob and Steve at the ramp for thier scheduled monthly trip with me. We spent very little time looking for bait and settled for a livewell full of pinfish as I could not find any signs of shiners. With the water colder and the trout season closed we focased our atttention to bottom fishing for grouper. I spent a lot of time in nearshore waters around 30′ deep. We fished for about 4 hours and managed 2 shorts and 3 keepers. The gag groupers ranged from 22″ to 24″ , all were fat healthy fish. Very good eating fish. While we were out there we ran into a school of Macks busting bait on the surface. We managed to catch 3 nice 20″ macks on jigs after losing 3 or 4 jigs to the toothy guys. On the way back in I decided to try a few docks and see if the sheepshead were running yet. And to my surprise we caught 3 very respectable sheepies. The bite wasnt as fast as when they are here in full force like they should be by Febuary but at least we caught some. Then the tide was stopped at 2pm and we called it a day. Not bad for winter fishing , 3 groupers, 3 macks , and 3 sheepshead.

Sunday I fished with John P. and after getting bait we headed out for the grouper again. This time the first fish had us scrambling to pull up anchor and chase. After what seemed like an hour battle with the bruiser we finally got it to the boat. It was a spotted eagle ray of about 150lbs. For a ray , it put up a decent battle. It jumped twice clearing the water by 5 feet. and made fantastic runs spooling off hundreds of yards of line. But we got photo and let it go. By the way , this thing was about as big as a car hood!! After having his butt kicked by the ray, John managed to bring a 22″ gag grouper to the boat along with a short. So we headed back to the dock early to get more tide than the day before. Once there, we caught a few short sheepies and a black drum that was about 20″ long. The drum did put up a good fight and John did an excellent job of getting him away from the dock poles. We ended the day with some catch and release trout fishing as john loves to fish for trout. The trout are there and once Jan comes around I am sure we will get some decent fish in the box. So the day ended with 1 grouper, and one drum to be cleaned.

capt rebby

Friday July 18th, Stephanie and her daughter Brandigan were scheduled to meet me at my house for 9am. This was a late start for me but the girls were just looking to sun themselves, catch a few fish and enjoy the wildlife that Florida has to offer.
Brandigan, 11, was very coordinated for her age. After a brief lesson she was casting like a pro. Catching bait was very easy as the bait schools are on top everywhere there is a good current break in the sound this month. Although it is not the size I would like it they did not get gilled in my net. Our first spot was north Mondongo Key where we fished for trout up on the flats. Brandigan caught her first fish with me there and her mom ended up with two nice keepers in the well. I then got them near the bushes for some snapper where they were getting hits on every cast .
Snappers can be a fast bite and the larger ones just clean the hook before you know what happened. Brandigan dropped the lock lid and that ended the bite so we decided to beat the heat and go into cabbage key for a lunch break. After a nice cheeseburger in paradise we hit the flats for some more fun. we caught lots of small trout and a couple of ladyfish. Brandigan wanted to know how I could tell they were ladyfish and not manfish. Not really thinking about the question I said because they jump all over the place and are very finicky about what they are shopping for. oops , girls on the boat. We all got a good laugh in and we ended the trip at 5pm. 2 trout , 6 snappers.

