More Fishing

• Fishing: Action is good despite cold fronts
• Fishing: Take a day at the beach
• Fishing: Cold front has cooled things down, but opportunities still abound

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It’s that time of year.

If any relative or friend with just the slightest past association with you finds out you’re down here in Paradise for the winter, consider it fair game to get a call or email announcing their intention to show up on your doorstep.

Add that to the anticipated visits from your kids, your siblings and invited friends and associates and you’ve got yourself what is known as a “turnstile holiday”.

As a good host, you certainly want to show them the best of what paradise has to offer. And what usually tops that list is the water from the beaches, to the backwaters, to the far reaches of the Gulf and (you guessed it) fishing!

Whether you own a boat, have access to one, rent or charter one, you’re bound to be involved in selecting the type of fishing outing that you think your guests will like.

And sometimes that’s not easy — so, as sort of a primer as what not to do drawn from charter experiences over the past years thought I’d share a few.

The victory at sea experience

This type of charter is not unusual. They’ve booked the trip weeks in advance and have called several times just to make sure they’re still confirmed and the boat hasn’t sunk.

The morning of the trip there are four linebacker sized guys with lunch buckets in hand ready to go. The winds are up and the reefs are in at least a three foot roll. Recommended backwater trip doesn’t register; they have been reading the papers and getting the fishing reports about the great mackerel and kingfish action nearshore.

“Hey, captain, we’re all from New Jersey and we can handle any type of sea conditions you guys got down here — we want that mackerel action”.

Conditions are rough but safe so off we go.

We got into immediate action on the mackerel but the rough water kept them sitting while trying to fish jigs. Crossed lines and lost fish were the norm.

First, one of the more outspoken guys racked his rod and asked if I had a bucket he could use. He had turned a shade of green that you often see on palm trees. The other guys gave him the business but kept fishing.

It wasn’t fifteen minutes later and the second guy racked his rod and was looking for another bucket. This one was white as a sheet. But still the remaining two fished on ignoring the pleas of “let’s go back” from the bucket brigade.

When the third guy stopped fishing, that was it! They surrendered and asked to be taken back.

Bottom line — trip ruined and no fish. Lesson learned — don’t push the sea conditions. If it’s too rough offshore fish the passes or the backwaters. You’re guests will be thankful and stay normal color.

Gotta have the big fish experience

This was a trip last May for two brothers and their three young sons. The kids were all about eight to ten years old and high energy.

The fathers made it clear on the booking that they were only interested in catching a tarpon and had not mentioned the youngsters as part of the charter party.

When they showed that morning with the little guys, I called them aside and asked what the kids would do while we soaked bait for tarpon.

“They’ll be OK — they’re good kids”. That wasn’t the point but I let it slide and headed nearshore to set chum and baits for tarpon.

The kids were wound tighter than a watch spring and were full of questions like “What are we going to catch today?” “Can we catch some sharks?” All of which I directed to the two fathers since tarpon fishing didn’t really set with other fishing exploits.

You set up for tarpon with lots of chum, and numerous baits set at various levels on open bottom with a good current. Even if you could fish the bottom while waiting, you are on open bottom and catfish would be your reward. You get all the rigs out and wait... and wait. Some days you get a strike right away and other days you strike out. Today we waited. It was getting close to two hours and still no action.

So, here we were with three barrels of energy and we’re dead in the water waiting. Driven by inactivity and boredom, the kids were beginning to dismantle the boat when one of the rods went off with a scream and a huge tarpon broke water 50 yards off our port side.

Excitement. Other lines in; anchor pulled; rod belt attached to one of the Dad’s and off we went. The tarpon had hit one of the lighter lines and we would have to be patient and work hard to make this landing.

The two fathers were in the front of the boat; the kids back in the cockpit again, with little to do. They asked if they could fish while the grownups fought the tarpon.

“Not a good idea — imagine what would happen if your line gets tangled with the tarpon and your Dad lost the fish!”

The little guy gave it a “bad idea” reply and went back to doing nothing.

The tarpon struggle took us up into the mouth of the Marco River and the intensity increased dramatically as we frantically waved boats off the fishing line. Again, the kids just sat. We had the tarpon on now for over an hour.

The fathers tired and were passing the rod back and forth and on one of those passes the tarpon jumped, spit the hook 50 feet into the air and disappeared. Disappointment reigned.

And to top it off, we had to head back as time ran out. The fathers were disappointed; the boys were devastated. Their long awaited fishing trip was a bust.

There is a time and place for big fish and it’s not when you have youngsters aboard that only want anything wiggling and pulling on their line.

Fishing is a fun activity if you can match realistic expectations with results tuned to their enjoyment.

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Capt. Bill Walsh owns an established Marco Island charter fishing business and holds a current U.S. Coast Guard license. Send comments or questions to dawnpatrolcharters@compuserve.com