War-Pig Weekend II ... but So Much More!

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-24-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target: Largemouth Bass

Time:  6:45 AM - 12:15 PM

Conditions:  Clear and bright but with dropping barometric pressure and some clouds forming; 42 to 65 degrees F; ESE winds to 10 mph; water temperatures of 54 to 56 F; water clearing with about 3 feet of visibility

As I left the dock, I could see that Numenon was already in the warmest water she'd encountered all season.  But it was only a couple of degrees warmer than my last trip, so I figured I might be in for more of the same.  That was fine with me, but "better" would be welcome, too.

A rotund, keeper-sized pike ate a Rapala Shadow Rap on about my third cast, and two nice pre-spawn bass totaling about 5 pounds ate the War-Pig before 7:15 AM.  The fish seemed to be where I'd left them, and they seemed pretty active!  But the promising start was then somewhat offset by a slow period, and I hadn't caught anything else but a short bass (the first I'd encountered all year) by 8:30 or so.  I decided to make a pretty big relocation, but still stuck with the lipless rattling bait.  It was, after all, producing the best quality of bass for me, at least since the water had warmed past the 40's.

Once again I forced myself to slow down and keep the bait in contact with the weeds.  Two more pike were quickly followed by another 2-1/2 pound bass, and I started to hit my stride. This particularized edge is pretty straight, and I'd taken all the fish in about 4 or 5 feet, or perhaps a smidge shallower, over the weeds.  I still had more weed-line to go, so I kept working the War-Pig through and over similar water.  I'd been thinking about other, perhaps more productive presentations, but these thoughts were now replaced with determination to catch a virtual limit of keeper-sized (14 inches or greater) bass.  I was pretty sure the Pig would get me there, for the first time this year!

Michigan's current season allows only catch and immediate release fishing for bass right now, so there's no possession allowed.  But that fits in with my style of bass fishing anyway; I'm always working on a virtual limit for the day.  My goal on just about every bass fishing day is a virtual limit of 5 keepers, and my secondary goal is to have at least one big one in there.

By 9:10, I'd caught another pike and another bass pushing 3 pounds.  Then, on successive casts, I got my "limit" fish; and then a solid culling fish.  The Pig was on fire!

Let the (virtual) culling begin!  This my "limit" fish at about 9:10 AM, and things were starting to come together.

Moments later this twin came aboard and significantly elevated my "best-five weight."  This girl really choked the bait, too.  There was nothing timid about the way she ate!

This stretch had proven so productive that I chose to go through it again. (Have I mentioned that the ESE wind was blowing into this shoreline, and that the warmest water of the day was here?)  I gave a bluegill-colored swim jig a try through the entire stretch.  I had one very nice strike come unglued, but landed nothing; it was time to move again, and it was time to swim the Pig through some new water.

I ran across the lake, and on my second or third cast, the second short bass came aboard.  This fish had hit shallow, so some bass were definitely moving in.  But he was small, and numbers of little fish could not interest me on a day when so many nice fish were chewing.  I still tried to concentrate on weeds in 4 to 6 feet of water, and I was still casting that crawdad War-Pig.

I caught several nice bass and pike along this stretch.  The bass pictured below brought my estimated virtual limit (for 5 bass) to about 18 pounds; this was now officially (according to this chosen metric) my best day of fishing on Reeds Lake, ever.

Across the lake and an hour later, my pattern was still working.   On most days (for me) this would be the biggest bass of the day, but not on a day like today.  A pike would engulf and steal my War-Pig just a moment later, but that would prove to be no problem.

And the fish kept eating.  A couple more pike pushing 30 inches came aboard, as well as several more truly nice bass; all with this same presentation.  At this point, it really was "War-Pig Weekend II", but when a big pike jumped on my Pig and stole it (I can't really believe it had taken me this long to get bitten off), I had no choice but to start chucking something else.

Of course that something else was another lipless rattling bait; I chose an old Rattle Trap that had some crawdad overtones to it.  Fortunately, I was rewarded with a quick strike from another solid bass, so I didn't have to fret about the loss of my (now beloved) War-Pig.  When the Rattle Trap got stolen by another pike, I switched to a bluegill Rattling Rapala.

I decided to wind down my day with a stretch of shoreline that would conclude at a favorite, big fish spot.  It was where I'd started my day, and I figured there were probably some more fish to show my bait to.  And it appeared that the day would end slowly, because I'd hit another dry spell.  But then one of those random, crazy things happened, and one reason I love to fish is that one is more likely to notice those sorts of incidents.

