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We escaped Georges’ fury by the skin of our teeth. I’ve heard many people say that because we haven’t had a major hurricane in years, that we are overdue for disaster. I don’t know what you folks think. I don’t think that we are owed one just because we haven’t had one destroy our homes. Besides, the damage that we got from Andrew should be worth some kind of credit. Did we use that up with Georges? What ever the case may be, we are more fortunate than others were. I’m glad I said some prayers. What does this have to do with fishing? If you were like me, you spent at least two days getting your home ready for impending disaster. Then you spent the next two days hiding. Then you spent the next two days after that, reassembling your house. And if you have a wife like mine guys, you are still at it because we might as well rearrange the furniture, the garage, and do some fall cleaning as well. That left one or two days at best for any fishing.
Most of the guides that I talked to had their trips cancelled. I was only able to get out two days. The first day was Monday. It was probably the best day of the week. Stacy Mullendore and I went out to see what the water looked like. It was fairly well stirred up with a lot of fresh water mixed in. We fly fished for a couple of hours. Surprisingly, we hooked five snook. We only boated one that was about twenty- seven inches. Monday was a fair, windless day. Tuesday brought about some stiff winds. My clients still managed to catch five redfish and a dozen snook. I was pleased considering the condition of the water around Marco.
The wind has been blowing strong this week. That shouldn’t stop most anglers from getting out in the backcountry. There are still some schools of finger mullet to catch. If all else fails, use a popping cork with live shrimp. Jigs should be working well too. We have been catching small redfish in some decent numbers. They are willing to strike at just about anything.
With the impending weather and the long season in front of us, now is a good time to do some preventative maintenance on your boat. Be sure to change your gear lube before the marinas get busy taking the winter boats out of mothballs. Your gear lube should be changed every one hundred hours. If not that, change it at least once a year. The same rule of thumb applies to your water pump. Make sure that the pivotal points of your drive or outboard are lubed. I have found that blue grease is the best lube for places that have zirc fittings. Don’t use regular grease. It breaks down quickly in saltwater.
Let’s hope that we can get through the rest of the hurricane season without incident. Let’s face it, we have had a tough year for fishing. I think that we are "due" for some good fishing weather that spawns multiple career fishing days.