I managed to sneak in a full week of guiding this week, but will be off the water several days next week when my wife, Jean, has her second surgery.

Monday dawned warm and windy, with a northwest wind gusting to 17. Chris Moles and his good friend Danny Neal, of Indianapolis, Indiana, were ready to go. My good friend Capt. Tom Stephens was fishing with Geoff Cuff and his family, who I had referred to him. We decided to go and catch bait together, since it's sometime easier when you have more than one person chumming. Bait didn't jump into the boat, but we did manage to get plenty. It just took a while to get them going. After that we went our separate ways.

At our first stop we could hear voices coming through the mangroves, and knew there was someone fishing on the other side of the island. We only caught a couple of snook and a trout or two. As we left, we could see Tom's boat come into view on the other side. We got a chuckle out of that.

Our best bite of the day was on big trout. We've got a lot of trout that are in the 3.5 to 6 pound range around right now, but you don't catch them in the same places that you catch the smaller slot fish. Most of those bigger trout are well over 20 inches so you can only keep one per angler if you're meat fishin. They hang in the same sort of places that the snook do. They seem to like creek beds, big holes, and shallow flats around oyster bars. Of course, a 26 to 28 inch trout will give you some beautiful fillets! Chris and Danny cleaned house on the big trout. I didn't get a count, but they caught a pretty good bunch of them.

We finished on the flats looking for redfish, which have been on again, off again. I believe it was Chris who got the only redfish in the boat; a bruiser of nearly 13 pounds. Chris was amazed at the pulling power of that red as she stripped yard after yard of the 8 pound Ande from the little Daiwa 2000. It took him a while, but Chris finally got the upper hand and brought her to the boat. There were a couple of misses, but the reds basically didn't want to play. It had been a good day with a couple of great guys who were eager to learn our style of fishing.

One of my Daiwa Emblem X 3000 reels had broken during the trip. I expect it was from a previous trip, or perhaps just from wear and tear. The reels are as near being a perfectly executed fishing instrument as I've come across, but they do have one small weak spot. The covers that contain the bail spring and related parts are very pretty, but they are plastic. I've noticed that they can crack from use, but have never seen one do more than that. I suspect I was cracked and I didn't notice, and it finally failed. Well, all the bail works fell out, and I never found them in the boat or in the van, so who knows. Anyway, I had to have another 12 pound class reel for the big snook in close quarters scene, and didn't have another reel with me, so I stopped by Sports Authority on the way home.

As I left the store and headed for my van, I was hailed down by none other than Geoffrey Cuff Jr. and his pal, who were in their van. His dad was in the store replacing a Penn rod he'd broken on a big jack while out with Tommy. The reported they'd had a great time although it had been a slow day until Tom wisely switched to big jacks at the mouth of the river to get some action going. I've since found out that Geoff broke another identical rod the day before while fishing from shore. I suspect he might be mishandling those graphite rods, and is paying the price.

Tuesday with Dr. Bill Gordon, of Fredricksburg, Texas, except for catching bait, was like a day off. I ran into Capt. Steve Bailey at the ramp that morning and asked him what kind of trip he had. He advised me he had a livebait trip, and was going to go and see if he could reinjure his broken finger. I knew he'd have a heck of a time trying to throw a castnet with a broken finger, so I volunteered to catch bait for him. We rendezvoused on the Picnic Island flats, and fortunately it wasn't long before we both had plenty of bait. Bait was much easier than the day before.

Soon, we were at the first stop, where we found great snook and big trout action. Bill boated 3 snook and 6 big trout up to 5 pounds. I think my Texas angler was impressed with the quality of the fish. Our second stop was out on the open flats for redfish. After chumming with live and chopped shiners, we got a descent bite going. Although Bill missed several reds, and broke off another two, he still managed to boat a dozen of the bronze torpedoes up to 9 pounds. It had been a fun and productive morning, and Bill had been a delight to fish with.

On the way to the ramp Wednesday morning, I noticed a truck pulling a 16 ft. Whaler, occupied by a woman and a young man. They were heading for the ramp, too. I stopped for supplies, and by the time I arrived at the ramp, the Whaler was in the water. The young man came over to me after I launched and asked me if I was Capt. Butch. He introduced himself as Taylor Thorne, and I immediately recognized the name as one I'd seen on an email that morning. Turned out he's a student at University of Florida, and was home on spring break. He had been reading my fishing reports and had been nice enough to take the time to send me an email with good wishes and prayers for my wife. And some would have us believe that today's young people are no good. We decided we'd go and catch bait together. My party was late, so Taylor left ahead of me to get started.

