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It was a week of good tides, good weather, and good fishing. I had a pretty full week.
First up on Monday were Tony and Kim Edwards, down from Colorado. This was their first BarHopp'R trip. I warned Tony that his lovely wife Kim would outfish him, because the gals always do, at least in this kind of fishing.
We gathered bait on the Chino Island flats and began the hunt for snook. We found the action pretty quickly, and as expected, Tony had a harder time getting into the groove of reeling tight to the fish before striking than did Kim. Between the two, they missed a lot of fish, but they also caught a lot. They caught several trout, and Tony boated 7 snook, and Kim at least 12. Of course, Kim and I had fun teasing Tony about her commanding lead as the morning progressed. We had a great time, though, and they were a lot of fun.
After Tuesday off, I was back again on Wednesday with Angelo "Bo" Venezia, of Brick, New Jersey, who is the father of my friend/customer Chris Venezia. This was Bo's first trip, after hearing a lot about fishing with me from Chris. I wanted this to be a very good day and live up to the expectations I knew he and his friend Carmine had.
Bait came easily again at Chino, and we were headed outside for the first time in a long time in hopes of fast and furious snook action on the beaches. It was a bit bumpy on the outside with the breeze coming out of the southeast, but we made it work long enough to get into some good fishing. We finally conceded to the waves, and came back inside and finished the trip fishing the flats. We continued to have action there, and Bo and Carmine finished the morning with around a dozen trout and 20 snook, best I could count.
Bo caught the snook of the day, and it sadly became the only low point of the trip. We could see puff of blood billowing out of her gills as Bo fought her, and I knew she would probably not make it. By the time Bo had the fish to the boat, she was bled out, and had quit breathing. We worked on her for a long time, but I knew it was futile. There was no blood to carry oxygen for her. We left her in a watery grave. Except for killing that fish, it had been a great and fun day.
Thursday I had my second trip with Dave Peterson, of Belleville, Illinois. I was, of course, thinking snook when the morning began, but after catching bait and getting started, we found the snook not wanting to bite. So, I asked Dave if he felt adventurous, and willing to go look for redfish. It seems there aren't many redfish being caught in the Sound lately, but I had a feeling I knew where I could find some.
I ran across to Captiva, and it wasn't long before I had found a big school of big fish. I got busy chumming with live and fresh cut shiners and threadfins, and it wasn't but a few minutes until we had the first fish in the boat. In fact, once we got them going we had a wild bite. Dave and I were working four rods, and on several occasions we had fish on all four!
Dave was having the time of his life, and just continuously giggled. By the time it was over, Dave had caught at least 20 nice redfish, the largest of which was 33 inches long and 12 pounds. We finished the morning with several snook, and then headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to celebrate a great morning.
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Friday was my first trip with Xavier Martinez, and his buddies Shane and Steve, from Dallas, Texas. They said that although they liked to fish, they didn't get to do it very often and never caught a whole lot. I was imagining how much fun they'd have if I could do a repeat performance on those redfish.
After grabbing bait at Chino, I went right back to the same flat, one which I rarely fish, and the fish were right there! It took an hour or so to find them, but once we did, we had a blast. At the first spot we stopped on the flat, the boys caught several big speckled trout. Bigger than they were used to seeing. Failing to pull the reds to us, I went hunting again, and found them not far away, but behind us. The second spot was the charm, and the boys managed a total of around 15 nice redfish, and 6 big trout before it was over. We finished the morning with some snook fishing, and the caught several to ice the cake. We had a great time, and the boys were a lot of fun bantering back and forth all morning.
So, it was a good week of fishing, and it should continue. Things have slowed down since the season, and there are plenty of days open, so come on down and enjoy some of the best fishing Florida has to offer.
Once the bite was over we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to cool down and relive the morning. What a way to end a great fishing trip.
Because I'm still behind on fishing reports, I can tell you that I was coming down with some kind of flu bug during this trip. It wound up putting me in bed for several days, and I had a hard time shaking it off. There will be no fishing report for the week of May 4.
I have posted the final thumbnailed pictures on the Talon Page of this website, for those interested in seeing how one of these jewels goes together.
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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