Saturday, I had Larry from Rolls-Royce to meet me at 6:30am. Larry started out the morning with an odd request. he handed me a small container and asked if he could keep his newly purchase Boa (snake) in my house.
After taking a look at the snake I took it inside and found a place where no one would find it. I just hoped we would remember it before he left.
During the bait netting I started to sift through the weeds on the bottom of the boat to show Larry all the neat creatures that live in the weeds. Larry , who used to work at a pet store, was very interested in the environment and all the different species we had in Florida waters. It didn’t take me long to find a seahorse, small shrimps, and crabs.
Larry had a special request that he would love to see a shark in its natural environment and or catch one. Well I could not promise one but if there was ever a time of the year this was it for seeing sharks. Our first flats to fish was at Ussepa Island where we caught a few trout, one grouper and got bite off by some spanish macks. Then I brought him to Mondongo where the small jacks were schooling in and around the bait pods. there we caught some jacks and a ladyfish. Then I noticed a small black tipped shark following in my bait. I chummed some live shiners and dead ones to keep him near the boat. And after a few attempts Larry’s bait was eaten right at our feet. The fight was on, and Larry soon had a shark in his hands for some nice photos. it was about 2 feet long. After letting it go we continued on to Jug creek shoal to find some more trout. Here while catching numerous small trout Larry got to see a manatee up close and a nice 80 lb tarpon rolling in a pothole . Although it wouldn’t bite. Then another shark circled the boat. and Larry ended up hooking that one too. He seemed to be having fun taking pictures of each species we caught.
Larry was to be in Orlando for that evening so this trip was to end at noon time. This is why I choose to stay in the nearby flats. I told Larry that if he ever intended to come visit again and we had more time I could show him some very interesting areas of the Gulf and mangroves. Larry was a very polite person and I enjoyed his company that day very much. I thing he was having a great time and I know his mind was on all the things going on around us because in his last e-mail he told me that he discovered he had no film in his camera when he went to unload it for development. I guess he’ll have to come back to relive the trip again.
Oh, Larry, my wife was happy you remembered to take the snake home. Looking forward to your return trip to Florida.

~Capt Rebby

This was the big weekend when my good friend John P. was down from Mass. to have a fishing marathon with me. It started out slow, was hectic in the middle and ended a little slow but was a trip of a lifetime. read on.

     Picked up John at the airport at 5:30pm and had him on the water under the Midpoint bridge at 9pm fishing for bait. We used jigs to catch a couple of 2lb catfish of which I cut in half and free lined under the bridge. We were fishing for tarpon on the shade line created by the street lights on the bridge. Tarpon were crashing bait every where. John was having fun just catching cats. Our fish few hits on the cat tails were black tipped shark of about 20lbs. and to my amazement we caught 4 gaff-topsail cats ( a very aggressive feeder) of about 10lbs each. These kept us busy and in the cool night air we planned out the weekend.  We ended at 1am after catching around 100lbs of fish not counting the bait cats that john kept bringing in. My objective had not been met as we did not encounter a tarpon. I actually am beginning to dislike fishing for them as they are too particular in the their feeding habits. I must be getting too spoiled with the other more reliable fishing to be had in these waters.

     Friday morning, our plans to get bait, fish the Boca Grande for Poons, then go for Spanish Macks. We didn’t actually stick to that plan. While getting bait the approaching front started a rain squall line to our north and the light rain made it  a bit difficult to see the shiners. however, we did manage two live wells full. Off to the Boca in search of a poon for john. It was looking a little dark over there but we went anyways. John and I always throw caution to the wind and go for it . When we got to where I wanted to be there were  only 15 boats in an area that usually has 100. The poons we rising, but not as much  as I would have like or have seen in the past. The rain was getting heavy and thunder was heard in the background. soon it was so heavy that I could not see the other boats. and the lightening was striking all around us. Boy does it sound loud on the water, reminded me of a trip with Al Lapa for blues at Milestone. Anyway we were one of 5 boats left without a hit from a poon. so I hightailed it for Safety Harbor. where we thought we could ride out the storm and catch a few anything fish. Well it rained and rained. the electrical part of the storm passed. By the way, John and I  were both impressed at the way the 22′ Pathfinder boat handled the 4 -5″ swells coming out of the pass  with a port side   white capped sea. Excellent bow entry on this boat. now I got us behind a mangrove island for shelter where we ate lunch an caught 4 cats and one small shark. The  day looked like a wash out when I started to see lighter clouds too our south. So with a west wind I  figured the beach was going to be sheltered. I raced over there and even though it was sheltered the offshore swells made it so I could not use my trolling motor. I anchored and live chummed shiners into the surf. That was the ticket as we caught about 20 snook each  with a few gator trout over 20″ .   The  skies cleared and we continued to catch fish. The snook averaged at 18″ -22″ inches long and were a blast to catch especially after the start we had to the  day. I figured we had about 60lbs of fish for our efforts. Of course we let them all go and just enjoyed their company.

