This should have been a report on six days of fishing this week, but as you might imagine, the weather claimed two of those days.

The first trip of the week was on Sunday with Shawn Reynolds, his dad Art, and son Matt, of Rumson, New Jersey. Shawn had been trying to fish with me since last year, when I had to refer him to another guide. I didn't have the heart to turn him away again, but warned him that the weekend fishing would likely be tough. There is so much boat traffic on the flats during the weekend, that I'm surprised we're able to catch much of anything before Tuesday of the following week! I agreed to work Sunday for an extra $50, and Shawn was agreeable.

We met Sunday morning at 7 AM, and headed to the flats at Tarpon Bay to catch bait. We had the makings of a pretty weather day with breezes from the west/northwest at 5 to 10, and bait was good. From the bait stop I headed to one of my favorite low tide trout holes which has also been full of snook. The trout were there, but the snook weren't interested. The boys caught 12 to 15 beautiful trout, and kept four for dinner. Of course, there were a couple of catfish that ate our shiners, too.

From there we went looking for snook, and found a few in the Flamingo area. The boys managed to catch 5. We capped off the catch with one redfish, giving Shawn and the boys a West Coast Slam. It wasn't a stellar day, but I didn't expect it to be. Shawn, Art, and Matt were a lot of fun, and I was glad we decided to go. It was a pretty descent day for a weekend.

Monday was a beautiful day to fish with my old friends and veterans of some great BarHopp'R trips, Stew and Lucy Evans, and their daughter Liz, and son, Morgan, of Denver. This is one of the several North Captiva pickup trips that I do each year, and I love fishing with the Evans. Stew and Lucy have always rented one of the houses there when they come, but this time were staying for the first time in their new vacation home. Stew had asked me to see if I could put together four nice light tackle rigs from my "for sale" inventory for him to keep at their North Cap home. I met Stew at the end of the runway and gave him the tackle, so he would run it back to the house before we went fishing.

I was sure that we'd be able to get bait up around Cayo Costa or at Foster's Point, so I drove straight to Stew. Besides, I prefer to have everyone on the boat for the bait catching routine. Well, don't you know the bait double-crossed us, and I couldn't find the first shiner anywhere up at the north end. I had planned to spend the day fishing north to cut down on some of the running, but wound up having to go back all the way to Chino before finding bait. Since we were there, I decided to stay in the area to fish.

Our first stop was a real big trout jackpot. We caught trout after trout at the top of the slot and bigger, and since the Evans are always trapped on North Captiva, where there are no convenience or grocery stores, they usually want to keep as much fish as possible. They got back into the tight line hookset groove pretty quickly, and voted to stay with the trout bite for as long as it lasted. By the time we were done, they had put 10 big trout, including 4 beautiful trophy fish, in the cooler, and caught many more. That hole also gave us a couple of catfish. Liz had the most fun with a 4 ft. shovelnose shark that kept trying to eat her live shiner until he finally succeeded. She almost had him landed before he got away.

After the trout action things were slow, and we only managed one redfish and one snook. But, the food was in the frige, they got their West Coast Slam, and we had all had a great time. On the way back, we stopped at Jensen's so Stew could fill up a small gas tank for his new Zodiac. Can you believe you can't even buy gasoline on North Captiva? The Evans were having a hard time trying to get their phones worked on, too. I love fishing with them, and look forward to seeing them more often now that they have their own place on North Captiva.

Tuesday evening, I met my charter for Friday, Darin and Julie May, who were down from their native Minnesota, and were wed the day before. They were fishing honeymooners. We had corresponded a lot over the previous couple of months, and the Mays were really excited about fishing here with me, and I couldn't wait to meet them. They sounded like such fun!

We went to the Seafood Center and Crab House, where I introduced them to the great golden margaritas and dungeness crab. I thought Julie was going to nut up over those crabs. Well, they are super yummy! We had a blast over dinner and drinks, then went to the BarHopp'R camp to visit some more before parting till Friday.

As I was walking out the door Tuesday morning, my cellphone rang. It was the wife of my customer Chris Hedges with news that they had arrived late last evening, and Chris had come down with an intestinal virus and was sick as a dog. I felt really bad for him, as he had come down just to fish. Maybe next year!

Wednesday morning, the wind was blowing nearly 20 out of the southeast, and I was afraid it would be a tough day. But as the day wore on, the wind laid somewhat, and it turned into a real nice day. The southeast wind was the first hint of another late season front approaching, though! My party was an old friend and veteran of several BarHopp'R trips, Chip George, of Lake Forest, Illinois, along with his friend Ron.