I've had many enjoyable and rewarding trips with many wonderful people, but Wednesday's trip with Dick Lefebvre will go down as one of the most satisfying. Dick, who hails from Hudson, Mass., is confined to a wheelchair. Of course, I knew that when I first booked Dick. But, when I saw him being pushed down the dock by his daughter that morning, I wondered if we'd both bit off more than we could chew! Well, I figured that if we could get past getting Dick into the boat, we'd have it made. With the aid of another guide and Dick's determination, we got him into the BarHopp'R, and situated.

We headed out to Picnic Island to find Taylor. He was just getting things ready to try for bait. We decided that since Dick was in a very expensive wheelchair that saltwater wouldn't be good for, we'd catch bait from Taylor's boat. His Whaler doesn't have the deck of the BarHopp'R, and its sunken some, so I had a tough time trying to load up and throw, but with Taylor chumming, we managed to get the job done. Bait was tough, and it took a while.

I had been trying to mentally evaluate Dick's situation. I wasn't sure if he had enough arm/hand strength to hang onto a rod without help. I had visions of one of my $325 rigs flying out of the boat, piloted by a big snook or red at the other end! The big trout we've been catching are nearly as scrappy, but not so prone to run into the mangroves, and I decided that would be the best bet to wet Dick's feet on. I went straight to the spot where I'd been catching lot of big trout, as well as some snook. I had Dick stationed in the cockpit, just ahead of the console. I baited an 8 pound rig and cast the shiner as far as I could toward the cover. Before I could get the rod butt between Dick's legs, and his hand on the reel, the bait was eaten by a nice, fat trout.

This was Dick's first fishing trip in twenty years, and his first saltwater trip. I wanted very much for it to be a great one for him. I admired his courage and determination for even trying to pull this off. Well, he did more than pull it off, he did it with pinnace. He not only was able to pump and reel those fish in, but he had studied and memorized the BarHopp'R rules of engagement. He was a model student. It seemed that every bait I threw was eaten, often before I could get the rod into Dick's waiting hands. I attempted to fish more than one rod, and we had double and triple hookups on the big trout. Dick grinned from ear to ear as he fought fish after fish, almost overwhelmed with the power of the big trout weighing up to almost six pounds, and surely proud of his ability to beat them with the light stick. I'm guessing it took several days for his wife to wipe the grin off his face. We had a blast, but I suspect I had more fun than did Dick. I've just never found a trip to be quite so fulfilling, no matter how many snook and redfish came to the boat. Dick recently sent me thank you letter, which is shared with you in the Testimonials section. I'm looking forward to many future trips with Dick, and next time I'm going to take him to some redfish!

By Wednesday night, I was getting worried about my Thursday trip with Scott Schuhl. Scott and I had fished together before, and had a great time. He had booked this way in advance. I finally called the only number I had, and reached his dad, who gave me Scott's number and permission to call him a ...... I got hold of Scott, who though he had emailed me long ago to tell me that he couldn't fish, but he never had. He's been very overworked, and overlooked it. Scott apologized, and said he wanted to fish again, and promised to send me a cancellation deposit. Boy, it's nice to see someone be responsible for something in this world we live in today.

Friday morning I picked up Ed Appel and his son Jeff, of Lakeland, Florida, at the Waterfront Restaurant in St. James City at nine o'clock. I wanted to fish the incoming tide. We headed straight back to Picnic Island for bait. We had a pretty brisk 15 knot southeast breeze. Jeff brought along one of his own toys, a Shimano Sustain mated to a G-Loomis rod. I knew he was a serious fisherman.

After several days of real good fishing, I anticipated there would still be a good bite, but it definitely seemed to have slowed some. At the first stop we caught a couple of snook, and of course, there were a few missed. At the second stop we caught half dozen or so of those big trout to 5 pounds. I had planned on letting Ed and Jeff wear themselves out catching redfish for the Grande finale, but the reds were tough. We worked hard for what we got. Yes, I think we missed a couple of reds, too, but the Appels did boat 3 to 29 inches. It was a good day with good people, and Jeff assured me on the way home that any day he could get out and catch that many fish was a good day.

And, there you have it. Not a bad week of fishing, and certainly a week that makes me feel lucky to be a professional guide. I've arranged my schedule to take three days off next week, so there won't be a whole lot to talk about, but we'll try to keep it interesting.

Until then.