What a week of wind. It blew like crazy from southerly directions through Monday and Tuesday. A front passed and it blew Wednesday. Thursday was beautiful, but another front passed Thursday evening bringing with it a red flag alert and wind gusts to 33 MPH. Geez!

Fortunately, I didn't have to catch bait Monday, as I had an instructional trip with my friends John and Jennifer Howell, of Winter Springs, Florida. They have a vacation home on Pine Island, and John is not happy with his fish production on artificial baits. Although we've had a couple of great livebait trips, John is a purist, and prefers to fish with artificials when he and Jen are out.

I was at the ramp early just to get a parking place, and took the north route through Miserable Mile to the Waterfront Restaurant, where I had a great breakfast and waited on John and Jen. I had brought along some tide charts and some color topo photos of the Sound courtesy of Lee Country Property Appraisers office. The wind was really up, but since the emphasis was on learning instead of catching, I figured we could make it work.

Once John and Jen showed up they had breakfast, and we spend a couple of hours having a classroom practical, if you will, on tides, currents, and explaining what to look for when trying to figure out where to fish. John really seemed to be enjoying soaking up the knowledge.

We were ready to hit the water for a while, and go from textbook to lab. We managed to get up into the east side of the Sound through York Island Cut without too much ado, but it was blowing so hard that we had a good chop even in the shallows, and were at the practical limit of the Power Pole. It was too windy to fish and have any control over where your lure was going, but it wasn't too windy to have a casting class, and that was exactly what John wanted me to give Jen. He said something about the old marital thing that she wouldn't listen to him.

But, Jen listened to me, and was soon making casts that would have been very good even without the help of the wind. Her newfound skill only cost one lure that disappeared into the mangroves, which was pretty good. I really enjoy teaching the gals, because they are always good students.

After a couple of hours in the wind it was wearing on all of us, and about to blow us off the boat. John and Jen also had to travel that afternoon, so we headed in. We had hardly wet a line except for casting class, but John seemed very happy with the results of the day. And, after seeing how a Power Pole could be a real plus for a lure fisherman, I'm betting there's one in his future.

Tuesday morning it was awful. I was on the water before 5 AM, and it was howling out of the south. I wondered if I'd even be able to catch bait. I made my way in the darkness and tucked in behind one of the big barges at the A span, where although it was still very hard to stand up and throw the net, I at least could. I did manage to catch plenty of bait, much to my surprise, and was done well ahead of my customers' arrival.

I was really looking forward to my trip with Larry Schmittler and his 17 year old grandson, Matt Hargan. Larry's daughter (Matt's Mom) Celina Hargan had made all the arrangements for the trip, and in talking to her and emailing back and forth, I could tell that she was really sweet, and anxious for her dad to have a day on the water while he was here. I never expected what was about to happen.

I met Celina and her Mom, and the guys at 8 AM, and we chatted and joked and took some pictures before we left. It was immediately obvious that Larry was a piece of work. I told them it might be a tough day with the front on us, the big wind, and a really poor tide, but he assured me he was just thrilled to get out.

I decided to stay on the Sanibel side en route, as the wind was already leaning southwest, and I wanted to get any lee I could. It wasn't a bad ride, at all. We got to our first stop, a series of potholes that are full of snook, and were greeted with lockjaw. Live chum didn't phase them a bit.

I finally decided to move and start over, and perhaps come back when the water began to move, if it ever did. I had been laying still the whole time we'd been out there, which was the big reason for the lockjaw. But, it was more lockjaw, and even when the water did begin to crawl ever so slowly, we still were greeted with lockjaw.

I moved and moved to different spots, all of which are normally rich with redfish and snook. Oh, the boys had a hit once in a while, but they never had a chance to get the hang of fishing with no weight, circle hooks, and a gale force wind, and missed what hits that came.

But, in spite of the conditions I was having a ball with Matt and Larry, and I'm pretty sure they were, too. We laughed and laughed, and teased Matt some. He was a good sport, and a very nice young man. Larry, as I told Celina later, was just a hoot. I guess you'd have to say he's one of those people who's just naturally funny, and everything that came out of his mouth had me cracking up.

Finally, time was working against us, and we realized it was time to go home. I couldn't imagine going home without a fish put in the boat, and couldn't remember the last time that had happened, if ever. Larry and Matt were still OK with no fish, assuring me that they'd also had a blast. We headed for home.

I stayed as close to the shore as I could, trying to stay out of the brutal wind. But, when we finally got to the causeway we had to cross along the west side of B span. The wind and current had it whipped up pretty well, and Larry was laughing out loud as the Talon displayed it's uncanny ability to seemingly hop across nasty water like that without beating you silly. I guess it was somewhat of a Disney ride for him.

Back at the dock I was dreading facing Celina, who I had assured we would catch a few fish, at least. I think she though we were pulling her leg when we first told her we were fishless, but soon realized we weren't. I didn't want to deny Larry and Matt their picture on the BarHopp'R website with a fish, so to have another laugh we took pictures of them holding up a shiner.

It's a hard thing for a fishing guide to come home fishless. It's made even harder by the fact that we normally have very good fishing when the conditions are good, and are basically spoiled. That point is driven home occasionally when I'm apologizing for a slow day, and my customers inform me that they've never caught so many fish! Doesn't make it any easier to take, although we certainly proved you don't have to catch fish to have fun out there. Larry said he couldn't wait to come back and do it, again.

After a windy Wednesday spent getting the old tow van into the shop for more repairs, I was back out in the darkness chasing bait on Thursday morning. To my surprise it was a nice, relatively calm morning. The calm before the storm! I again worked behind the barges at A span, and although I never did get a big load of shiners in any one throw, I did get plenty of bait.

