Usually, the redfishing slows down around the first of December when the sexually mature fish move offshore to spawn. They usually leave behind only the small rats and an odd larger fish. The fish stayed with us in the Sound right until of the turn of the millennium, but have gotten tough to find. It's gotten even tougher to catch the ones you find I the shallows because the half starved terns will dive on your bait before it has time to sink. Even then, they're so hungry they'll dive below the surface to as much as two feet to get your bait. It has made my style of fishing for the big reds nearly impossible to pull off lately, so it's time to turn my attentions to the big trout and big snook of winter for the new millennium.

My first trip of the year was for my friend Capt. Tommy Stephens, with his customer Paul Seavy, and Paul's friends Jim and Pete. They had been out with Tommy for some of the wild summer snook action, but had been warned that things are different during the winter. It's much harder to put up big numbers.

It was a beautiful Monday morning with a light east breeze and a super low tide. Bait was easy with Jim, who himself is about to become a captain, at the helm. While the water was so low, I thought I'd give the redfish another shot. As I poled into the area, I could see that the fish were there, but a lot of chumming and casting produced nothing but catfish. The reds just didn't want to play.

By that time, the water was coming in pretty well, and I wanted some fish in the boat. I moved to a series of potholes that usually have great trout action. Fortunately, the holes were full of trout that were big enough to eat our big shiners and threadfins, and the fun was on. During the next couple hours the boys boated some 30 trout, nearly all of which were 20 inches or over. Paul kept half dozen to feed the gang that night.

Once the trout action slowed, we were off to see if we could score some snook. The tide was nearly done, so we didn't have long. By this time the snook weren't in much of an eating mood, either, but we did boat one nice fish of 6 pounds.

We finished our day at the Waterfront Restaurant where Pete, who could do accents incredibly well, told me several of the funniest jokes I'd ever heard. It had started off a slow day, but had indeed been a great day on the water with a bunch of fun guys. They were talking and making plans to come back down again in spring as they left. Tuesday, Capt. Tommy Stephens and I fished with my old friend and customer Fredrik Wallenberg and his lovely mother, Elizabeth, who was over from Sweden staying at her condo on Longboat Key. The weather for Tuesday was uncertain, with a good chance of rain. Also, Tommy and I have fished together with Fredrik before, and Tommy has fished him when I was booked, so we're all friends, and it seemed a shame not to have Tommy involved this time, as well. So, instead of Fredrik coming south this time, we elected to fish in Sarasota in Tommy's boat. That way, if we got rained out, Fredrik wouldn't have a four hour time investment wasted. Tom caught some small bait at the ramp, and again at the bait house where we picked up Fredrik and Liz. But, we needed bigger bait, so we headed out on the beach of Longboat with Tom at the helm and me on the net. There were zillions of glass minnows and tiny shiners and threads on the beach, but with persistence, we finally made several good strikes on descent sized bait. I was about worn out. Thank God it was finally time to go fishing! We headed to a deep hole which almost always has big jacks in it during the winter, and snook just off of it. It's a hole that I fished often when I was fishing in Sarasota regularly, and one that has been good to Tommy. The jacks weren't as thick as they usually are, but with some chumming we got them to play, and put upwards of a dozen in the boat, along with one small red. As the outgoing tide slowed, Tom made an adjustment and we turned our attention to the snook. It didn't take much chumming with the small shiners and we had snook popping all around. Freddie and Liz caught a dozen or so small snook that averaged around two pounds.

From there we went to a restaurant on the water near Venice, and had a nice lunch. With full tummies we headed out onto the flats to chase more snook, but the snook had other ideas. We saw some fish, but couldn't catch any. So, we decided to go give the pompano and bluefish a look in Big Pass. That proved fruitless except for a couple of small grouper. But things picked up when Tommy spotted a school of ladyfish thrashing near the outside of the pass. We knew they'd likely be easy targets. Fredrik broke out the flyrod, Liz and Tom threw shiners, and I threw a spoon. We all caught plenty of nice sized ladyfish, including Fredrik once he changed to a different fly.

We headed in a little after four. It had been great to fish with Fredrik again, and to see his mom once again. They're super folks, and Freddie is a very skilled angler, no matter what kind of rig you put in his hands.

Wednesday, I was back down south fishing with Jim Hider, of Ithaca, New York, and his dad, Al, who's in his seventies. Jim is an avid fisherman, and is thinking of buying a place in Cape Coral and wintering here. To this end, he wanted to learn something about the winter fishing here. The front had passed, and we now had a rising barometer and a 15 knot wind from the northeast. I figured it would be a tough day.