Sat. Partly cloudy with a west wind at 10 mph. not bad, but post frontal conditions made getting bait a chore. But  we filled two live wells and off to an offshore wreck I headed. on the  way  there John insisted we stop at Captiva pass where he  wanted to relive a previous trip where we had good luck with the Spanish Macks. I knew that they were not there  as I have not  had a good bite there this year due in part to the red tide and on shore breeze. I stopped and we gave it a half hour where we boated 4 or 5 small grouper to 15″. Now back to the my plan. On the way offshore I noticed the rocker switch light had gone out on the center live well. Don’t know how long the fuse had blown but all the bait was dead. You need lots of fresh water when  you have 500 baitfish in one well. I pressed on. We found our wreck in 57′ and dropped a marker , anchored and started  chumming. John set out 3 rods while I cut bait and readied equipment. His first hit almost spooled the real with a line screaming drag circling the boat engulfing and wrapping the other two rods and the marker buoy in the process. what a mess. I cut all the lines and untangled the marker as John proceeded to just run around the boat an fight the  fish. After a short encounter with the anchor and some tense moments boat side I gaffed the first kingfish ever caught on my boat. a nice 40″ , 15lb fish. This was the start of a great fishing day. We continued on to catch one kingfish after another with a lot of lines being cut  from the feeding frenzy that was created with the live chumming and the chum bag hanging. It got to a point where we could only fish two rods a piece one in the water while tying the last broken leader. We were using 30lb power pro line with 100 lb test mono leader. and a 2/0 long shank hook. John at one point tried to use Tyger wire leader , very thin stuff , but no hits as I think they could see it. Our action continued as Spanish Macks were chasing baits on top and the bonitas were  chasing the Macks and the Kingfish were chasing the
bonitas with Large cudas all around the boat waiting for the leftovers. It was chaos. At one point john caught a blue runner about 3lbs. and I cut all its fins off and used a 16/0 circle hook , 80lb power pro, and 100lb leader and set this baby on the bottom. half an hour later the rod was over doubled. and john could not get it out of the holder. Big Mamma came calling. John fought it with style for 30 minutes when the leader broke. I went back to bottom fishing with squid to get another blue runner , as I was bring one up Big mamma ate it off my  small rod. She didn’t exactly break it off quickly as I was dragged down the boat while sitting on a cooler with my Penn 975, drag locked down, with 50lb  power pro on it. I held on until the 100lb test lead broke , AGAIN! Man was she big. John caught an 18″ Spanish Mack. I cut its head off and sent it down to the wreck . half an hour before our friend was back and this time I took the big pole only to be broken of at the leader again. This has never happened to me before. I was out classed by a fish. At least I think it was a fish. Well we left the spot for shore at 6:30 pm after catching 10 kings , 10 – 40 lbs, 10 bonitas -8 -10lbs, 10 Spanish Macks, 5lbs, and many blue runners and small groupers . est. 280 lbs of fish, and I errored on the low side. This is beginning to sound like a real blown out of proportion fish story. But we have photos to  back it up ..