With perhaps 50 yards left before I reached my endpoint, a boat roared across the lake, veered to get ahead of me, raced in front of me, set up shop for pan-fish, and turned their backs so as to avoid eye contact.  It was too thoughtless and petty an act to really matter on this fine day, but it was rude and unsportsmanlike.  I kept my cool and I thought I was rewarded when I caught a noisy 3-pounder 20 yards from them.

I couldn't really stop fishing, when I'd just caught the first one after my dry spell, and since it was the first one on this new rattle bait.  I simply chose to go around my new friends and continue fishing past them.  This was extending my search into some newer water.  It's not exactly unfamiliar to me, but it's not been the best to me, either.  

A few casts later, another fat pike inhaled the bait.  I didn't want to end on a pike, so I continued to cast.  At the end of a long cast, the bait stopped, and I swung.  The rod loaded nicely, and I crossed my fingers for this to be a bass.  And it was; the largest of the day, and the largest of the season (so far!), too.  She did her best, with typical head-shaking bass rolls, but she had swallowed the bait, and she was not going to get off.  In my haste to care for her, I didn't get a picture; but I took some accidental GoPro footage that I will to try to share else-wise.  She was way over five pounds, and likely my six-pounder for the year.  I will reserve the option, however, of encountering more like her at any time.  A big bass like this doesn't really excite so much as provide comfort; and there's definitely room for that in my angling life.

At this point, my virtual limit would have weighed at least 20 pounds.  I've only done that a few times, and never before on this particular lake.

A few casts later, I called it quits with the largest pike of the day, estimated at 30 or 31 inches.  I guess I could end the day with a pike.  I also guess that losing my single War-Pig wasn't all that critical to the day's success; I just have to tip my cap to the fellows that pushed me into this productive, alternative water. 

Wow!  I'd even left myself plenty of time for Sunday chores!

What do I have to say about this?

I am going to be conflicted next Saturday when Michigan's Lower Peninsula Muskellunge Season opens.  I love muskie fishing, but how can I choose not to bass fish at this time?  Well, I've been doing pretty well on pike with my bass-sized rattle baits, maybe I'll throw some bigger Traps with confidence for 'skies.

When I finished up and realized I had the last bass and pike on video instead of still pictures, recognizing the significance of the morning's events, I took a few moments to record a video blog.  I seem to have as much to share as many folks out there, and I'm enjoying myself.  Why not share?  But first I have to see how it turned out and how best to share (or not.)  

Finally, you have to love mid-sized four-stroke outboards.  I filled up after this session, and so far this season, I've used a grand total of 10 gallons of gasoline!  I can appreciate that, especially after our recent Florida trip.  

War-Pig Weekend

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-17-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  Alone

Target:  Largemouth Bass

Time:  7 AM - 11 AM

Conditions:  Still, clear, and bright.  Temperatures climbed into the 70s, the water remained mildly murky, with temperatures generally around 52 degrees F, but as high as 54 F.

I continued my efforts to unlock the potential of early-season basing on this lake, and I continued to learn more about some of the spots I am fishing, but it was another tough bite.  In fact, Reeds Lake has never provided "easy" bass fishing for me.  I do think she has the potential for coughing up some rally big bass, though, and I hope to be there when that happens.

I went directly to my current "best" spot and worked it over with a new jerk bait.  I thought, in the early morning quiet, that the bass might be a bit shallower.  I mixed in other jerk and crank baits, too, but by 8:30 AM, I felt like I was starting to struggle.  Just then, a nice fat 24-inch pike ate my Firestick jerk bait; and that was nice, but somehow I lost the bait in the extraction surgery from this fish.  Did I want more pike, or did I really want a big bass?

I wanted bass, so instead of tying on a new jerk bait,  I laid that combo down. I picked up the casting rig with the War-Pig.  Shortly thereafter, I swung at a slight hesitation in the lure's vibration, and soon I was holding an exceptionally fat, pre-spawn bass.  Too bad she was only 15 or 16 inches long, because with that body condition***, she'd have been a true lunker had she been a bit longer.  I released her and moved along, a bit energized.

Most of the rest of the session found me throwing the Pig along weed edges.  Grass in 4 or 5 feet of water, and especially grass that was not slimed with filamentous green algae, was best.  Bites were still infrequent (as in two bites in two more hours of fishing),  but the Pig produced another 2-1/2 pound bass and a beautiful, 32-inch pike.@@@

Another poor picture of a beautiful creature; no artistic justice here!

