It was a busy week highlighted with the renewing of old friendships and beginning new ones, but marred by a tragedy that cut Wednesday's trip short.

The week started on Sunday with my great friend Capt. Butch Boteler and I doubling up with Lloyd Williams, and his friends Blair, Austin, and Spencer, from Charleston, South Carolina. I had fished with Lloyd and his dad a couple of years ago while he was still in college, and remembered him as one of the nicest young men I had met in this business.

On that first day I fished with Lloyd and Blair, and Butch fished Austin and Spencer. We doubled up on the bait at Tarpon Bay, which always makes the bait catching more fun, especially when it's tough. We got enough for both boats, and even had enough to do some chumming. It was really blowing out of the southeast, so I decided at the last minute to just stay on the Sanibel side and fish, thinking the water would be smoother. We had a lousy tide to deal with, but I think the southerly wind helped to counteract the tide.

We stopped first at a snook hole that has been good lately, and the fish were there. We had good action and Lloyd and Blair boated 12 to 14 snook, including 4 keepers before things slowed down. There were plenty of misses, as well.

From there we headed to a great redfish flat where the fish have been schooling for several weeks, now. I've not failed to find them there since I first found, but I haven't always been able to talk them into eating. Well, I found them again, right where they usually like to play, and they were willing to eat for a while. Lloyd and Blair had a blast fighting 6 of the big reds to the boat, and missed another 6. They were all running 9 to 12 pounds, and Lloyd observed that they don't typically catch redfish like that back home in the creeks. They topped the morning off with a big 4 pound trout, which gave them the Slam. Butch and his boys had a pretty good day, as well.

Monday, Butch and I were with Lloyd and the boys, again, but this time I fished with Lloyd and Austin, and Butch had Blair and Spencer. We doubled up on bait again, and had plenty in the boats within an hour, and were ready to fish. The tide was a bit better than on Sunday, but the bite was not. The fish weren't as willing to play.

That's probably not a completely fair statement. The guys had lots of snook hits, but the fish were not holding on, and were hard to hook. Often the strikes couldn't be felt, but the scales knocked off the bait was proof positive that Mr. Snook had been there. Lloyd and Austin managed around half a dozen, with several just under the limit.

We decided to retrace our steps and try to get the redfish to eat again, as Austin had not caught one the day before with Boteler. I really wanted to get him some redfish. Again, I parked right on the fish, but they were having nothing to do with us. They gave us the fin! But, we did catch half a dozen big trout to 4 pounds. It was a tough bite, but we had a great time. We all met back at the Waterfront Restaurant to enjoy a great lunch and recap the couple of days of fishing.

The weather forecast Monday night for Tuesday was not real good. Chance of rain 60% in the afternoon. I hoped that I could get my first trip with Jim and Rhonda Calvin, and their son Jake, done before the weather set in. I checked the radar first thing when I got up Tuesday morning, and the only rain was a band of weather north of Tampa. I didn't figure it could be a factor before afternoon.

I met the Calvins at the ramp and we discussed the weather prospects, and they were hot to go fishing. I knew I'd like Jim from talking with him, and was looking forward to the trip with his family. We met Boteler at Tarpon Bay and doubled up on the bait, again. It was tough for some reason, and I was torn between making sure I had plenty of bait for a day of fishing, and wasting too much of what could be a day cut short by weather if we weren't lucky. I decided to go with just enough to fish with, since I didn't have a lot of faith that the weather would hold. I didn't like the looks of the sky.

We headed straight to a snook hole, and had great action from the first bait that hit the water. We had lots of hits, and lots of misses, and it began to rain less than an hour after we arrived at the first stop. We were getting soaking wet and cold, but we were catching snook. The Calvins missed several big snook, and it was obvious Jake was having a blast. I think these were the biggest and fastest fish he had caught in his 13 years.

Finally, everyone cold and soaked, decided they had had enough, and it was time to go home. We had heard several rumbles of thunder, and that's usually the go home signal for me, as it means lightning is around. I ran as slow as I could in the rain to try to keep it from stinging us too badly. Back at the ramp I cleaned on nice snook for the Calvins' dinner. It had been a nasty day cut short by weather, but we had all had a blast.

Wednesday morning it was howling out of the northwest with the passing of the front, and I was sure it would be a tough day for another outing with Tom Iversen and his good friends Jay Sandza and Bob Potter. I was sure it would be a slow bite. And, I was afraid that bait would be even tougher. But, once we were set up with Boteler at Tarpon Bay and chumming, the bait came quickly and in good quantities. Hum. Perhaps the fish would also eat.

The boys wanted to make sure they had plenty of fish for the table, so I elected to try to get the food caught first with trout fishing. Keeping snook or redfish would be a bonus, and we could always put back some trout.

I decided upon a trout hole I hadn't fished in a while, but that nearly always gives up good trout and good action. The fish were there, and though they weren't on a wild feed, they were eating, and the boys were catching. Bob was having a little trouble getting the fish hooked probably because he was having a hard time getting used to the circle hooks. We were teasing him about that, of course, and had caught a couple dozen nice trout, and have 8 or 9 nice keepers in the well when my cellphone rang. When I answered Bob's wife asked for him. I joked that Bob couldn't catch a fish, but there was no laughter on her end. Only silence. I felt something was wrong as I passed the phone to Bob.

I could tell by the look on Bob's face and the bits and pieces I could hear from the cellphone that something horrible had happened. When he was done, Bob told us that somehow his 39 year old step-daughter Kendra, who was visiting at his condo had fallen to her death. Details were skimpy. It was an awful moment. The fun and relaxation of a day of fishing interrupted by the most horrible of news. I think we were all speechless as I readied the Talon for a quick trip back to the ramp. Jay called his wife, Helen, to have her meet us at the ramp. Once at the ramp Bob and Tom disappeared in a flash. I pulled the boat and Jay joined me at the Sugar Shack to clean the fish and wait for Helen. While cleaning the fish, Jay told me that this was a doubly raw deal for Bob, as Bob had lost a son in an auto accident at age 17. My God! It's beyond me how one copes with such losses. Join me in remembering Bob and his family in your prayers.