Sunday , new fuse in the pump , bait was easy minus the Memorial day idiots who insist on cutting through my chum lines. offshore we went , Oh by the  way John didn’t want to stop at the pass this  morning. ha ha. On the way offshore I saw the light go out again. Without hesitation. I had john use the wash down pump to keep the bait alive while I changed out the pump. This boat is designed with fishermen in mind. turn a ball valve to stop water flow , rotate out the motor from pump housing, unplug the red and black wires , install the replacement kept in storage, open valve and we are back up and running without a lost bait in 10 minutes. Love that pathfinder boat. Today was calmer with out clouds. The same bite we had yesterday continued until about 10:30am then things got quiet. We caught 5 nice Kings each and 2 bonitas each before the bite stopped, The  fish were still there we  could see them eating out chum. but they must be able to see out leaders with the high sun and calm conditions. so squid to the bottom and up comes a blue runner and you guessed it , back down she goes with the big rod only this time I have managed to tie a clinch knot with150 lb test leader. Boy is that difficult to tie a knot with. I will need to research how  those offshore guides rig that stuff. After an hour wait and while eating some watermelon. The standup tuna rod is singing out drag. John is up, and the fight is on. Big mamma drags the anchor until it is in the wreck. John has been dropped to his knees twice now. I manage to get the belt on him and that lessens the pain from the rod butt. John is very well built and in  good physical shape, but the 95 degree heat and 3 days on the water are taking their toll on him . It is now 30 minutes into the battle , John has managed to get the fish off the bottom and ten cranks on the  reel only to loose the ground 5 times. 1 hour into this and John looks like he may give me the rod, I start talking , 3 more time I say, 3 more runs left in him you can do this. John starts for the finish line. he is pumping for all it is worth. we see color, a faint brown down around 30 feet and then big mammas takes back all that was given. I tell john , do it again but slower, trick her up and make her take that drag again , it is the only way to tire her. John listens to me for the first time in 20 years. and up she comes 20 feet  from the surface , our first good look at the giant fish. Back she goes to the 57′ wreck. I feared that she would get inside the wreck so I encouraged john to pump for all it was worth and turn her. He did, and she came up. when at the surface she laid there almost to say , ” OK you win , pet me and turn me lose. And take all these hooks out of my  mouth  while your at it!”.  The Goliath Group was 49″ long and 68″ in girth , using the IGFA calculations for weight we figured this fish at 230lbs!!!!!!!!.  I used the rest of my film up on the photo shoot, while we revived her. Everything was fine , that is until my polish friend decided that he would lip lock the fish like a bass! This fish didn’t  have much for teeth but its mouth was the size of a 55 gallon drum and when it clamped down on johns hand and headed for home I though for sure he was going to her house for supper. She twisted his wrist, fillet his fingers, and just about pulled his arm out of its socket before letting go. To the bottom she went with all the little cleaning fish following her back to the
wreck.
Soon after this the sharks started swarming the chum bag as I had cutup a mackerel for bait and tossed the head out for chum. We caught 4 sharks that were about 4 feet long and most likely 40 lbs each. I did a lot of that catching as John was still licking his wounds from Big Mamma.  Our day ended with an impressive 540 lbs of fish over the rails and photos to back it up.

Monday, Bait was easy, back to the wreck , Kings on top, bonitas and Macks skyrocketing thru the air chasing baitfish. after catching two or three fish that just scream drag until your almost spooled at least twice in each battle all I really wanted to do was watch mother nature do her thing. I was calm and you could see tons of fish ,some species I don’t even know what they were, all under the boat eating our chum and our live chum. Sharks, cudas ( oh , I forgot to mention that on Saturday and Sunday john caught at least two cudas each day that were over 30 lbs , that would add 120lbs to our total, unbelievable even for me.) snappers, bonitas, kings, Macks and jack crevells circling the boat. we didn’t catch as much today as we did on sat. I think that the bright sun , no clouds, calm seas are condition that make it easy for the fish to see the leader . We tried an experiment to prove it. John went down to 50lb test leader and was immediately chomped off 5 times in a row. And when I would throw my bait out with 5 or 6 live shiners as chum the kings would eat all the shiners but mine on the hook. I must look into 100lb test fluorocarbon for when this happens again. Always learning something out here.

Hey John, lots of fun , enjoyed the company, can’t wait for next time. take care of those cut hands, and enjoy the kingfish steaks. Our total for the weekend looks like something in excess of 800lbs of fish , maybe a lot more who really knows. Every one else, I can not guarantee a weekend like this but I would sure like to invite you down to try.

~Capt Rebby.

Well the local news report has indicated that the sound is full of red tide this week. I am very concerned that I will have trouble getting bait this weekend.

