Pine Island - Still No Fish

Well, another day and nearly a week gone by here at Pine Island and I haven't caught any fish big enough to keep or anything worthwhile since being at the causeway to Sanibel Island.  I tried a couple hours yesterday morning from around 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at Tropical Point and only caught one Lizard fish on the "Gulp!" which Charlie had given me.

Tropical Point Picnic Area

When I arrived at the point yesterday morning and stepped out of my Jeep, I heard a huge splash and saw the waves from something having cleared the water and immediately thought of a Tarpon possibly feeding in the shallows.  I tried to look more closely to see if maybe someone was swimming around but, there were no other cars around and I seemed to be alone there under the cloudy, sunless skies.  The activity in the water gave me some encouraging thoughts of what might be a good day of fishing -- even without the usual batch of fresh, live shrimp to feed the fish.

Whelks or Crown Conchs?

As I stood on the rough, concrete rubble stones coverd with shells and barnacles at the water's edge, I noticed a number of live shells in the fairly clear waters at my feet -- while I attempted to keep my balance and keep my feet dry and the walking shoes too that I chose to wear for the morning.  Later in the day, I checked with one of three women accompanying some small children swimming in the waters off the small beach area and she said they were Whelk (as far as she knew) and she added that no live shells were allowed to be taken -- I thought that just the Conchs were the only ones not allowed (I have since confirmed what the woman had said about live shells by looking on the back of the brochure from the Shell Museum on Sanibel Island).  These might be Whelk or maybe they are Crown Conch, or some type of Drill or Murex.  No "Keepers" on these either -- just a couple pictures and then they were left to work their way back out along the bottom.

While standing on the point and casting into the waters all around the point, I first watched the waters where the splash had occurred and as best I could tell, there (just about 20 yards in front of me) was a 5 or 6 foot Stingray (across the wing tips) frollicking or feeding in the waters and this went on for about 15 or 20 minutes -- other smaller rays were visible to the right and left as well (made me think twice about wading around in these waters to fish as I had seen two men do a couple days earlier).  When I first arrived at the water's edge with my fishing gear, there was hardly a breeze and the only bites I had were from the little no-seeums and the mosquitos so, I had to go back again to apply more bug spray to the uncovered areas of my face, arms and legs -- still wasn't comfortable until a slight breeze from the south came up and blew the little pests away.

Looks so close

Well, as stated above, nothing but a Lizard fish hit the artificial shrimp and when the last one in my pack of six was lost to a snag, I decided to quit and go check the closest bait and tackle shop to the south.  I wanted to see how small their shrimp were (something I heard from those two guys at the point the other day) and I wanted to see if they had any of those "Fish Bites" used by Mike at Flagler Beach.  While down that direction, I also wanted to get a picture from the end of the road on Pine Island to show the closeness of Sanibel & Captiva Island.

While approaching the end of the road to get the picture, I had to pass this old retired guy on a bike, just wobbling slowly along in my lane -- not doing any speed limit for sure and not seemingly worried about getting hit or run over (maybe because of the two police cars/cruisers just ahead).  It seemed to be the local Sheriff and another local cop blocking most of the right hand lane just before the dead-end of the road.  I stopped my Jeep at the end of the road, got out and snapped the picture just before the old guy arrived on his bike and I started the return trip -- tried a couple side roads just for the heck of it and did find a fish market at the end of one ("Public Welcome" its sign says).

The stop at the bait and tackle shop only yielded more "Gulp!" for later in the day and another stop at the closest bait store to the north (near the main intersection of Pine Island) confirmed visually the smallness of their shrimp (only $2 per dozen though).  Since the tides have been totally weird this week, I can only presume that this also had an impact on the fishing -- there have only been two tides each day and they have been some 16 hours apart (low tide in the early a.m. and a high tide in the evening p.m. hours).

I did go back later to Tropical Point with the new pack of artificial shrimp (with an added Jig Head) and tried until a little before sunset to get some dinner but, only had one Lizard fish chase the bait into the shallow waters before me (think it nipped the tail end off of one).  I did get another snag too so,, I took off the shoes and waded close enough to get my rig back -- didn't step on any Stingrays either.  One boat went out of the channel while I fished and another came in later just before I left.  While wading and fishing the shallow clear waters, another guy stopped by to see if I had any luck (he arrived when the boat was going out and expressed some interest from the rocks to see if the boat might run into an oyster bar he knew was there on its way out).  This same guy said he had a small flat boat and had been out earlier in the waters farther out and they only caught on Redfish that was one inch shy of the "Keeper-size" of 18 inches -- said he hated to have to put it back since they had caught nothing else.  Maybe the tides are changing?

Today started with a rainstorm around 7:30 and the winds have kicked up some from the southwest causing me to draw in the patio awning and having to go out earlier to rearrange my indoor/outdoor carpet and patio furniture (need more coconuts to hold down the carpet).  Sure beats having the tornadoes that hit all those states and the poor folks there.  Temperature is dropping here and until the winds die down, I'll stay inside and look over possible stops to the north -- now leaning toward stopping for a few nights at Turtle Beach if they have any openings because it is over 2 hours to drive there from here to see Siesta Key (too much for a day trip, I think).  Then, I could continue around the Gulf Coast to someplace near Destin before leaving Florida and crossing the southern states.