With Jim at the helm, we were able to get beautiful bait at the second span of the causeway without much effort. I made four throws, and hit bait on all four. On the last two throws, I was just culling out some of the smaller baits for possible use on trout. With plenty of bait in the boat, we headed to a hole that is situated well to fish on a northeast wind. I pushed quite a few redfish coming in to the spot, so I decided to try for some. Lots of chumming and moving netted three redfish hits. Two were misses by Al, but Jim did manage to land his 8 pounder. That was his first red, and he was quite impressed at their broad shoulders and determined, bulldog fight. We also caught plenty of gafftop sail cats and hardhead cats.

With the water coming in well, I decided to try to get some trout action going for the boys. I went to where we had creamed them on Tuesday, and fished every one of the many holes there. It seemed as though they had been evacuated for a bomb scare, or something.

From there I headed to a fairly deep hole that often gets a lot of big snook in it during the winter months. The fish were there. The heaviest tackle I had in the boat was my 10 pound Daiwa Emblem X's, and 10 pound just wasn't heavy enough. I had found some really big snook; probably in the 20+ pound range. Jim struck pay dirt first, and often. But of the half dozen fish he hooked, he didn't get one turned. These were big fish, and we weren't getting their attention with 10 pound tackle in close quarters. I think Jim was blown away at how much horsepower these fish had. But, by golly, Al stuck one, and with some heavy coaching and lots of luck, everything held together and Al kept him out of the bushes, and landed the 6 pounder. I was glad we'd finally hooked a smaller snook, and that Al had gotten him. I don't know who was more tired though, Al or the snook. We added a nice speckled trout for the West Coast Slam before the tide was done.

We capped off the day at the Waterfront. Even though we hadn't boated many fish, Jim and Al had had some pretty good scraps with some snook and reds, and told me that he'd learned a lot on his first time out. And, I knew where I would be on Friday with some heavier gear in the boat!!

Friday morning the fog had set in, and it was thick as butter. Visibility was near zero! My customers were Bob and Betty Gervais, from the great state of Wyoming. I hoped as I left the dock to catch bait that the fog would be lifted by the time we had bait. I followed along the causeway to the second span, running just close enough to see the bridge. Bait was flipping all over, which told me it was spread out. A few throws bore that out, as I was hitting bait, but not big numbers. Finally, I had Bob motor me to a newly developed tide rip, and bingo, and big strike of beautiful bait.

The fog seemed even thicker as I followed the shoreline along Sanibel to the area I wanted to fish. I got to the area, OK, but the last mile or so where I wanted to go was too far away from land to be able to see in the fog. The tide was incredibly low, and I knew that if I attempted to get into the shallows without a reference point I'd probably wind up aground, even in the BarHopp'R. We elected to sit and chat and wait on the fog.

Once we were able to finish our journey to the first hole we had some tarpon moving, as well as reds and trout. I got a couple of shots at the tarpon, but they didn't take. There were, of course, the usual low tide catfish, but no reds or snook. We did catch some nice trout there.

Once the water was moving in well, I moved to my first snook stop. We only had one hit there, but boy, what a hit. Betty, who was plagued with a mobility problem caused by a bad knee, had a snook hit that almost spun her around on her feet. Today we were fishing with the Daiwa 3000 Emblem X's spooled with 12 pound Ande, with drags set at 3 pounds. Still, the fish was so big and fast, that it snatched Betty's rod around to Bob's and broke her off. I don't think she had ever experienced a hit like that.

After giving it a while and working the area pretty well, I moved to my ace in the hole; the spot I'd found the day before. There were a lot of boats in the area, and I scrambled to get to my hole before one of the other approaching boats could. Advantage BarHopp'R when the water is skinny!

It wasn't long before Bob had his first of many smashing snook hits. A hit like that on twelve pound tackle had to be fish in the 20 to 30 pound range. Bob couldn't even get the attention of the first couple that hit. Through the rest of the morning we had about 15 good hookups, but 9 were lost in the trees or to pulled hooks. Bob boated 6 of the smaller fish that hit, and they were running 8 and 9 pounds. Nice fish! We were also catching outsized trout in the same water, with all of them going 4 and 5 pounds. I think the count was 10 trout. The whole experience was made more fun by a fellow angler in a small aluminum boat who was anchored about 50 yards away catching mangrove snapper, and taking it all in. Every time we'd raise one of the big snook out of the water, he's clap or cheer us on.

When the tide finally stopped, so did the snook, of course. I idled over and introduced myself to the angler, who's name was Larry. He complimented us for putting on "quite a show"! I gave him as much of my shiner bait as he thought he could keep alive in a flow-through bucket until the tide started moving again. It had turned out to be a great day with some real nice folks. Bob, who is a good fisherman, wasn't quite ready for such a fierce opponent as these snook, but had adapted well, and learned quickly. He commented over and over at the brute power and speed of our linesiders. I sure hope they'll stay laid up there for a while.