Fishing with Captain Rachel Nobbe-Cato-5-27

Finally, the start of my five day weekend. Memorial Day is always an extended holiday for me-just about every year. This holiday weekend, camping with the family was the plan, but first I had to get tarpon off the brain. The May full moon was Thursday the twenty seventh, my first day off. I wasn’t due to go camping until Friday. Why not go jump a tarpon or two before the trip?

My only flaw in this plan was I had no one to fish with. That never stops me, but tarpon fishing is always more entertaining with a partner in crime. I had called all the usual fishing buddies to no avail. Everyone was working Thursday, but not Friday, and on Friday I would be heading to Homosassa Springs to camp. Luckily, I received a message from Captain Rachel Nobbe-Cato earlier in the week; we both had free time so we made plans to meet up on Thursday at eight in the morning.

Thursday came along and I was helping Rachel load up the boat at eight. Yes, I was actually on time for once.

 Believe it or not, miracles do happen. This was my first time fishing with Rachel, in fact, even meeting her. When first meeting Captain Rachel, I didn’t feel awkward at all. Sometimes when first getting together and fishing with someone, it’s somewhat uncomfortable; not today. She was pretty laid back and down to earth. Conversation was not tough.

Rachel and I left out of her home waters of Terra Ceia in Palmetto. Having been years since I actually fished those waters, it brought back good memories. Heading out of a residential canal in her 22 foot Bayrider, I threw a bunch of questions at her about the status of these waters now. She had the answers. Familiar sights were seen, and it was a beautiful, calm morning. Before you know it, we were off to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in search of scaled sardines and threadfins. A little morning tarpon fishing was the plan; on the way back in we would use some of our whitebait on the flats. Simple enough.

Bait was a snap. Scaled sardines were all over the pilings at the Skyway fishing pier, and threadfins were covering the markers. A few tosses of the net and we were done. After we loaded up, Rachel was nice enough to take the time to give a couple of pier fishermen some bait; they were having a tough time getting any with their net, so a couple scoops from the well went in their bucket. That’s good fishing karma right there, and it shows how selfless she is. That really impressed me. Not everyone would do something like that, and it took less than a minute.

We made our way to the Skyway and I suggested a spot that I had been seeing fish consistently. We anchored on the incoming tide, in between some bumpers or “dolphins” as they are called. These bumpers create quite a path for baitfish to hold and are a feeding ground for tarpon. Within minutes, we spotted tarpon, rolling happily, easily seen. We sat for a good while after getting a solid anchor, and soaked some threadfins with poons rolling twenty feet from the boat, probably laughing at our attempts to catch them, when so many threads without hooks were at their disposal.

I could tell Rachel was getting just a little impatient. Not in a bad way, but possibly ready to move spots. I am like that too, usually moving spots very frequently on the flats, but this year I’m trying to be more patient while tarpon fishing. We decided to stay just a little longer. I hate to leave when I can see the fish. A silver king would have to eventually take our bait, right? After numerous hits from mackerel and grouper busting up our leaders and stealing our hooks, I was about ready to move as well. Then it happened. The grouper rod went off and drag started singing. This grouper rod was a seven foot medium-heavy action rod with a 3500 series baitrunner reel on it. The bait was a three inch scaled sardine. Maybe those tarpon were tired of threadfins and wanted whitebait. Variety is the spice of life.

Captain Rachel sprang into action, got us unhooked and tossed the anchor. The fight was on. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight. Luckily, the tarpon headed away from the pilings, and after going airborne, we saw a nice hundred plus class fish. Persistence paid off for us, finally. Now it was time to fight this beast on light tackle. The fight went on like most others. The fish made two more jumps and hugged the bottom of the bay. Using this set up had me prepared for a break off at any moment, but that didn’t happen. There was still strong braid and a sixty pound leader on it, with a good hook.

This fight was different than most I’ve had. I haven’t had that many as it is, but as always, I learned a lot. Staying patient with the fish and using steady pressure, I was able to keep the fight going for about forty five minutes, getting the tarpon to the side of the boat twice. This is credited to Rachel’s excellent driving, keeping the poon under us, away from the bridge pilings. Never seeing someone drive a boat like that to control the fish impressed me. It must be due to her experience in Boca Grande, the parking lot of tarpon fishing. Without her expert driving, that fish would have been lost ten minutes into the fight.

The fish started acting strange about twenty five minutes into the fight. Crazy runs, almost as if a shark was waiting for an easy meal. Also in the mix was the fact that the silver king just flat out overpowered me with the light tackle outfit. Keeping the fish from getting up for air just wasn’t happening. This fight could have lasted for another thirty minutes, and may have ended up being a photo opportunity; more than likely though, a casualty to a hungry hammerhead, or exhaustion. On the last boatside appearance, we tried to bring the fish close enough to get a picture and release, but our sixty pound leader was wrapped around the fish and Rachel and I could not get any cooperation. Being tired after three quarters of an hour fight, we decided to break off the fish after Rachel took some battle pics. We had fun, a good scuffle took place, and it was back to our spot to attempt one more hook up.

Back at our spot, more tarpon were rolling, but the tide was ready to turn, and we were both a little bored, not wanting to wait for the outgoing. This tide was a very late, probably due to a stiff west wind, so we were hoping for some water movement elsewhere. Off to my old stomping grounds we went, Miguel Bay. Not having too positive a feeling about the flats, Rachel an myself still gave fishing the groves a shot. The tide was pretty high; snook or redfish were our targets. We did have issues though. The problem was lack of tidal movement, and more importantly, lack of wind to keep us cool in the summer heat. After chumming up numerous mangrove lines with no takers, both of us were worn out and we had a good time; there was no reason to drag the trip out.

It was a great day out on the water, and as you can see from the picture above, pretty darn hot. The best thing about the trip was I made a new friend. Rachel and I hit it off well, and she’s an excellent Captain. I would recommend her to anyone, especially families with small children, or people like myself, with a teenage daughter and a wife who really do not like to fish. A trip with Rachel will please everyone. The guys get to fish; the girls can fish as well, but also be taken sightseeing, swimming and wildlife searching. I know my girls would like to take a trip with her on the bay- fishing on the other hand, well, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll see soon…

Brad