My Thursday trip was with Bill Smith and his good friend Dave,from New England. I had fished with Bill and his kids two years before, and we'd had a date last year blown out by the weather. It looked like we had drawn a pretty good day.

We found the bait situation at Tarpon Bay just great, and we quickly loaded up with enough bait for three boats. I had seen my friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez at the ramp, where he told me he was doing a double. I called him and told him to call me before he went to catch bait for his second trip, as I was sure I would have plenty left for him to use.

I decided to fish the east side of the Sound first, but after more than an hour of fishing we had only one nice trout and one snook under our belts. The fish weren't interested in eating. Everywhere we went our baits were getting hit by snook, but we couldn't feel it happen. I was frustrated, but there's nothing you can do when the snook are doing that.

I decided to move to the west side and see if the fish felt any differently about eating. The first stop was the charm, and we spend the rest of the morning there. The snook were eating, and eating well. The boys had a blast with them, and even though they missed quite a few, as you always do, they still boated some 16 nice snook, including several keepers.

Once we were sure the tide was done and the bite was over I called Rey and told him to sit tight at the dock. I still had a ton of bait for him to use on his trip. We left the flats and headed home with smiles on our faces. It had been a great day.

Friday, I had my first trip with Ric Roberts, a local PE teacher. It was to be a teaching trip, and Ric was eager to learn all he could. I asked him if he wanted the emphasis on learning or catching, and he assured me it was learning. He was particularly interested in pothole fishing and learning about my methods of catching redfish out on open water. His redfishing had all been in the mangroves, and he was catching small numbers of small fish.

We joined Boteler at Tarpon Bay, and bait came pretty quickly. We didn't need a ton of it for just the two of us, but we made sure Butch had plenty for his party of three that I had referred to him. I didn't realize until we were out there on the water that the ladies I referred to him I had fished with back in 1997. They were Cindy Clark and her good friend Joannie, and another friend, Marie. We don't get to fish with lady teams all that often, and I had just that morning been bragging on the gals I had fished with back in 1997, and how Cindy had just whipped a bunch of big snook into submission. It had been so many years that I didn't remember her name or make the connection. I thought they looked familiar when Butch and I parked next to each other for bait, but didn't realize it was them until Cindy told me she had fished with me way back, and then lost my contact information.

Once we all had plenty of bait we went our separate ways. The negative low tide was perfect for introducing Ric to the nuances of pothole fishing, and I chose one of my favorites that has every characteristic that a good pothole should have. I taught him everything from how to make the approach to what to look for in size, location, current flow, etc. We caught a few nice trout, and moved on. I wanted to teach Ric about snook fishing potholes and how snook will stage in potholes near mangroves and bars and wait on the incoming tide to flood the roots and bars. I took him to a series of potholes in the crystal clear waters of the northern part of the Sound near some mangrove heads, and hoped the snook would be there and let us get close enough for Ric to see them, and for me to prove my point.

The snook were in the holes, and in spades. There were some huge females along with some smaller fish, and some redfish, as well. Ric was treated to a rare sight of so many big snook cruising around in those holes, and couldn't believe his eyes. Some of those fish were as big as your leg! Some of the fish had remained in one of the holes instead of spooking out, so we decided to see if they would eat. I pitched a bat full of chum, and several of the baits were immediately crushed. We tossed some baits into the hole, and caught one. Time to move on. I wanted to spend some time on the redfish portion of the trip.

We headed to one of my favorite spring time redfish haunts and made our way in to where the fish usually stage on the Minn Kota. All of a sudden, as if on cue, a school of probably a hundred or more fish pushed right where they were supposed to be. It was the first time Ric had seen a school of reds like that! I knew we had a good shot at catching some of the big reds if they would only eat.

I began chumming with live shiners, cut shiners and pins, and some frozen ladyfish steaks. Within five minutes we had the first fish on. It had blown the hell out of a shiner under a Cajun cork, just as I had told Ric they would do. Ric's adrenaline was pumping, and he was excited. We didn't have a big feed going on, but we had the fish eating, and were getting a take down about every ten minutes. The hits were about equal on the shiners and the ladyfish steaks. We missed and broke off several fish; at least as many as we caught, if not more. The highlight of the redfishing came when Ric struck a big redfish with my favorite rig, a Shimano Stella 4000FA mated to a $300 St. Croix Legend Elite rod. As soon as the rod broke the plane of Ric's body behind him, it exploded into three pieces. Ric was shocked, but he still had the big red tugging at the end of the line. Together, we managed to clear the other lines and get the red to the boat.

Ric felt awful about breaking such a rod, but I assured him that the expensive lesson would certainly be the last rod he broke in this lifetime. Folks, high modulous graphite like that found in the best rods made is wonderful stuff, but very unforgiving if you handle it wrong. Remember, as Ric surely will, to never touch a rod with a fish on anywhere but the handle, and never break the plane of your body with the rod when there's a fish on the other end.

It was a great day. Ric boated 6 big reds to 11 pounds, and missed at least that many, myself included. They were the biggest reds of his fishing career. He was a happy camper. When we were sure the bite was over, we met Butch and the girls at the Waterfront for a great lunch and conversation. It was a great day, and Ric assured me that it had be exactly what he had visualized. It was also the perfect end to a long week.

I have another long week in front of me. Hopefully, the weather and the fish will cooperate! Stay tuned.

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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