I came down with some kind of summer cold during the day Friday. I spent the weekend in bed trying to sweat it out and shake it off so I would be ready for my friend Tom Murphy and crew, Monday. I hadn't seen Tom in a while, and thought my old friend Kevin Grover was going to be with him, so I didn't want to miss the day. If I'd had any sense, I'd have stayed in bed. It was a miserable day.

Tom couldn't get the boys all to be at the ramp early, so it was going on 7:30 before we got started. Tom's friends J.R. and John were along. Kevin couldn't make it at the last minute. I stopped at Chino thinking bait would be a two throw deal, but couldn't find the bait. We caught maybe a dozen or so nice baits, but everything else was tiny. So, I decided to head to Fosters Point, thinking there would surely be good bait there. Wrong again! Not the first piece. We headed up to Cayo Costa. Wrong again! Nothing! I decided the only thing to do was head back to Chino where I had gotten a few pieces of bait, and look in different areas, and look deeper.

That strategy worked. I did find the bait in deeper water, but along with the bait we were bringing up some terrible slimy yuck. The yuck proved to be my undoing, as I slipped while throwing the net, and pulled my back. I could tell it wasn't good, and between that and the bug, I was miserable.

If it wasn't enough spending two hours finding bait, the slow bite certainly was. We had a week of very poor tides, and the snook didn't want to play. Tom, J.R., and John only managed 6 or 7 snook on the outside, and there was nothing doing on the inside. It was good to see Tom, and meet his friends, but even Tom probably wished I'd stayed home that day.

I had a terrible time sleeping Monday night, and if I'd had any sense I'd have canceled Tuesday, for sure, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. David and Donna Jaeger, recent transplants from the Florida panhandle to Cape Coral, were looking to learn about flats fishing, and I wanted to show them around if at all possible. I just hoped my back would hold up.

We headed to Chino, and the bait was there. It took a while to get it going, but we got plenty of beautiful bait. On the last throw, as I lifted the net into the boat, I took a sword to the lower back that shot pain down my leg to my left knee and out to my abdomen. I almost went down. God, what pain. I knew right then I may have done more than pulled a muscle.

Fortunately, the bait was caught, and I was determined to get through the day. We would spend the morning in the flats showing the Jaegers my favorite way to fish. As expected, the bite was slow. We only caught a couple of fish until late in the morning when the water started moving, then had a good bite for an hour or so. They caught a dozen or so snook for the morning, but the "how many" wasn't as important as the "how. I hoped Dave and Donna, who love to fish, would have enough knowledge to go out on a good tide and catch some fish.

Wednesday, I met my friends Gene Weidemoyer and Gary Goodenow, who fish out of Burnt Store. They're really fun guys, and have been very supportive of Jean since her illness. They have also been touched by cancer. When I told Gene of my back problems he said he'd be glad to throw the net. That was a big load off my mind.

Once we got to Chino and got everything ready, Gene made his first throw using the triple-load. That method of loading the net is fine if you only have to throw it once, but after that you're going to be a mess, because you wear the net all over your arm and shoulder. I suggested he learn my method, which is a hybrid of the standard load, and cracker style. Gene adapted quickly, and threw some pretty nice nets, and after three or four throws we were gone fishing. The boys had not done the beach snook thing, so we were off to Stickbeach. We were the first there, and only saw a couple of other boats in the area all morning. Our bite started off slow, but later in the morning the fish turned on pretty well for us, both in close to the wood, and out off the wood, and we caught some real nice fish. We lost our share, too, but Gene and Gary, who play together like a couple of kids, boated 30 or more. It was a fun morning, even hurting as bad as I was.

I was very apprehensive about fishing Thursday morning with David Roach, and his 16 year old son Mark, of Marion, Illinois. I was going to have to throw the castnet! But, Dave told me that Mark, who's quite a football player, had been trying to learn with a smaller net they'd bought. Mark volunteered to try to throw my 10 ft. Caloosa. We anchored at Chino, in four feet of very clear water. Several other boats were already at it. We began chumming. With Dave chumming, I took Mark through the folding process, then the proper form for throwing the net. I went ahead and threw the net once very carefully, to show Mark the form, and brought back a pretty good load of shiners. I knew it wouldn't take long. Mark's first throw was a barely opening cannonball, but we had so much bait chummed up, he still had quite a few shiners. I knew one good throw would put us fishing. I made the third throw, and my God, what a load. We had so much bait that my well was way overloaded, and they all began trying to die on us. I had to release a lot of them, and we had to work on the ones that were left, stirring them to keep them off the bottom, until they came around. Man, we had some bait!

We headed for Stickbeach, but to my surprise, we weren't the first ones there. Young Capt. Jim Birdstead and Capt. Doug, who's last name I don't remember, were already there, and of course, they were on "the hole". I don't know Jim well, but I know he's one fine young man, who shares my philosophy of sharing a good hole. Capt. Doug, who runs a blue 17' Lake & Bay, was also very nice, and invited me in on his right side, even though I didn't know him. I was most appreciative.

The bite was predictably slow because of the tide situation, but we were all catching the occasional snook. We could have caught all the Spanish mackerel we wanted, as the waters are just full of them. They'll take your bait and hook at boatside if you're a little slow getting your next cast going. Jim and Doug eventually left for other parts of the beach, but I knew that the same condition that was causing the slow bite here, would do the same anywhere else. Besides, I was trying to avoid having to pull the anchor. I'd only thrown the net twice that morning, but my back was hurting so bad I could hardly stand up.

Young Mark got the fish of the day, a beautiful snook of 8 pounds on the 10 pound Daiwa rig. She put up a great fight, and Mark followed my coaching lead well (as a good football player would), and brought her to boatside. I think Dave was pretty proud of him catching that fish, too; only his second snook ever. The boys caught a dozen or so snook, one trout, and one mackerel that morning before we headed home. We were originally scheduled to fish a full day, but between Dave not feeling well, me struggling with my back, and the tide so lousy, we decided a half day made more sense. I didn't think I could last a full day, anyway!

Dave and the rest of the family met me at the Seafood Center that evening for a great Dungeness crab dinner. They'd never had the Dungeness, and found them to be every bit as good as I'd promised. As I was leaving, my friend Dr. Ron Kolata, who was in for a Friday trip on his way back from the Bahamas, called me on the cellphone. As soon as I mentioned I was having back problems, Ron very graciously canceled our trip and ordered me to stay off my back for several days. He selflessly put my well being ahead of his own personal fun. I hated to ruin Ron's plans, but knew he was right, and after all, it was "Doctor's Orders!" Thanks, Ron. I hope we'll get to fish together in October.

We'll be looking at great tides next week, but it's also the week of the full moon. I will be on vacation for most of the week, but will be fishing with my old friend Mike Schwartz, if my back will allow.

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 239-638-3522, and the new cell phone number is 239-633-5851.