The story again this week was weather; wind to be specific. But, then it's March, so I guess that's to be expected.

Monday morning wind was roaring out of the southeast at a good 25 knots when I met Steve and Kyle Zabrin, of Wheeling, Illinois. More often than not, the fish will eat on a south wind, so if you're going to deal with that much wind, you want it to be from a southerly direction. I figured that if we could catch bait, we'd do all right with the fish.

Bait presented the first hurdle we had to clear, and almost from the start I had trouble anchoring the boat. The anchor kept pulling loose, and I couldn't imagine what was going on. I had actually anchored my boat and Capt. Mark Bess' boat one day in more wind than this, and it held! We chummed and fought the anchor from place to place looking for late morning bait, but didn't find any to speak of until we got to Chino Island. On the second spot, out on the flat, we loaded up with beautiful bait.

From there trying to fish turned into my worse nightmare. The wind kicked even more, and it seemed no matter how I backed the boat down on the anchor, as soon as we would get baits into the water, the anchor would pull up. God, I was frustrated and exasperated. Actually, I was furious with the situation, and couldn't figure out what was going on. Steve and Kyle must have thought they were fishing with a physco, but were very understanding of the situation. More than that, they were as nice as could be.

Well, the long and short of it was that we only managed to catch 3 snook, lost one, and caught one nice jack. I'm certain we'd probably have done quite well if I could have stayed anchored, but we literally blew every hole we fished. Worse, there was way to much wind for the trolling motor, so once we were off anchor, I had no choice but to fire up the Yamaha. I did notice as the day wore on that the flukes of the anchor were coming in bent. I began to evolve a theory that the anchor had been attacked by the salt water to the point where the metal had lost it's temper, and was causing me to loose mine. The only way to know for sure would be to change anchors for the next day.

I felt like hell about the whole debacle, and if we'd not had such a tough winter with so many lost days, I would have given Steve and Kyle a free trip. Steve was one of the nicest and understanding guys I've ever had on my boat. After all that, he even gave me a tip!

Tuesday morning, I met my old friend Bo Mack, his son Ed, and friends Bill and Kip at the ramp at 9 AM, armed with a brand new Digger Anchor. The wind was still south at 15 to 20 knots, and I would soon know if my anchor had indeed been the problem. It's really hard to fish four anglers on the flats, and a strong wind makes it even harder. If my anchor problem wasn't solved, it would be impossible.

We headed first up the river to catch ladyfish, and there were plenty to catch. Along with all the big ladyfish we caught, we also caught a nice mackerel, and a couple of gafftop sail catfish. Yes, those gafftops are actually gamefish, and will readily strike lures. With some catching under our belts, and several nice ladybaits in the well, we headed out to catch shiners. Having caught beautiful bait at Chino the day before, I went straight to Chino again. To my dismay, there were no shiners; not one. We chummed a number of different places and the only thing we caught was pinfish. Man, this weather is making bait a challenge! Bo and I eventually had a quick conference. The weather was threatening, and I was afraid we might be run right off the water within a couple of hours. We decided to take our pins and ladys and try to do the best we could with them. Well, hindsight is always 20/20! The weather never materialized, and neither did the fish. We managed to catch one redfish, lost one snook, and caught one nice trout, and that along with our ladyfish was the day. They just didn't want what we had to offer. Oh, we did miss several redfish while fishing around Mckeever Keys with our bait, but basically, that was it.

But, Bo and the bunch are always fun, and we had a blast in spite of the tough conditions. We finished the day at the Waterfront Restaurant, which is the perfect end to any fishing day. Next week, Bo and his wife Susan will spend the night here at the BarHopp'R camp, and fish the next day. God, I hope we draw some descent weather.

By Wednesday morning at ten, the weather had settled down somewhat. I had another party of four anglers, Larry Keys and his partner Kevin, and their mutual friends Mitch and dad Bill, down from Tampa. After the first two days of this week, I was frankly dreading another party of four. Then when the boys informed me that they were all novice fishermen, I knew it would be a long day. What I didn't know, was how crazy these guys were.

