My Summer Vacation
by Curt Peterson
I got up early the first morning and walked down to the marina bench to watch the sun rise. About six o'clock a scrawny guy in shorts and tee-shirt with bare feet came wobbling down the dock on a rusty yellow rental bike from the end where the big boats are tied-up. It was none other than Captain Buster Herzog. Of course, he didn't even look in my direction. I called out gruffly: "Hey! No bicycles on the dock!" (Well, that's what the sign right next to me said.) He whipped around and the fun started. He said the tarpon fishing was "worse than terrible," but he would tell us more at dinner.
Later that day, we met Roger Crafton at the dock at about 8:30. We caught one good-sized redfish, several healthy trout and a couple of ladyfish. Roger told us that Red Tide has mucked up the backwater fishing. The tarpon tournaments were moved back a month, from July to June, in hopes of staving off the barren late summer fishing conditions. In one of the contests only one fish was caught all day.
That evening, Captain Buster met up with us as promised. He had Pete and Keith in the palm of his comical hand early in the evening. He told us we were probably wasting time trying for tarpon, but he would do his best if we wanted to go out at 6:00 to catch the change in tide. We opted to give it a shot, and he left to catch bait at ten o'clock.
Six o'clock found us at Buster's pick-up dock. In minutes we were in Boca Grande Pass. Shortly, we were among a pod of about fifty tarpon, ranging from fifty pounds to over a hundred pounds each. This was a bonanza, according to Buster, as "jumping one tarpon" was about the best he thought we could expect under the conditions. It was beautiful morning with an inspiring sunrise over Charlotte Harbor. It was a thrill to see them rolling, circling, jumping and playing in the calm water, just ten feet or so from us. There were only two or three boats in sight. Buster said they were fishing for mangrove snappers.
At 8:30 the next morning, we went to the marina to meet Captain Pete Greenan. He usually offers fly fishing as an option, but said it would be both unproductive and dangerous due to the stiff breeze. We went with fairly light spinning tackle for the voracious snook.
We anchored just off the beach at Little Gasparilla. Large schools of snook were ranging up and down the beach. We could see them clearly from the boat. They were following huge clouds of small glassfish, which were also cruising up and down the beach. Snook are violent by nature. Working as a team, they corral the bait fish between themselves and the water's edge. They then dart in from the fishy fence to "bust the bait," grabbing several of the tiny fish, often swimming right up out of the water onto the beach as they do so. The shallow water exploded with action all around us. We each caught about six good-sized snook, every one of them a challenge to get into the boat on light tackle. Not a bad way to end a great trip.
We had five days of perfect weather, good food and good fishing.
-- CP