Fridays trip was with my local friend Bill. I had a cancellation and Bill took the opportunity to fill the gap for me. I tried for bait at 3 of my best spots without much luck. The tide was not moving and I was not sure if we were in the red tide or not. So I elected to do some top water fishing until it started to move around 9:30am. We were able to catch 8 nice keepers and lots of shorts on my favorite top water bait , chrome chug bugs. After this we tried again for bait and found plenty of it. it may have been the tides. I hope so. So off to the pass, the Macks were there although not as many as last weekend and after 1/2 hour of chumming we netted about 5 Macks and lots of undersized groupers. I then took him to a flat for reds where we fished for 2 hours changing locations about 4 times , only caught 2 jacks and some cats. So we ended the day with 8 trout and 5 Macks on the fillet board. Not as good as I would have liked but hey, I didn’t see any red tide. As a matter of fact the water was the clearest I have seen in months.

Saturday, Today was a much waited for trip for Robert, and his dad Robert ( which I will call Bob). Robert was with me in the winter when all we could fish for was Sheepshead in Ding Darling Preserve as the wind was howling that day. I knew the day was going to be fun when the two of them were jousting over who would catch more than the other. It is always fun to have a little competition going in the boat.

We started the day very early and were able to catch the tail end of the outgoing tide prior to it stopping. this was the ticket as we had two live wells full of bait. Off to the pass. Things started off very slowly. Bob caught the first two or three fish and lost about 4 hits. The Grouper were biting but the Macks were hitting short and biting baits in half. Then I ended up catching the first Mack. ( I hate for that to happen) however I was trying to prove to myself that they were indeed Macks and not small sharks dealing us all the missed hits. Robert did catch one Mack and lost a few more. He was able to catch up to his dad in numbers by yanking groupers off the bottom. We gave this spot far too much time to prove itself and after moving 3 times I was certain the Macks were not in full force there. It seems that the mackerel are not nearly as schooled up as they had been last year I wonder if the red tide has anything to do with it. I will most likely never know. I decided to fish for trout on the flats that were north of Captiva in order to be close to Boca Grande Pass when and if we got our limits as Robert wanted to give the Tarpons a try. Well after fishing 4 flats with corks and shiners we had 12 nice trout in the well. Robert was a natural at this and caught his first 3 fish on a “hole in one cast”. For those of you who may not have fished with me yet I make up names for most anything I find entertaining and when one casts a popping cork out and it hits the water and goes under in one motion that is claimed to be a hole in one. It usually happens at least once a trip but Robert was getting them more than usual.

Off to the Poons. Rigged with 6 oz breakaway jigs and 4″ shad tails and after some instructions on the drill for fishing tarpons Robert was ready to go. His dad decided , after seeing all the boats in the pass , to watch the show . Well the poons were rising all around us and Robert and his dad got an eye full of tarpon. After motoring and drifting for 1 1/2 hours without a hit or even seeing anyone else hooked up I figured that the poons were not playing today .

Next stop was the Crane , a construction crane that had been lost off a barge some years ago. I thought maybe there would be some nice snapper there but we were only able to catch a couple of small ones , and a juvenile Jewfish. The Jewfish was only a couple of pounds but it was very colorful and I am sure the photo will look nice. We were running low on bait so I went back to Ussepa and got a net full in one throw , Then back to Captiva pass to try a different tide for Macks. The tide was stronger than in the morning and my experience has been when the tide is fast enough to keep your bait on top you usually don’t get a good feeding spree from the Macks, and true to form that is what happened, we were able to get some groupers and a ladyfish. by this time it was 4pm a full day on the water and the heat was wearing on me. So back to the dock to clean the mess of fish we had. The day was very fun with Bob and Robert heckling each other as most father and sons do. I sure do hope they had as much fun as I did.

Next weekend is a businessman’s holiday for me, with my good friend John from Mass due in on Thursday to do battle for 4 days with the famous tarpon of Boca Grande and a rematch with Big Mamma , the jewfish who kicked his butt last month. Should be an interesting story as always with John on board.

~Capt Rebby

Plans to fish all three days , so here we go!

