East Cape Sable 12/10-11/08

somewhat normal
Normal

We set out from Flamingo on wed morning around 08:30: Myself, Matt (Lefty), Kevin and his girlfriend Darlene…Flex was already somewhere out in the bay and would meet us on East Cape at some point.

The weather report called for 15 knot winds out of the SE turning into 20 knots out of the NW the next day…pretty sweet, a push there and back and for once it worked out the way it was supposed to. We had a nice paddle out to East Cape, the water was a cross between chocolate milk and soy sauce…not great for fishing but we tried anyway with nothing but little dinky trout to show for it so we pressed on. Stopped for lunch on Clubhouse beach and then met Flex on East Cape around noon.

I immediately went fishing and considering the water color I stuck a glass rattle in a gulp shrimp and went off walking down the cape. I caught two little tiny trout for my efforts and on my walk back I tossed my jig into a swirl of water that then exploded as line screamed from my little stradic 3000. I tired to apply pressed but didn’t want to snap the 10lb braid and as I’m wondering what the hell kind of fish could do this a 4’-5’ blacktip shot out of the water down the beach. I couldn’t believe the shark hit a gulp, well anyway I tightened the drag down and got my line back.

I came back with the story and we set about catching bait…all we got was one friggin sailcat, can you believe it? No ladyfish, no catfish, nothing…We cut it into three pieces and lost three sharks in a short amount of time…that was it for fishing so we settled into drinking and thought little more of it (except when fins would break the surface near the beach).

I don’t know what time I went to bed but I slept like a dead baby and awoke at 7:30 and watched the sun tack across the sky. The wind picked up around 9am but did not switch to NW, it just came straight out of the South so we figured it was going to a wet ride back. With this in my I went to look for my spray skirt and then realized it was sitting in my truck on the drivers seat…I have a problem with this, I left my skirt behind on the 6-day Flamingo/Sable loop I did last year…luckily it wasn’t freezing cold this time.

We launched off the Cape into 2’-4’ seas that became 3’-5’ near East Cape Canal but then they petered off into the 2’-4’ for the whole ride back, amazingly I managed to stay completely dry. The wind switched after we passed Curry Key and we all felt the temperature drop 10 degrees as we watched the front move in next to us…pretty cool to watch the fronts converging. It was a quick ride back, 2 ½ hours, we loaded up smiling and left smiling so I know everyone had a good time regardless how crappy the fishing was…there will always be next time, always.