After gathering bait off Tarpon Bay, we headed up into the Sound. We hit a low tide snook/trout hole, and the snook weren't interested probably because they had been overrun by the trout. The hole was full of beautiful speckled trout, nearly every one keeper size and beyond, and Chip and Ron had a blast catching a good 40 of them. They also caught one good jack crevalle, at least a half dozen nice ladyfish, and a flounder out of that same hole. We stayed with it until things slowed, then went looking for snook and reds. We finished a great day with 3 snook and 1 redfish, giving them the West Coast Slam! Way to go guys!

First time customer Ron Lewen, of Batavia, Illinois, drew one hell of a weather day on Thursday. It was blowing pretty well when I launched the boat, but it was acceptable. We headed around to Tarpon Bay for bait, which was great, but by the time we pulled out of the relatively sheltered cove, the wind had kicked and was howling at around 25, and gusting higher. The front was definitely on our doorstep. As we rode across the Sound to our first stop, I told Ron that it was going to be a tough, wet, bumpy day, and that if he wanted to call the trip, I'd understand. He said he was here to fish, and we were fishin regardless. My kind of fisherman!

Ron wanted to target mostly snook, so snook we did. We fought the wind and trying to anchor in it with a trolling motor that was useless in that much wind, and only managed to catch 2 or 3 snook at each stop. The wind seemed to be getting worse as time passed, and it was so bad that the Sound was frothing white with whitecaps. I knew we HAD to cross it somewhere to get home to the Sanibel ramp. After catching at least a dozen snook , a ladyfish, and one trout, and loosing a couple, I asked Ron if he wanted to try to get a redfish for the Slam before heading home. He was agreeable, and we made our way back up the blasting south wind to McKeever Keys.

In position we put out several rigs with steaked ladyfish on them along the treeline. It wasn't long before we had our first take, and it turned out to be a beautiful redfish of about 12 pounds. Ron was thrilled with that fish! But the best thrill was about to come for both of us.

Not long after getting the lines back into the water, Ron had a violent hit just off the trees. The big fish took off to the east, away from the trees, but right across this horrific wind. When she felt the sting of the hook and the resistance of the line, she tried to jump, but in a foot and a half of water, it was too much fish in too little water! The best she could do was get half way out of the water and show us her massive size. She was at least four feet long, maybe longer, and looked like a tarpon, but it was a big, dark snook. It was the biggest snook I've ever seen. She just kept pulling the 12 pound line from the Shimano Sustain 4000 like it was effortless for her. I kept telling Ron he had to slow the fish, as he was getting way into the spool. But, Ron, with his first giant snook ever, didn't know how to slow the fish, and there was no time to show him! She was taking line too quickly. I went for the anchor, since we were about done for the day, anyway. With the anchor up and motor running we were ready to try to get some line back. We were almost to the end of the line. But, the big snook would take line back from Ron as quickly as we could recover it. I knew it was only a matter of time before the line parted, because the line was quickly loading up with seaweed and debris kicked up by all the wind. The monster tried again to jump, but just couldn't get enough bite on the water to do so. We got another good look at her, and she was truly huge. Soon after that jump attempt, I heard Ron utter a rather loud expletive deleted! The line had parted. She had won! What a way to end the day!

Finally, Friday was here, and it was time to fish with my new honeymooners Darin and Julie. But, it had rained and stormed most of the night as the front came upon us, and I knew once I checked the morning radar, it would be a washout. I got up and got the boat ready and headed to the ramp at Sanibel. Darin and Julie were already there when I pulled in, and she was literally jumping up and down with excitement. I explained the situation, and they understood, and I think knew already, it was going to be too stormy to fish. God, I hated to cancel that trip. But, it was the safe thing to do.

We headed to the Split Rail back on the mainland for a great breakfast. We ate and hung out there until almost noon, when we finally said our good-byes. It had been raining nearly the whole time. They were so much fun, and such a sweet couple. They promised to be back for that trip next year, and I know they will be.

Many of you may be wondering why I discontinued sending notices after posting the fishing reports. You may recall that I had a lot of problems recently with a virus, and I have been reluctant to send reports to several thousand computer readers until I'm certain there's no chance of sending them a virus. Please check the site occasionally for new postings. Be mindful that we're in our busiest season right now, and it's nearly impossible to stay current with the reports. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

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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