About 17 years ago my best friend Capt. Tim Reichenburg helped me move into an old fixer upper waterfront house. My focus was getting the house squared away and his focus was going fishing. Not ready to let Tim run my new flats boat into unknown territory, Capt. Tim known by most as “Sparky” took my old 10’ leaky jon boat and trolling motor and left the dock an hour before dark one day. I didn’t think it was such a smart idea but he insisted and away he went with cooler full of beer and cell phone. I woke up the next day and there was no Sparky in the house. Not a good sign and no answer on his phone but before long, a water logged sparky and jon boated limped to the dock, beer bottles floating along with his cell phone in the soup. Enthusiastic would be an understatement as Sparky chirped like a bird about the 50 redfish he caught that night. It happened on a full moon and he said everywhere he went there were redfish but one island in particular, was amazingly productive.
For the better part of 17 years my friend frequently comes over from his home in Palm Beach to fish Charlotte Harbor. Every visit, I have to hear about Sparky’s Island and his night of fame and why don’t we fish at night on the full moon. Let’s see, 12 full moons per year times 15 years is 180 times I have heard this story perhaps more and I just shrugged it off as that was your lucky day and just forget about it, please!
Last month Sparky was in town on the full moon and after unsuccessfully catching much during the day, I finally conceded to fishing Sparky’s Island just before dark. You will not find Sparky’s Island marked on any nautical chart and it is not a particularly interesting mangrove island with no special features or water depths.
The water was only 2 feet deep when we started fishing on an outgoing tide. My brother Bob, Sparky and myself pitched live shrimp out as the sun was dropping below the horizon and wham! Two drags are screaming and Sparky and I battle 2 very impressive redfish. You can only imagine the beating I took (and will endure for my lifetime!) for waiting 15 years to come back! It was not long before all of us were hooked up and releasing redfish most in the 5-8 pound range. Of course, plenty of catfish showed up as well. When the fishing slowed hours later Sparky boasted the most fish by far; 12 redfish and 1 black drum which was the last fish of the night. It was a beautiful night as we watched the full moon rise to the east and the higher it got the slower the bite but sure made for an easy ride back to the dock. It was clearly Sparky’s night because there were 17 red/black drum caught, 13 of which were Sparkys and our lines were fished within a 10 yard stretch of each other yet his line got most of the bites and rightfully so!
