The weather has greatly improved in April, and this was a week of summer-like temperatures and weather. I even dared to put my winter duds away for the year.

My old friend Harald Tolrian, from Germany, was first up this week. Harald stays in Cape Coral with his family each year, and usually rents a boat for a week and fishes. He and his son Daniel catch mostly catfish. I thought Harald would bring Daniel with him this year, as he is now ten, but Harald says he's got one more year to wait. Harald always brings me a dozen or so of the wonderful German beers that you can only get by going to the towns where they're brewed. This year, he really shocked me when he presented me with a beautiful pewter beer stein with "Capt. Butchie" engraved on it. What a wonderful gift.

Harald and I got started at 8 AM, and headed to Tarpon Bay for bait. Bait was plentiful and large, and we were soon off to the first stop. We started with trout fishing since Harald wanted to make sure he had something for the fridge, and found plenty of them. He kept four nice fish. I didn't get a count of how many we caught. After the trout we turned out attention to snook and redfish, but they weren't in a cooperative mood. We managed 2 snook and 1 redfish, which gave Harald his Slam. For the last part of the trip, I took Harald up the river and showed him how to catch the abundant ladyfish there. We caught a few. It is always good to see old friends, and Harald and his family are certainly among the best.

Tuesday, I was scheduled to fish with Jeff Oglevee, who I had done a kayak trip with a couple of years ago, and who was forced to cancel a guide trip with me last year because his back was messed up. I found out Sunday night that I would have some personal business to take care of on Tuesday that had to be dealt with, and arranged with one of my good friends to take Jeff our in my absence. I didn't have any way to contact him, and wanted to make sure he was not robbed of his day on the water. When I finally talked to him on Monday evening, he seemed quite OK with the change, and I assured him that he would be with a great guide. Less than an hour later, however, he called the guide and canceled the trip, leaving me looking like an idiot. This guide had turned down several opportunities to fish that day in order to help me with Jeff.

Wednesday was reserved for another old friend, John Sitzenstatter, of Benus Point, New York. Guiding sure can be frustrating, sometimes. We had a nice day with southerly breezes and temps in the low 80's, and I just couldn't get anything going for John and his friend. We had good bait, and everything seemed right for a good bite, but we only managed to catch 1 trout, 2 snook, 1 redfish, 1 nice snapper, and a jack crevalle. I couldn't even find trout that would eat for John. Very frustrating, indeed. With those few fish, he did get a Slam, though.

What a difference a day can make! Thursday was my first trip with R.J. Trottier, and his sons Tim and Adam, of Washington, DC, and it was a great day. We left the dock at 9:30 and headed straight to Chino Island for bait. The wind was still south/southwest at around 15. Bait was the best I've ever seen at Chino, period, and was beautiful. It didn't take long to load up.

We began with trout. Trout are the easiest to get the hang of, and it gives the customer a chance to get used the techniques and equipment. After catching a few nice trout, we went for snook, and managed to catch 3, and lose one. For the finale, we went for redfish, which have been unpredictable so far this year. I was happy to be able to manufacture a redfish bite. Although it wasn't a terrific bite, the boys managed around a dozen nice redfish. Everyone Slammed!

Friday was my first trip with Steve Schweitzer, and his son Adam, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Steve has a place here and keeps a boat here, and wanted to learn how to catch our fish. This would be primarily a teaching trip. We had a really poor tide, and I explained to Steve that it would be a good day for teaching, but probably not for catching.

We headed to Chino to teach Steve the fine art of chumming up bait, and throwing the castnet. Both of these activities are a must if you're going to catch much here. Steve was eager to learn, and we soon had more bait than we knew what to do with. The bait was thick. It was so thick, that I had caught all we needed in a couple of throws, and began teaching Steve the art of throwing the net, he was still catching plenty of bait with each of his throws as much as an hour later. Steve learned quickly, and managed to get the net open pretty well in each of about five throws. I think he was a bit surprised at how much work throwing the net actually is, though.

After the bait instruction part of the trip, we turned out attention to where and when to fish, and what kinds of cover to be looking for. We didn't do much actual fishing for a couple of hours, as there was a lot to talk about and show Steve. I familiarized him with pothole fishing, fishing around mangroves, fishing in cuts, fishing around oyster bars, and fishing in the open flats. We did catch a few trout while we were learning.

For the final part of the trip I offered to teach Steve how to fish in his own back yard. He was agreeable. I took him to a flat right close by where his vacation home is, and showed him how to chum up redfish using a variety of different baits, including shiners, pinfish, and ladyfish. The reds were tough, but assure him that if he would practice what I'd taught him, he would be able to catch redfish just about anywhere the congregate. We did catch 3 beautiful reds up to 12 pounds, lost one, and caught 2 stingrays.

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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