As Close to Perfect as it Gets

Report Date: November 11, 2002

As outdoorsmen and anglers, we all dream of the perfect day on the water. A day when all the variables of weather, tides, winds, and cooperating fish come together. A day when the sky is azure blue, with jet trails crisscrossing each other, making X?s in the sky as to mark each hot fishing spot for the day. As a guide, we have those dream days too. As a matter of fact, we wish for one every time we take out a client. Occasionally, when all the planets line up just right, your best fishin? buddy can get off work, the wife gives you permission to go, the truck ain?t broke, and the ol? outboard motor actually works, a dream day on the water happens.

Last week while fishing with one of our repeat clients, Chanc Moore from the Atlanta area and one of his clients and friend, George Harkness, Jr., Yep, you guessed it, a dream day!

We met at the dock at MacRae?s Bait and Tackle on the Homosassa River and left the dock at 8 am. It was a cloudy, foggy type morning with a morning incoming tide, gentle breezes with an air temp of 58 and water temp of 68 . Our plan was to fish for Redfish in the morning and as the tide turned, fish the grass flats for trout in the afternoon. So, we headed the Hewes 19? Redfisher tunnel hull, powered by a 140 hp Suzuki four stroke to the backcountry. We were Redfish Hunting.

As we came off plane and poled into the first Redfish hotel area, I told Chance and George we would start off casting gold spoons on one rod and a topwater plug on the other to see which one of these, ol? Redfish had a hankering for. George had only made a few casts when Bam!, the first strike on the topwater Mirrolure Top PuP. A miss or ?blowup?. Darn! Hurry and cast right back in the same spot?.Bam! another powerful strike, spraying water everywhere. A hookup? with one of the bull dogs of the flats, the ol? spotted tail Redfish. The first fight of the day was on. Little did we know it at the time, but this would be one of many. George did a masterful job of fighting the Red and after a good bit of rod bending, line singing (my favorite song) and drag screaming he brought the first Red of the day to the net. A beautiful fish with a golden, bronze back and white underside and black spot on the large fan shaped tail. We measured the fish at 28 ? and weighed in at 9 lbs. A good un? to start with. We CPRed him ( Catch, Pictured, and Released) and went back to Redfishhunting.

We switched the other rod over to topwater and for the rest of the overcast morning, that was all we used. One after another, while casting up to grass shorelines and fishing rocky points, deep in the backcountry, Chanc and George hammered the big reds. All in all, we caught 10, lost 4 with two break offs, and had another 10 or more ?blowups? in a span of about 3 hours. There is nothing quite like seeing a big Redfish explode on a topwater plug, miss it, come back and explode on it again, and again until finally a hookup. A scene which was repeated time after time that morning. We fished a variety of plugs, from Mirrorlure SheDogs, Top Pups, and Top Dogs, to Berkley?s Jumping Mullet, Spittin? Images, and Johnny Rattlers. Color didn?t seem to matter. We fished Red/White, Blue/Silver, Orange/Black, yellow, and Pinfish color. All worked equally as well. As long as the action was like a crippled bait fish, darting back and forth with some pauses in between, they would knock the socks off of it.

When the tide turned the Reds turned off as quickly as they had started. So, with two keepers in the livewell, and a bunch released and in our memories, we headed out of the backcountry for the grass flats for some trout action. Little did we know, the second half of the day would be almost as good and the first.

We zigged zagged, about 4 miles across some ?skinny? water, around mangrove islands, cays, and sawgrass bayous, until we came to some beautiful grass flats. Flats in about 3-4 feet of water with sand holes intermixed with rocky bottom and grass. A Spotted Sea Trout haven. We decided to fish topwater plugs since we still had an overcast day. However, with so much floating grass we switched to jigs and soft plactic grubs. I like to use Cotee 1/8 oz red head liv? eye jigs with varying color patterns of plastic bodies. The first cast, Chanc had on a nice trout of 19 inches. Before we could net him, George had one bending his rod double. Then another one for Chanc, and another for George. And so on for the rest of the afternoon. One nice trout after another with most going between 18? to 22? until we had our limit in the livewell. And after each fish caught, I think George and Chanc?s smile grew even bigger. Two good friends, laughing and enjoying the beautiful day God had provided for them. A day about as close to perfect as you can get.

Back at the dock, a last picture was taken of the day?s catch. Then, as the sunset painted the sky a bright orange behind swaying palms, we said good bye to our friends with a promise to do this again sometime. Hopefully, next time it will be another perfect day, too.

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