What do I have to say about this?

A mouth full of War-Pig...

It was a "War-Pig Weekend" because all of this weekend's bass, as well as the largest pike, all ate a Berkley War-Pig.  Even though the overall bite for the weekend was pretty darn slow, this bait produced all the really nice fish (as well as that arm-wrenching strike and miss on Whitefish.) It's always good to develop confidence in a new bait, and I refined my rattle bait technique a bit for use in cold water with sparse weeds.  You can be certain that I will employ both repeatedly in the future!

*** She was fat like a Travel Brochure bass.  Think El Salto or Falcon Lake.  I have caught a lot of bass, but she was almost singular in my memory with her shape.  Reeds Lake is something special!

@@@I think this is the biggest pike I have ever taken from Reeds Lake by casting.  (And of course, by "taken" I mean "caught and released".  She swam away, just fine.)

Whitefish Surprise

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-16-16

Body of Water: Whitefish Lake

Boat: DC's Lund

With:  DC

Target: Largemouth Bass

Time:  1 PM - 4 PM

Conditions:  Clear, calm and bright.  Temperatures were about 65 degrees F, with mild ENE winds.  The water was extremely clear, and temperatures were about 47 to 51 F.

The ramp at this lake rates as "Poor" at best, and this was the first launch of the season for DC's Lund.  She was going to spend the next few months on this lake, and so the plan included me navigating the Lund across the lake,  where I would pick up DC, having returned to his home with the truck and trailer.  I got there first, and that gave me time to idle around looking for fish in the super-clear water.

I was able to pretty much eliminate the shallows since obviously very few fish were present there, and I found a mother load of bass and other assorted fish outside of the main weed line in 7 to 9 feet of water.  This gave us an obvious place to start our search, and we both felt confident that the fish would find and eat our jerk baits, rattle baits, jigs or Ned's.  We ended up trying all these and more as we fruitlessly sought something the fish would eat.  For most of the day we were visibly over fish, but we received no bites!

Thinking perhaps that the shallow fish, though fewer, might be more inclined to eat, we made a foray into the shallows and found an inside weedline holding a few bass.  While we worked them over to no avail, I saw a fish that was distinctively a walleye.  That in itself was interesting, but proved to be only a harbinger for what we would see later.

While my faith rested with jerk baits, they weren't working for me, so I introduced a slow War-Pig into the equation.  On the end of a long cast, it produced the only strike of the day; this fish hit so hard (and I was so unprepared for such a strike) that it ripped the rod out of my hands!  I could barely believe this had happened as I fumbled for my rod before it went overboard, but I grabbed the line and regained control.  In the time it took form me to confirm that this was, indeed, a fish... I lost it!   Crap! Just another example of an unknown fish somehow being more important than the ones we actually catch!

Well, it was a beautiful afternoon and at least one fish had eaten, so we kept at. It.  As we approached DC's home waters of the lake's northwest end, we started seeing more and bigger fish, just visible off the deep weedline, and often holding 10 or 12 feet down.  I examined one particular log of a fish, trying to figure out if it was indeed a fish, what kind of fish, or just part of the shadowy bottom, when the characteristics of a walleye clearly emerged.  This was a tank, but totally unresponsive to our efforts.  With our new search images ingrained, we started seeing dozens of walleyes in this area of the lake.   We saw plenty of nice pike and bass, too, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so many walleyes in this lake.

Nothing else bit, but it was cool to experience a visual survey of what the lake can offer!

What do I have to say about this?

There were two surprises this day.  I have ever seen so many walleyes, and we were skunked!  Both of these outcomes give us good reason to come back, and even though we didn't catch anything, we both saw plenty worth catching in the future!

2016 Michigan Spring Arrives!

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-15-16

Body of Water:  Reeds Lake

Boat:  Numenon

With:  A and O

Target:  Largemouth Bass

Time:  4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

Conditions: Quite pleasant with temperatures pushing 70 degrees F and easterly winds of about 10 mph.  Water temps were 46 to 50 F or so, and the water was quite murky.

It was the end of the work week, and my thoughts were on getting Numenon out on Reeds Lake ASAP to enjoy Spring's arrival.  Of course, I knew everybody else was thinking along similar lines, but Ollie was walked, fed and with me as I made my first cast at about 4:30 PM.

