After being canceled for weather last Friday, I was certainly anxious to get out on the water on Monday. But, the fishing Gods had other ideas. Seems here lately my calendar has more days lost to weather than spent fishing! But, this week the mechanical Gods would rear their ugly heads, as well.

Monday morning is was blowing 25 plus from the southwest. If you're going to fish in a high wind, a south, southwest, or west is the wind to fish, because the fish WILL eat. Ray Skol, who I'd fished last week, decided he didn't want to fight the wind, and I can't blame him. But, the few guides I talked to that braved the wind had great bites.

Tuesday morning I was in the water early all ready to take John Mnich, of Suffield, Connecticut, out for a much anticipated trip. The Yamaha 150 on BarHopp'R usually fires us at the first spin of the starter, but this morning she just spun and spun, and didn't hit a lick! Damn! In twelve years, I'd never been unable to leave the dock for a scheduled trip because of a mechanical problem. The string was broken. I strongly suspected I had no fire because of a bad kill switch. John showed up as I was pulling the boat out of the water, and helped me check a plug for fire. None!

I can't tell you how bad I felt for John. I just killed me to send him away, but I had no choice, and I was off to Smith Marine. As I suspected, the kill switch was bad and the repair was quick and easy. Foolishly, I didn't put BarHopp'R in the water and run her. I mean, it was only a bad kill switch, right?

Wednesday morning I put her in the water and she cranked right up. Ah, sweet music! She sounded fine. Jeff Trope, captain of Fast Break Charters in Northport, Michigan and his gang were there ready for a day of light tackle flats fishing, and we were all looking forward to a great day. I idled out of the no wake zone and hit the throttle, and the engine just bogged down with a pathetic waaaaaaaaa! She wouldn't even get up on step! I couldn't imagine what could have happened to my Yamaha, and was fearing the worst. I unloaded Capt. Jeff and his crew and tried to run it again, with the same result. She didn't even have enough power to put herself on the trailer. After many apologies, I sent Capt. Jeff on his way. He was very understanding of the whole situation, and assured me that he had been right there in the same situation more times than he cared to remember.

Once again I was off packing to Smith Marine, hardly able to believe I had been cheated out of a fourth consecutive day on the water. I was even more upset when it only took Danny about a minute to find a fifty cent part broken! There is a ball-socket coupler that joins the advancer plate to the throttle linkage. That little plastic part had split, and I was getting no advance. I had no idea those engines would not make any power without any advance. A tough lesson learned. You better believe I went straight from Smith to the water and gave her a quick road test. Everything seemed to be working in harmony.

I approached the water Thursday morning with predictable trepidation. What could possibly go wrong today, I wondered! I hoped for my friend Chip George, his son Chris, and dad Chuck's sake, the day would go smoothly. We were already looking at another front on the way, and we had wind at 20+ from the southwest. I felt reasonably sure the fish would cooperate, but apologized to Chip for having to use he and the gang as guinea pigs. We made the run to Fosters, where I had last caught beautiful bait. It was much bigger and more plentiful than what they were catching down south, and well worth the ride. It was close to my first stop of the day, anyway.

Once fishing we did have a good bite until around noon. From just two stops the George boys caught more than a dozen nice snook up to 29 inches, a jack, and 6 redfish. Oh, they missed their share of hits, too, but they only get to practice our brand of fishing once a year. Still, that's not a bad morning of fishing. I was just thankful that nothing broke! We finished the day at the Waterfront. Although I have fished with the Georges for several years, it was the first time the tide was right to include a trip there.

Friday morning was my first trip with Shawn Waite, his brother Corey, and dad Dave, of Cape Coral. Shawn, being a fairly recent transplant, was looking to learn the how's and where's, and improve his angling skills. I hoped I could teach him some new tricks. Bait went well at Fosters, and Shawn was fascinated with the Purina Tropical Fish Food we used for chum.

The boys caught fish at every spot we tried. We had a mixed bag that included a stingray, 2 nurse sharks, a ladyfish, 2 big trout to 28 inches/6.5 pounds, 3 redfish, and more than a dozen snook to 28 inches. The Waites broke off several big fish, and missed quite a few hits, to boot. It was a pretty good bite, and we had a lot of fun. Because I'm behind with the reports with all that's been going on lately, Shawn actually sent me a very nice testimonial before I was able to get the report written.

So, it was a disaster of a week financially, but a pretty good week of fishing. If these late season cold fronts will leave us alone, I think we can look forward to more of the same.

Note: Those of you who have trips booked in the future, or who may want to book, should note my new phone numbers. Home/office is 239-628-3522, and the new cell phone number is 239-633-5851.