The story this week was the full moon, the wind, and dragging BarHopp'R II out of mothballs. Wind, wind, go away. Don't come back some other day! God, I don't remember it being this windy, for this long, in March!

I spent most of the weekend getting BarHopp'R II ready to fish, as it hadn't been used I a very long time. It was a mess, and all the pumps needed replacing, etc. She cranked and ran fine, though. It's not a pretty boat by any stretch, but like BarHopp'R I, is like fishing off your dock.

First up on Monday were Dave and Kaye Heyes, of Freemont, California, who told me they had been fishing together for some 40 years. It was blowing from the northeast at 20 knots and gusting. It was the day of the full moon. Our snook and redfish are very nocturnal feeders, and for several days either side of the full moon, they prowl the flats eating all night long in the light of that moon. Come morning, you have a great tide, but the fish have full bellies, and aren't interested in eating. Fishing can be tough even without weather considerations.

I fired up BarHopp'R II, and we headed to Tarpon Bay for bait. The boat ran perfectly, thank God, and it didn't take long to load up. Soon, we were off to the first hole of the day. I headed to an area up in the mid section of the Sound, where I have been catching some redfish. I poled into the area, and saw reds pushing near some potholes. We fished a large pothole on the low water and didn't have a hit. I moved to a smaller hole, where I had seen reds pushing, and we were immediately into the action. We had lots of good, solid hits, but the Heyes had a heck of a time getting a redfish hooked. Although they were very experienced anglers, they weren't experienced at our kind of fishing, where your previous experience often works against you as your worst enemy. Old habits die hard, and Dave and Kaye had a heck of a time getting into the groove of reeling completely tight to the fish before striking. They did catch one redfish and several trout from that hole.

At the next stop we had a good redfish bite after some chumming with live and cut shiners and pinfish. Dave and Kaye had the same problem, and missed fish after fish. They did catch a big stingray and a jack crevalle. Finally, I moved to an area where we could concentrate on snook, and they had a good time catching maybe 8 or 10 fish. The Heyes were very nice folks, and we had a great time.

Tuesday was reserved for my good friend and fishing buddy, Dr. John Hitt, president of University of Central Florida, in Orlando. John loves to fish, and I love fishing with him. He also shares my love of fine fishing things, and brought along his to Shimano Calais baitcast reels. They're wonderful works of fishing art!

John and I left the docks at eight o'clock and headed straight to Tarpon Bay for bait. It was plentiful, and after two or three throws I had the Jacuzzi sized well on BarHopp'R II full of bait, and we were off to the north end of the Sound. We hit quite a few holes, and had good action at each one. The problem was that with the wind blowing so hard, and the fish in a fickle, non-committal mood, we had a hell of a time hooking a fish. I don't know how many snook hits we had, but it was plenty, and we only managed to boat 4 or 5 snook and a trout. The wind kicked and gusted to 30 knots that afternoon, and John wisely decided we might as well head in a little early. It was a good call.

Wednesday was also reserved for John, but after such a tough day Tuesday I felt something different was in order. I knew it would be another, tough, windy day. I told John Tuesday night on the phone that I wanted to make it a boys day out, no money involved, we just fish artificials only and have a good time no matter what. I also wanted to fish from John's 17' Maverick since I had never been in one, and am in the market for a new BarHopp'R.

I met John at his place in South Seas Plantation at 8:30 AM. We loaded all our expensive toys into his Maverick and took off. The wind was already howling! I told John I thought we ought to fish Ding Darling to try to stay out of the wind. I wanted to show him a very productive redfish hole there for starters. Once we arrived in the area, I could see a rental boat that appeared to be sitting in my hole. I was shocked. How, I wondered, could some tourists in a rental boat have found that spot?

We got on the trolling motor and were casting silver and gold spoons at the mangroves. As we approached the rental boat, we quit fishing and cut a wide swath around it. As we did so, I inquired of the fishermen in the boat if they'd had any luck. The reply absolutely shocked me. I heard someone as if I was Capt. Butch Rickey! I didn't believe my ears. Here I am in a strange boat, 70 yards away from these folks, and someone recognizes me? Well, it turned out to be Larry Haas and his family, who I had communicated with via email, but never met. He told me that he had been following me on the internet for several years, and recognized my hat, outfit, etc. I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't have recognized me on John's boat.