It had been almost three weeks since my last bass outing, and water temperatures had only climbed a few degrees.  I started where I'd left off, with a Berkley Firestick suspending jerk bait near deep weed edges, and on my third or fourth cast I connected to a fat pike that pushed 30 inches.  It wasn't the bass I'd hoped for, but it was a nice fish and a good start!  I caught two other fat pike in the next half hour (same bait, jerked long outside weed edges in known big-bass areas; 24 and 26 inches or so), but with fish seemingly active and no bass yet, I started introducing other presentations.

I spent some time with a hair jig in the very shallows (I found some nice submerged rock areas and other cover items of interest), but there seemed to be nothing going on in shallow.  I cranked weed edges and deeper with a variety of baits, and I pulled a chatter-bait through some shallow weeds.  Nothing got hit.

After a nice picnic dinner with A now in the boat, I made another pass with a different jerk bait, and when that was again ignored, I picked up my rig with the Berkley War-Pig tied on.  I love throwing and using lipless rattle baits, and I'd thrown this bait previously, but with no success (yet this season.)

I probably tend to fish too fast, and I love burning rattle baits.  But the water temperatures dictated a slower presentation, and I forced myself to slow down and keep the bait in contact with the bottom, weeds, or other cover.    Soon after switching to the Pig, I felt a slight hesitation in the lure's vibration, and I instinctively set the hook.  The rod loaded (it wasn't weeds this time!), and soon the evening's first and only bass was swung aboard.

This fish was slightly shallower and more in the weeds than other bass I'd caught during the previous trip.  I think she was in the weeds in about 4 or 5 feet of water.

This was the only bass of the evening; a solid Reeds Lake specimen.

What do I have to say about this?


I didn't measure or weight this bass; but I'll give it a solid 2-1/2 pounds, and not even an average fish for Reeds Lake so far for me this season.  I'm happy with that!  Of course, I'd like more, but the easier fishing will come later.  In the meantime, I'll settle for Quality over Quantity.

Captiva 2016

NumenOn the Water

Date:  4-2 through 4-8-16

Body of Water:  Gulf of Mexico and inshore waters of Pine Island Sound, Captiva, Florida

Boat:  Rentals from Jensen's Marina; two days on a pontoon and one day on an 18-foot center console

With:  Anybody who wanted to go, but generally Stu or A

Target:  Generally Sea Trout or Ladyfish, but with hopes for others

Time:  7 AM to 10 PM, but with some breaks

Conditions:  Once the initial rain and big wind blew through, it was generally quite pleasant with clear skies and brisk breezes.  Wind was all over the compass and generally 15 or more mph.  Water was generally murkier than I'd prefer, but with a couple of clearer windows of opportunity.  Water temps were generally mid 70s, air temps high 60s in the AM to highs of 83 or so.  Spring tides this week with the new moon were moving lots of water.

The only fishing on the day of arrival (Saturday, 4-2-16) was 10 or 15 minutes of surf fishing from the gulf-side beach in the late afternoon.  Strong westerly winds muddied the surf, which was running 3 to 5 feet and which was not conducive to hair jigging the first trough for snook or pompano.

I awoke to howling north/northeast winds on Sunday, 4-3-16 (these were well over 20 mph) and knew my only choice to fish would be the resort's bay-side dock.  The dock covers 6 to 8 feet of water or so, and a long cast can almost reach the (presumably) deeper navigation channel.  My first choice in the pre-dawn darkness was a Gotcha plug cast at light shadow edges, but with no takers.  After exploring the base of the pier with a hair jig and Gulp! sand flea, I continued casting the gold and orange Gotcha plug.  A little after 8 AM I finally got hit and a small jack crevalle came to hand.  I switched to live-lining this for bait, but it was a surprisingly listless bait and attracted no attention.  

My first fish of the trip became bait; first as a livie and then as fillets.

Stu joined me at about this time, and we filleted the jack for bait on the bottom.  It didn't take long for the bait-runner to announce a hit, and a sizable sail cat hit the deck.  It fought pretty well!  While Stu bait fished on the bottom, I continued to throw the Gotcha, and my first ever ladyfish came in.  She later became bait for more catfishing.  I missed a fish on the plug, too.

My first-ever ladyfish, and the first of many converted to bait.

Given the conditions (wind, cold, muddy water), I was happy to just get some bites!  Fishing from 7 to Noon, I'd covered most of the rising tide, and most of the action had occurred mid-tide.

