Trip Photo Album 3 am, it's like a monsoon out. Lightning popping, wind gusting and torrential rain falling. What else is new. Steve calls, they're running a bit behind so we agree to take off and meet on the highway, or in Everglades City. Call Craig, no answer. Looks like he's backing out after all. Doug calls, he's making great time coming through the center of the state from Orlando. Sorry D, we're about 25 minutes behind you. And Hurricane Gustav is spinning around Cuba, and forecast to head towards Louisianna. Doug is waiting at the BP as we pull in. Steve and Andy are a few minutes behind us. And still no word from Wooly (Craig). Fill out the float plans and drop the boats in in Chokoloskee. Mine won't start. For some reason excess moisture around my batteries accumulated, and caused a short. Dried everything out, and fired her up. We loaded the boats and realized with all the gear we were gonna have to make 2 trips. So Doug and I, along with the Mitzi Crew took off toward Sweetwater. Somewhere in the 30 to 40 minute run the Chickee emerged. We unloaded and I was off to pick up Everett back at the Marina. The wind began to pick up as dark clouds from the south and south west began to roll in. It was the first bands of Hurricane Gustav. Everett and I stopped in the Lopez River and put on the rain gear, we could see the downpours ahead. It didn't last long, and a half hour later we arrived at camp. Doug had gotten the tent up, and we all began to work on the tarp set ups. As soon as everything looked good, we were off towards the spots we have been scouting for the last few months. Doug didn't waist any time. He was catching one small snook after another. When he wasn't catching snook, he was in the trees, snagged up. We fished through a few rain storms, but lucked out with the absence of any lightning. After a while, real dark clouds started coming in and we headed for the chickee. To our surprise, at the chickee, was a yellow mako flats boat. Wooly had made it afterall. (with the help from Steve who spotted him, and helped him in to the chickee.) We hung out for a while while it poured, although Steve and Andy fished through the rain, coming in after with stories of big snook breakoffs. We fished a little more that evening and caught a couple small snook. For dinner that night we had New York Strip steaks and some rice and veggie mash. The wind and rain picked up at night. Inside the tent it sounded like there were gusts of 50 mph, though it never really got above 30 or so. The wind did help keep it more comfortable inside the tent though, though it was still hot. Doug had the hot hand again on the second morning, where he caught more snook, goliath groupers, redfish, black drum and snappers. Everett and I were just casting and poling. It got so bad that Everett hung his lure in a mangrove tree, and while getting ready to pull it out, he spotted a nice snook cruising through the roots. Doug tossed his lure in and the snook jumped on it. He was stoked. We hit all the spots we could, and most we at least caught some small snook off of. It was later in the afternoon that we ran through alligator bay, to a spot we thought may hold a redfish or black drum. It only took a couple of cast before Doug was hooked up again and brought dinner aboard. A nice redfish, was almost more gold than red and it tasted incredible fresh out of the water. We made a run back to the chickee to relax a bit and wait for the evening sesh. To our surprise Wooly and his son were packing up and heading home. So after an hour of hanging out we led Craig through the creek and out to marker 99, he was on his way. We made the turn back to the south, and were off to hit a couple more spots. Doug, again was on with a nice little black drum, which became a part of the dinner that eve as well. That night we had our fish fry, which turned out as good as it always does. Fresh fish just can't be beat. I think we polished off the beers and rum this evening. And the wind died and it was hot and muggy inside the tent. It was slick calm in the morning of our last day. We decided to make the run down to Lostmans. Today was also opening day of Snook season, and we wanted one. We poled several edges and creeks off of Lostmans River, with only a couple of trout and small snook. We did see a few baby tarpon roll, the first to be seen. After a while of searching new, unproductive water, we began to fish our way home. Back up in one of the many bays on our route home we hit an edge with the wind on it. It was on my last cast of the point where I got slammed. The fish went airborne and I was on with a nice snook. Got it boatside and measured, just 28", in the box. That's about when we all knew that the rest of the day would be slow, and it was. A nice cruise back to the chickee, some lunch, and packed everything up. Steve and Andy decided to hit the Chatham River before they left, and said the water was mud out there. Was a great trip, look forward to the next one... |
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