We headed to the flats north of Tarpon Bay for bait, and got plenty of good bait. Right from the start, these guys had me laughing, and kept me laughing all day long. At the first stop, Larry hooked what he surely thought was a monster something, and fought it for quite a while. It turned out to be a big jack crevalle of around seven pounds. The boys also caught several nice trout, and more than their share of catfish. Later we found some redfish and snook, but the boys only managed to boat 3 snook and 2 reds, and missed another 4 reds. By their own admission, they lost many more fish than they managed to catch. But, we had a blast, and it was all part of the learning process for newcomers to fishing.

Thursday's trip will go down as a very memorable one. I met Chris Sims, and his 76 year-old Dad, from Kensington, Maryland at ten o'clock. I could tell his Dad was getting pretty frail, as he had a difficult time getting into the boat, and keeping his balance once in. I knew we'd have to try to tailor the trip to Dad, and fish he could handle, if he was to catch some fish.

We headed straight back to Tarpon Bay for bait, and I'll be darned if we could catch anything but little stuff. So, I headed back to Picnic Island where I'd scored the day before, and the bait was great! Go figure. As we rode from place to place, Chris and I realized that Dad was having trouble staying upright. Chris tried to support his Dad from the other side of the boat behind me. I know it was difficult. After catching bait, we headed up the river to catch some ladyfish. We didn't have a real strong bite, but enough to have fun and put some bait in the well.

Chris decided after putting his Dad on the console seat where he was not real happy, to try to hold him up while we were riding. We put the cooler right in front of the console seat where Chris seated himself, and put his Dad on the cooler directly in front of him. Chris was then able to lean his Dad back and hold on to him, cradling him in his arms.

Up in the Sound we managed to catch a few fish, but were struggling trying to get something going. A couple of phone calls revealed that two of my friends, John Shearer and Rey Rodriguez were already on one of my favorite redfish flats. Rey was catching. We took off for the flat thinking that we could join in the action, as so many have done to me when I have been out there catching fish. But, once we were there and anchored up off Rey's port side, we could not get a bite. I chummed with ladyfish, pinfish, and shiners, and put all of the above out for bait. We couldn't get a bite! The fish were chummed up in front of Rey's boat, and weren't about to stray away to find something else to eat. John couldn't catch a red, either.

Not too long after we got there, the bite slowed for Rey, and another guide, Ozzie, who was on Rey's right side. I wanted Chris to catch some fish, and opted to leave and chase some snook on the last of the tide. At a spot not too far away, we found some snook willing to play, and managed to catch a dozen or more, and even got a double with Chris' Dad. Fortunately, most of the fish were short, and Dad was able to handle them.

The thing that really impressed me about this trip was that Chris was willing to not only take his elderly and frail dad fishing, but was willing to look after him all day, and try to insure that he had a good time. In these times, there are very few guys who would be willing to be bothered, or put forth the effort to do that for their Dads. It was very heart warming to see, and I think Chris is a pretty special guy.

I took Friday off, and by early afternoon, Jean and I were on our way to spend the weekend with my friends and customers Bobby and Della Dumont, over in Sebring. The occasion was the 12 hours of Sebring, which I had never attended. We drove straight to the Sebring track to meet Bobby and Della. We had a great time, and all their friends made us feel very welcome. Bobby told me that the boys had planned to get me liquored up, then get me to show them some spots to fish in the Sound. Well, if they did, they must have done a great job, cause I don't remember giving away any secrets. Saturday was a long day by the time it was over. Twelve hours of racing is quite enough for anyone. If I suddenly begin seeing Bobby and his friends in my fishing holes, I guess I'll know their plan was a success!

If you want to be able to continue to fish Florida waters please follow this link, "Manatee Zones: How You Can Help" and please take the time to become involved, even if you don't live in Florida. Let the politicians know WHY you come to Florida on vacation!

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