This furtive Hobo Heron was a constant dock companion, but he had much better manners than any pelican!

Fishing the same area from about 2 to 4:30 PM, Stu and I got 4 more cats and Stu got bit off by a probable shark, all on ladyfish chunks.  Best action was once again at mid-tide, and by now, conditions were pretty pleasant!

Later that evening (6:30 to 9:45 PM), Stu and I returned for a catfish extravaganza.  All were caught on bait on the bottom.  Baits included live-lined ladyfish chunks, frozen finger mullet and cut squid.  The final count was about 17 catfish caught.  Not all were sail cats, there were also a bunch of hardhead cats in the mix, too.  Unfortunately, no sharks appeared.

Sail cat!  They can pull, and everybody who chose to got in on the action.

Conditions on Monday, 4-4-16 (7 to 10:30 AM) were much more comfortable, with a mild easterly wind and scattered showers, but the fishing was kind of slow.  I was very excited to catch my first ever Sea Trout on a green and silver Gotcha, but otherwise it was just a catfish on a mullet and a sizable ray on squid.  Both the sea trout and the ray were "Newtons", that is "new-to-me" species, as auto-corrected by my note pad.   

My first sea trout!

With the day's east winds, the gulf-side surf was smooth and clear.  The receding tide (low tide about 6:30 PM) eroded a deep channel right along shore, and I targeted snook here from about 6 to 8:30 PM.  The tide along shore looked like a river, about 10 yards wide and a yard deep.   My only regret is choosing to use a boughten jig, because the pink hair jig tipped with a Gulp! sand flea was momentarily hot, right off the bat (and my homemade jigs never got touched!)  On the third cast or so, the jig got thumped right at my feet, and I was tight to a formidable fish (I was using 10-pound braid with a 15-pound leader.)  Just as the fish (a snook of about 6 or 7 pounds!) was subdued, it gave a final awkward jump, and my line went limp; she had cut me off with her sharp operculum.  I somehow missed a couple of bites, too, but on my fourth bite of the night my first snook in hand was taken on the green and silver Gotcha.  This snook, too, hit almost at me feet.  It was not as nice a fish as the first, but I landed this one, and what she lacked in size, she made up for in symbolic importance as a long sought-after Newton.

My first snook!

Unfortunately, the wind, tide and surf never conspired to set up these conditions again.  Conditions this evening were perfect, and as easy to read as a textbook on shoreline tidal currents.  It was awesome to catch my first snook, but honestly, the fish of the trip turned out to be that first snook.  Lessons learned; time to up my leaders to at least 25-pound test, and keep the rod tip down if you want to land that snook!

Tuesday, 4-5-16 was the first day for boating, and we left the dock on our rented pontoon boat a little before 8 AM.  Conditions were bright with a brisk and persistent northerly wind.  We cruised with the group's parents north to Captiva Pass and started scouting for fish.  A pretty continuous parade of ladyfish, sea trout and catfish came aboard for the rest of the day (we exchanged the parents for kids at about noon or so, but returned to the same general area to resume fishing.) We also got an occasional small jack and a single Spanish Mackerel.   I did best with the green/silver Gotcha in 6 to 8 feet of water, but a popping cork with Gulp! shrimp did best for trout (the realistic glamour fish for the day) in 5 or 6 feet of water. Natural shrimp were good for producing bites, but too often these were from catfish or other bait stealers.  There were fewer bites on Gulp!, but a better quality of fish was encountered with this.  I quickly became a fan, and generally converted Stu.

Pontoon cruising... they do provide space and shade.

Still, out of 20 or more trout on the day, only two were keepers (15 - 20").  It was generally difficult to find and stay on the right combination of water clarity, depth and grass.  We kept a bunch of ladyfish for later use as bait, and we saw a nice (5- or 6-foot) blacktip shark working in about a foot of water.

We got multiple legal-sized trout each boating day.

Stu and I tried snookin' the surf from about 6:30 PM until low tide at about 7:30 PM, but the water was much rougher and murkier, and we had no hits.

Wednesday, 4-6-16 brought big wind from the east, and Stu and I headed out on the pontoon for another full day of fishing by ourselves.  We travelled all the way north to Cayo Costa State Park, but the best fishing was a bit south and west of Cabbage Key.  Using many of the same tactics, we got 3 legal trout from a catch of 20 or more, as well as assorted ladyfish, jacks, sand trout, a tiny black drum and a catfish.  The lady-fishing was hot (numbers and size) in the clearer water of Captiva Pass as the tide flooded in, and we were set up for sharks by tide's change at 1:30 PM.  Unfortunately, the wind was now opposing the tide and the anchor wouldn't hold; and so even live ladyfish and cut pinfish couldn't lure in any sharks.