Friday, planned tarpon/trout trip with Glen. Stopped at Jug Creek Shoal and then South Mondongo Key for bait. no results. for some reason bait was not there. We were early in the tide so water movement was at a minimum. Last stop was at North Mondongo and it was a charm. Bait was schooling on top so no chum was needed three throws filled the well. Off to the famous Boca Grande Pass to do battle with the Poons. Lets set this up, not a cloud in the sky, no wind , sun on our backs from the east and 85 degrees and rising. I was hot already. The poons were not rising like normal. They usually rise to gulp air in an effort to help with digestion. This must mean that the were not feeding not a good sign. We were in a fleet of around 50 -60 boats. not bad for this time of year. in a couple of weeks there will be 100-200 boats in the pass on any given day. We were fishing with 3 ounce breakaway jigs and 4″ shad tails. switching colors often, more to boost confidence than to trick the fish. By noon we had not had a hit and had seen around 15 poons landed by other “lucky” fishermen. Most of whom seem to be women. (I think tarpon have a taste for thongs). But by this time Glen and I were very hot and starting to wear out from the lack of a sea breeze so we left the tarpon fleet and went in search for trout. Glen wanted to bring some fish home for supper. The first flat we stopped at was East Ussepa, on the first drift we landed 3 keepers to 18″ and a bunch of shorts and some jacks. Second drift netted us a 22″ and 26″ trout and more jacks. I did notice that these fish were being caught in a little deeper water than usual for this time of year. and the water looked a little stained. On the way back into the ramp we stopped a Bokiella bar and topped the limit off so that Glen had 8 nice trout to eat. the day ended on a good note however the poons can be frustrating. I have yet to have any consistency with them. still learning.

Saturday. I had Bob and Steve for a day of catching fish , anything goes when bob is on board. Steve is from Mass. and has fished all his life. He did real well as most anything that touched his line came in over the rail. I went to the same spot as on Fri. for bait and after filling the boat I was off to Captiva Pass to try for Macks. after two spots in the pass I finally got a chum line going that was boiling with fish. When ever I would throw livies out the jacks, macks, snapper, and ladies would just tear up the water to a froth. These two guys could hardly keep a line in the water. After an 3 hours of this I had to insist they stop and drink something as even I was getting dizzy from the heat. As the tide slowed so did the bite. Now I jumped ahead of the tide to Shangrie La, an area of grass flats that is a favorite of mine. As I was motoring the 6 miles to the flats I did notice a few dead fish here and there on the surface. Indications that the red tide is still lurking around and another reason I was having trouble on fri with the bait. We fished grass flats the rest of the day and caught trout after trout along with snook, ladyfish, and jacks. The highlight of the trip was the fish that got away. Yes Steve did lose one this day and we will never know what it was. as after almost spooling a reel full of 30lb power pro line the hook pulled free. Tackle all worked fine I just don’t Steve got a good hook set on this one and he under estimated the speed of some of these fish we have here. It did not jump so I don’t think it was a poon but it may have been a 30lb jack or even a cobia. Never did get to ID the fish. In the end they had 10 macks, 5 snapper and 12 sea trout for some good eating. and at last count they had caught 125 fish total. Now that’s not fishing that’s CATCHING!

Sunday I was to take out my wife Patty for mothers day. I had intended to go offshore in search of Lane snapper and grouper as I need the experience offshore to expand the business. But as fate would have it the gods blew wind down on us. and the seas where at 3 – 4″ out of the south with the low to our north. So I went in search for redfish. we fished about 4 different flats and 3 mangrove islands with only one snook and one lost redfish to show for it. Patty had a good time relaxing and used the quiet time as a photo opt , where she got photos of manatees, sea turtles, many birds and of course our local dolphins. I wasn’t in the mood to take any more fish off the hooks after Sat anyways as my hands were very sore. So off the water at noon to spend the rest of the day in the pool .

Next weekend the tides are looking good , hopefully the red tide will not be present as I have a good fisherman , Robert , coming from the north to spend the weekend with his dad.

~ Capt Rebby