The 10 foot net I had dug out of mothballs was in pretty rough shape, but none of us like to use good nets around the causeway, anyway. We loose to many. Well, I was almost done. Actually, I was just killing time and putting the icing on the bait cake, when I almost couldn't lift the net, once again. I though at first it was stuck on the bottom, but it did move. Then, I thought sure I could feel it moving on its own, and realized I either had something big in it, or had another giant load of bait.

I struggled to get it topside, and as it came up out of the depths I could see a huge black drum flailing around in the net. It had to be between 40 and 50 pounds, and was it ever ugly. It took me a while to get the fish out of the net, and of course it was struggling all the while. By the time it was free, my net was ready for the castnet graveyard. I was done for the morning.

My customers for the day were Greg Johnson, of Brandon, Florida, and his friends Mike and Nelson, down from Michigan. It was my first trip with them. Greg said he had fished with a guide out of Boca Grande, which is north of here, but this was his first outing in the Sound. He said they had fished heavy tackle around docks, and had a good day.

We still had a miserable tide, but it was at least moving somewhat until around ten o'clock. I felt sure things would be pretty much over by then. I wanted to be out there early, and we were. And, although the tide was barely crawling at the first spot, we were greeted with a great bite from the snook and big breeder trout. Mike got the first big snook, which we released, but everyone was catching snook and trout, and having a blast. Mike and Nellie repeatedly told Greg they were really happy he'd booked the trip!

But, no bite lasts forever, and once we were sure it was over we moved on. At the next stop we only managed one snook. We had a number of bait scaled by the snook, but not eaten. We moved on. I decided to check a flat for redfish, and was delighted to see a nice school push. They were big fish! As I got the Talon into position we had big redfish pushing all around us, and they didn't seem to mind to much that we were there.

I rigged some popping cork rigs and put two of them out with shiners attached, and put out one cut bait rig. The wind was up a bit and variable, and was bouncing us around a bit, making it hard to stay on the fish. But, it wasn't long before we had the first fish on. After a protracted battle, Mike had a 12 pound redfish to the boat. It was a beautiful fish.

As I recall, we missed a fish or two, and then put a nice 27 inch red into the boat. They were anxious to try some redfish, and we added that fish to the trout we had in the well. By that time, the tide had become our enemy. I wasn't moving. The fish lost interest in eating. We worked them a while longer without a strike, and elected to move on.

I headed on farther north into the Sound. We fished a key that usually has plenty of snook around it this time of year, but had no takers. I wasn't surprised. The wind was around to the south and blowing at this point, with the approach of what was to be a big front. I'd had some strange noises coming out of my Yamaha off and on, and was concerned to say the least. I surely didn't want to get stranded 20 miles from nowhere in a big wind with a front coming. So, I headed back to a south wind spot closer to home.

The spot is a beautiful little patch of mangrove shoreline with nice reliefs in it that you can toss baits into. I chummed the mangroves with both live and cut chum. We put out two float rigs and one freelined live bait. Our first hit came as Greg was about to pull his float away from the mangroves as it was about to drift underneath. As soon as he moved it, a redfish crashed the bait. It was a beautiful fish, that would have been a money fish in a tournament, as it had 11 spots on it. She swam free.

A bit later Mike's bait was blasted by another nice snook right at the shoreline, and with the help of my enthusiastic coaching, brought the fish to the boat. At close to 27 inches, it was the smallest keeper, and the boys decided they'd like to invite her to dinner since they'd never tasted snook.

Finally, thinking we were surely done with the catching and the clock running out, we decided to head home. As Mike began to reel his bait out of the mangroves it was immediately crashed by another redfish. Nellie hadn't managed to hook one, although he'd had a shot or two, so Mike passed the fish to him. It was the perfect way to end the day, and everyone had a Slam.

This was light tackle fishing with very expensive gear that weighs in at only around 10 oz. A world of difference from what Greg had done at Boca Grande. But, from Greg's comments I sensed that he had enjoyed this kind of fishing much more, both because of the tackle, the challenge, and the remote surroundings. There were no docks where we fished, and very little in the way of development visible even in the distance.

We headed home basking in the glow of a great day of fishing, and catching! I have to admit that I needed that after how Tuesday had gone.

I had been watching the weather intently, and knew that with 18 to 25, gusting to 33 MPH forecasted, my first trip with Richard Kent and his wife, of Tampa, was in serious jeopardy. After checking the revised forecast one more time that evening, I called him, and told him that I couldn't possibly deliver the kind of trip that I wanted to deliver under such bad conditions. That much wind out of the north was in itself enough to insure the fish wouldn't eat. Safety had also become an issue. He appreciated my honesty, and said he'd try to reschedule something in April or May.

That's how the week went. I think I'll be glad to have the Ides of March behind us this year. Enough wind, already!

A quick note. Dear friends and customers of mine, Tom and Dixie Ashby, who were there for me after hurricane Charley, are going to sell their vacation home on North Captiva, and can't justify keeping the Release flats boat they had bought with which to enjoy the local waters when they're here. Between two bad hurricane seasons and repairs that took forever on their place, they're moving on. It's a Release 21 Tarpon Bay with ONLY 10 hours on it. Tom paid $63,000 for the boat, which with the Suzuki 250 HP will do 70 MPH! This is your chance to steal a beautiful boat from a motivated seller. Click the link for all the particulars on the big Release. It's loaded with every toy imaginable, as you might have guessed, and it's still brand new. I would be thrilled if I could help them sell it.

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