That evening's surf was smoothed out a bit, but I was surprised to find the shoreline currents running north instead of south, as previously encounter.  No deep trough had developed, so I waded to the first bar and fish outside of that, pounded by waves to 3 feet.  A dolphin was working this edge, and I got a lot of bites, mostly on white Gulp! mullets on jig heads, but unfortunately these were generally small ladyfish and a sea trout.  How quickly I'd become jaded!  These are fine, almost-new species and wonderful fish to catch on light tackle; but now I wanted snook!

Thursday, 4-7-16 presented itself gently, and A and I left the dock in our rented 18-foot center console skiff by 8 AM.  The mild southerly wind would swing to the west and build throughout the day.  We headed directly to Cabbage Key where I hoped to intersect with some keeper trout in the grass, just slightly deeper than the abundant and visible sand spots.  We caught a dozen or so trout with three keepers to about 18 inches pretty quickly (Gulp! for me and live shrimp for A; again, all the keepers came on Gulp!), and then I started to experiment; Z-Man Trout Trick worms and a chartreuse Gulp! mullet continued to produce bites.  At about 10 AM, with the flood tide and SW wind aligning and lots of fish around, we anchored and set up a chum-line for sharks. Nothing but catfish showed up, though, and so by noon we were catching the incoming tide at Captiva Pass and throwing Gotcha plugs in the clearer, incoming Gulf water.  The closer we got to the Gulf, the better the ladyfishing was.  This was pure fun fishing, and it was difficult for us to stop.  But A had enough sun, a prime spinning rod was busted, and it was time for A to hit the beach.

Dropping A off at the dock and with only a couple of hours left on my rental, I asked the dock hand what to do; he recommended taking advantage of the extraordinarily high tide by chunking a stretch of mangroves with ladyfish.  Redfish were reportedly most likely, but tarpon and sharks were more than possible.  I crossed the channel to give it a shot; but there were manatees everywhere, so progress was slow.  It looked pretty darn shallow, too, and I didn't want to get caught by the receding tide.  Mullet and other baitfish were flipping around, too, so I cut short and anchored over some grass; I thought maybe I could seduce something out of the mangroves with a chum slick and long casts.

And maybe I did, but if I did, it was only catfish, because I caught an easy dozen in the next hour.  I was now out of bait and short on time; I slowly idled back into the dock.  I had manatees as company as I watched a small pod of dolphins reek havoc on the schooled mullet in the area.

After three days in a boat of all day fishing and less than perfect surf conditions, I chose to simply watch the evening tide; I found an obvious rip that I would have fished, but mostly I just soaked in the pleasant fishing I'd experienced so far.

Friday, 4-8-16, I hit the quiet surf at dawn and fished through the first half of the rising tide, until about 9:45 AM.  Conditions were very quiet; I had just a single tap on the chartreuse Gulp! mullet in the first trough.  Despite the slow fishing, I concentrated on upstream casts into this trough, based on my success earlier in the week.  Perhaps that was a curse and I should have travelled to one of the accessible passes; but then I'd have had to share my water.

As I came in there was a report (with pictures) of a nice shark from the surf on a ladyfish chunk.   I'd heard of several others caught over the week.  Later that day, Stu caught a 2-foot cobia on a shrimp under a float from the bay-side dock; it was my first encounter with that species, and it was a writhing mass of muscle, for sure; I can only imagine how powerful a big one might be.  

I thought we'd shark fish from the beach on our last evening, but a group dinner took precedence.

Later that evening, as I dismantled, cleaned and packed my tackle, I found the weekend's local fishing forecast. That indicated mature tarpon off the beaches in 26-30 feet of water, and juveniles emerging from the creeks; different waters than I'd fished; no wonder I hadn't seen any!  Maybe next time.

Surf fishing for snook.

What do I have to say about this?

This was simply a good trip.  Nothing extraordinary happened, but it was filled with good experiences, pretty good fishing and some new species came to hand.  All this, even when I suspect Captiva did not show her best due to the wind and ruffled seas.  I was generally pleased with my preparations and efforts, I enjoyed using some fine equipment, and I may have realistically modified my future boat needs.  Check out this for some more commentary on the trip, if you'd like.