Capt. Rey's Fishing Report Archives

This area is dedicated to archiving my weekly fishing reports on trips and includes information on the fishing conditions, types of fish seen and caught, tackle used, flies that are worked and other things of interest. If you have any comments about my reports you can either  email  me or comment in my  guestbook. Click here to go back to the  current report.

Week Ending - Feb 28th, 1999

The reality of winter came to the flats this week. After a very warm couple of weeks, two strong cold fronts reached Southwest Florida. I was forced to cancel my first two charters of the week.

By Wednesday the conditions were improving, and the weather was warming up rapidly,
but the fish were nowhere to be found.
Mr. T. Mackintosh had booked a fly fishing trip, and by Thursday, we were able to get to the flats. The morning was dry and cool, and the wind was fairly calm, giving us hope that the fish attitude may improve. On our way to our first stop, a school of redfish was way out of the flats,
not realizing their presence, I stopped the boat too late sending them away in a hurry. We found some small snook, along with some redfish in the flats' deep depressions.

Mr. Mackintosh's fly fishing experience was on Scotland's freshwater, so sight fishing was a learning experience for him. Although he did not connect on reds, he caught several nice sea trouts. It was a tough day, but we had enough shots at fish to raise my expectations for the next several days.

Ray Caron, had just retired, and he decided to move to Sanibel. He is an avid fly fisherman, so we went in search of some clear water, to do some sight fishing.
As we moved along the flats, looking for some redfish tails, I instructed Ray to cast into the deep depressions of the flats. These depressions are called POTHOLES. They are sandy bottom depressions, and the fish will lay on them waiting for unsuspected prey.
Ray cast into one of the potholes, drawing a good strike. We saw a flash shaking it's head, and a 4 Lb. spotted sea trout, ( a dandy on a fly rod } was his catch. After the release, we kept moving along the flats, there we saw a lot of redfish traveling along, and the word SLAM came to my mind, this consist of a snook, redfish, and trout. I thought our chances looked good. As I poled toward another pothole, there were 10-15 snooks laying in the sand. After a few misses, Ray connected with the snook, with it's head shaking, the snook spit the fly instantly. Ray's luck with redfish was better, as two reds came across our bow, Ray cast in front of the lead fish, which immediately turned to the fly, but the second fish was more aggressive, and charged at the fly and ate it. After two long runs and about 10 minutes later, the 9 lb. redfish was ours.

Ray worked very hard, but his SLAM was not meant to be, as for me, it was another GREAT day at the office.

Until next Monday,
Tight Lines,

Capt. Rey Rodriguez