At least we are hoping it is. This past week has been another cold one to say the least. On Thursday I was supposed to have a split day charter with some fishing in the morning and a Airboat ride in the afternoon. When I went to bed the weatherman was talking about temperatures in the low 30’s that morning. I had a feeling the fish would not feel like moving let alone eating anything we would be offering, so we opted to just let it warm up a little and do the airboat ride after lunch. When I put the airboat in the water at 12:30 the air temperature was only 49 degrees! Just a little chilly, but we did it, having to stop every 10 minutes to warm up a little. I will say my clients were troopers!
That started off a cold week of charters for me. I loaded up the airboat and headed to Charlotte harbor as I was getting ready to run 5 days of Airboat fishing charters. I really though that Thursday was the cold day but Friday morning met me with 31 degrees. Not exactly optimum conditions again. The fish were still very cold and there was no water because of a steady north wind for the last 4 days. This was perfect tides and water levels for the airboat, the only problem was the fish were like popsicles. My good friend Capt. Clay was running my clients from Thursday for me and called me that morning to tell me the water temperature was 39 degrees. I have never seen it that cold. To say the least the fishing was slow, I think we managed to catch 7 or 8 redfish and snagged 6 mullet, quite a day!
As the week moved on and the weather got warmer so did the fishing. The schools of reds we have been abusing on the airboat charters came back and got very hungry. We were able to catch 30 to 40 again and you could actually feel your hands after holding the fish. The last day I had was Tuesday the 10th and we finally got a few Snook to eat again. I was a little worried about them with all the cold, but they seem to have made it just fine.
I think it is finally time to start to get ready for the Spring push as the airboat charters will be coming to an end at the end of this month. The Snook will be ready to eat, the bait will arrive, and the temperatures will be wonderful! Lets hope anyway!