After we had passed the Haas boat, John had a terrible tangle in his braided Power Pro line. I decided to go back and shake hands with Larry, and meet him up close while John was rerigging. It was pretty cool meeting someone like Larry and his family.

John and I spent hours fishing around different areas of the Sanctuary, trying different lures, without so much as a hit. Finally, we decided to head to a flat where I'd taught him to catch redfish chumming with live bait, and drift that casting spoons. We worked the flat hard, and anchored once we had the first hit. We threw silver and gold, new and old, and I brought my silver Johnson's Silver Minnow back to the boat 3 or 4 times with the weedguard bent completely down against the spoon. That's the surefire way to know that a redfish has tried to eat your spoon, but didn't get hooked. I never felt a thing! John managed some hits on his gold soon, but we didn't seem to be able to hook anything. I had several good hits on the silver spoon, but couldn't get anything hooked. Finally, I tied on a Bass Assassin Crystal Minnow in gold. Nothing! I tried silver, and finally, caught the first redfish of the day. After the second fish of the day, John began to wonder if he should switch to the silver Crystal Minnow. He did, and it wasn't long before he had his first redfish. I caught a third before the tide was done and the bite, such as it was, was over.

You never saw two anglers so proud of four fish in your life. We had finally figured them out! John's Maverick was an incredibly dry, smooth ride for such a small skiff in such nasty conditions. Although we had only managed to catch four fish, we'd had a great time and were proud of ourselves.

Wednesday night at around nine, my good friend Russ Hubbard arrived from Royal Palm Beach, Florida, to spend the night and fish the next day with a couple of his friends, Ron and Art. Russ and I have been fishing together for five years or so, and have become quite close friends. We share each other's problems, etc. He warned me that Ron and Art didn't have a lot of fishing experience.

Finally, it seemed that the wind was down. It was light and variable. Once again, we got great bait at Tarpon Bay, and were soon off to the first stop of the day. We fished hard for most of the morning without much going on. We caught one snook! I would have thought that the fish would be ready to eat on the first descent weather day in two weeks, but not so.

We struggled! Finally, Russ and I decided to go to our favorite redfish flat, and see if we could get something going. The fish were there, and I could see them moving and pushing. It took a while to get on them, but we finally did. We had lots of hits and lots of confusion before it was over, but our new fishermen managed to boat 4 redfish and one snook before the wind flipped 180 degrees, and blew us off our fish. Very frustrating!

We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, and as we approached the entrance along the new, ridiculous manatee zone buoys, I noticed a cobia laying right next to one of the buoys. I swung the boat around as Russ got a rig baited. We knew the cobia would eat anything thrown in front of it, and it did. But, the first time Russ struck him too early and the hook pulled out of it's mouth. We went back around and threw another bait at the cobia, and she ate again. This time Russ hooked her solidly and passed the rod to our new angler Art. The fish didn't fight in typical cobia brawling style, but gave Art a good tussle. She was eight pounds and about 30 inches. I'm going to have to pay a bit more attention to the buoys from now on. We finished the day with a great meal and conversation at the Waterfront. The guys took home plenty of big fillets.

Friday was my first trip with my friend Kevin Shimp, in some time. Kevin is a local boy, and a darned good fisherman, and probably knows as much about catching our fish as I do. He brought along his good friend, Andy. Like most of us, Kevin is disgusted with the manatee zones issue to the point that he just bought a Contender 25 offshore boat.

We loaded the boat with bait in three or four throws, and were off. Kevin has spent very little time fishing the Sound north of Regla Island, so I decided to take him up north where the water is clear and there are few manatee zones for the moment. We first stopped at a flat along the way that has been holding good redfish, but they weren't to be found. We headed on north and turned out attentions to snook. We fished several spots, and had pretty good action at most of them. Most of the fish were on the small side, but Kev and Andy did catch one fish that was an iffy 26 inches, and several that were just a bit shorter.

We decided to go for reds again on the last hour or so of the tide, but didn't find but one, which I missed. We did catch more snook, though, and ended the day with at least a couple dozen snook. On the way home Kevin was nice enough to share a beautiful spot that I had never fished back in Ding Darling Sanctuary. It's mangrove fishing, which I try to avoid most of the time with customers because of the inherent problems it presents. I'll file it away for fun fishing, though. We managed to catch a jack and a catfish there on the slack water. It was great to see Kevin again, and to meet Andy for the first time.

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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