The best method for fishing the pass, he says, is fly fishing. Some of his top flies are Pink Seaducers and Rattle Mullet as well as his own hot pink Rattlesnake, Baboon and Mangrove Crab flies. The whole area, he says, is “an absolute paradise for kayakers, or kay-fishers.”

Cape Coral resident Bill Higgins, who fishes mainly the Pine Island side of the pass from a kayak and wading, says, “I’ve seen more [redfish] tails there than anywhere else I’ve ever fished.” In the winter, Higgins also targets trout.

Fortified with iced drinks, grouper and chicken wings from Bert’s, we headed back out north of the bridge with the intense sun finally angling down toward the mangroves. Bowdish motored up a medium-size cut—about 80 feet wide—along the east shore of the pass, then shut down the motor for drifting and poling.

“We should see some tails,” Bowdish said. But with the water more than a foot deep over the flat, this was not to be a stellar redfish evening. Pink sky reflected on the calm water turned to silver, then gray while we landed a handful of small snook. I even caught a stingray on a fly. But redfish tails were scarcer than kindly pacifists at an al Qaeda training camp.

When we headed back to the dock after dark, a strong current was sweeping out of the canal that emptied out in front of The Sun and the Moon. Beneath the resort’s dock light, snook were stacked up and popping.

Laney and Bowdish landed a handful of small to medium-size fish before we finally gave up on the day, too tired to continue.

FS