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Secret Spot

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By FRANK SARGEANT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2008

"It's just a little bit short of being in the absolute middle of nowhere," captain Artie Price says as he cranks the big Chevy engine on his airboat.

Price, who has made a name for himself as a top rod in the national redfish tournament circuits, is noted for finding the most remote waters available, then figuring out a way to get to them. His strategy often results in tournament-winning fish that other anglers never get close to.

Price, of New Port Richey, is breaking one of his basic rules by allowing television fishing personalities Billy Nobles and Mike Anderson of "Reel Animals" to invade one of his secret spots. Usually, nobody but his tournament partner sees the locations that turn out the "fat" reds that win tournaments.

"Of course, I have to blindfold you all, and I will hunt you down and kill you if you tell anybody where this spot is," he reminds us as we leave the docks at Placida boat ramp.

Picture Perfect

Price says he found the spot we are exploring on this day by searching aerial photos of Charlotte Harbor for hidden potholes.

"There are quite a few of these places, completely surrounded by mangroves, and maybe only one little winding trickle running into them, and then the water opens out and you've got a five-acre fishing hole," Price says.

He motors the airboat through the Gasparilla Island Bridge, followed by the camera crew aboard a similar airboat captained by Mark Thomas of Tampa. Before long, the roaring boats leave the marked channel and begin a winding course through water only two to four inches deep, sometimes sliding across bare mud bars as we wind ever deeper into the creeks, cuts and islands of the mangrove country.

Finally, several miles in, we are ducking under mangrove limbs and eating spider webs; the creek has become a rivulet that wouldn't float a respectable mullet. And then, just as promised, the trees end and we break out into a broad saltwater lake.

"Now, it will be trout and reds on the edges, snook and goliath grouper in the middle," Price forecasts.

Actually, the first drift produces nothing but lots of moss on the hooks of our jigs. But on the next trip down-wind, we get a better position on the main hole - about four to six feet deep - and things happen fast.

Price and then Anderson hook high-jumping snook, small but sporty. Then Nobles sticks a fish that stays deep and pulls harder. In a few minutes, he pumps up a brown and gold goliath grouper of about 5 pounds.

"I've caught goliaths in here over 20 pounds," Price says. "I guess they feed on the mullet."

'Fish Soup'

Next drift, the anglers haul up two redfish, one about 26 inches long, the other 20. Then the trout and ladyfish bite starts. For a half-hour, every drift produces 10 to 12 fish. The drift after that, we catch six snook, as fast as we can put the jigs in the water.

"It's fish soup, and the fish have mostly never seen a lure, so they bite whatever you throw at them," Price says.

(However, he admits a partiality for the flavored Berkley Gulp baits, like many of the redfish pros these days.)

He theorizes fish move into the hole as juveniles on flood tides or hurricanes. Once they reach larger sizes, it would be tough for them to get out the shallow creek - unless they once again waited for a major flood tide.

He says the hole is limited mostly to airboats and kayaks, but he has yet to see a kayak in there. When he fishes a tournament, he says, he waits for a little help from the tide, then skids his flats boat over the bar at full speed to get inside.

"This is a great spot, but there are dozens of other spots like it out there waiting to be discovered," Price says. "Anybody who puts in the time and effort to find them and get to them is going to enjoy some great fishing."

THE 'REEL ANIMALS'

Billy Nobles and Mike Anderson, fishing guides when they're not entertaining in front of the camera, are becoming known as saltwater versions of Bill Dance, with a humorous presentation that has built a strong following in a short time. Both learned their saltwater fishing on Tampa Bay, but now travel all over the state to produce their show.

The "Reel Animals Fishing Show" airs on WFLA, Channel 8, on Saturdays from 6:30-7 a.m., and on Sun Sports several times Fridays and Sundays; visit www.reelanimalsfishingshow.com for details.

Nobles and Anderson also will appear at the Tribune's Outdoors Expo, Feb. 29-March 2 at the Florida State Fairgrounds off Interstate 4 east of Tampa.

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