It was an unusual week for me in several respects. First, it was a rare week where all of my customers were new ones. Second, I was under Dr. Jim Kolodziej's orders to stay out of the Gulf and off the beaches until my back was completely healed. The problem with that is that the tides this week were just horrible for inshore fishing, and I knew each day before climbing out of bed, it would be a challenge to put fish in the boat! I just didn't know how challenging it would be.

First up was John Backer, over from Ft. Lauderdale. John was a sort of last minute booking, and I warned him that the reason I had the day open was that the tide was so lousy. It didn't slow him down, and we were at Picnic Island catching bait before the sun was up.

At the first stop we got a taste of how tough it would be. The hole gave us one snook and one speckled trout. It also established the trend for the week; not only were the fish not eating, the snook were hitting the baits and killing or injuring them, but not eating. It's one of the most frustrating things in fishing, because 99% of the time, the angler can't even feel it happen, even with all the hi-tech gear we use today.

We moved on to several other spots with nothing more than hit to kill strikes going on. I was getting antsy, with only two fish in the boat. Finally, I decided to change strategy and fish some deeper pockets that I would normally be fishing in fall or spring. It was the charm. We had a descent bite for a long enough time to put some fish into the boat. That spot gave us 8 nice snook before it slowed down, and John missed several, as well.

I wanted to put some redfish into the boat, so we spent the short amount of remaining time to try to chum them up. We had three takes, but failed to hook any of them. We didn't miss the two catfish that bit our cut bait, however.

It was a tough day, but a good day, and we had a great time. I look forward to fishing with John, again.

Tuesday, my guests were Mike Canfield, and his brother John, of Rutland, Mass. I had told Mike back in February when he booked, but I reassured he and John that the catching would be tough. We began with bait at Picnic Island, and at least that came pretty easily.

Everywhere we went the fish were in the same mode as the day before; hit to kill, not to eat. In spite of that the boys managed to catch a few nice snook, and lost some even nicer ones. John struck first blood at our first stop with a nice snook. Mike had one snook on at our last stop that ran and jumped and gave him a good look before it got away. It was probably a good 12 pounds. Mike and John were not only a lot of fun, but were totally into the fishing, and having a great time, even though they watched some nice fish swim away.

Wednesday morning I was on the water long before sun-up. My customers were Lee Hennigan, and his friend Brent Case, of Flower Mound, Texas. They were staying up on the north end of North Captiva, and I had to try to catch bait alone, and be on the way to pick them up by 7 AM. I headed straight to Picnic Island, where I was soon joined by my cousin Capt. Sean Middleton. We both got bait OK, but it took a bit longer than usual. I was on my way to Lee shortly after seven.

I had hopes of being able to sneak out on a nice flat beach and fish the Sticks, but Sean called me about an hour later and told me it was rough as hell. Probably kicked up by overnight storms that had moved offshore in the early morning hours. So. we were stuck fishing inside with an awful tide, and I knew it would be more of the same struggle.

We went from place to place getting the same reception from the snook I'd gotten all week; hit and run, pop and drop, kill strikes, whatever you want to call it, it's all the same. They ain't eatin'! Lee and Brent managed to get 5 snook, 1 trout, and 1 catfish to the boat. I guess we can call that combo a "Trash Can Slam!". As does everyone, they missed their share, as well. Redfish have been non-existent. The few that I have found have refused to eat.

Lee and Brent were great guys, and good fishermen, and took it all in stride. In spite of another slow bite, we all had a great time.

The tide for Thursday was a very slow outgoing for most of the morning hours. After studying the tide chart for a while I determined that on such a slow outgoing tide the best place to begin would be Redfish Pass along the Wall. I hate pass fishing; getting in line with lots of other boats and drifting along the Wall, competing with the shore anglers, etc. Not my idea of a good time. Yes, there are some big fish lurking along the rocks there, but...... This seemed like the perfect day to ignore what I like and go for the obvious.

I met Steve O'dell, and his friend John, of Leesburg, Florida, and explained the situation to them. They were game for whatever I wanted to do. We first headed to Picnic Island again for bait, but I had a hell of a time. The water had cleared drastically overnight, probably because of the lack of rain we've been experiencing, and it seemed that the bait could see my smaller than usual net coming, and run out from under it. Yes, in an effort to be kind to my back I've been throwing an 8 foot net, which is much lighter. Well, anyway, I couldn't catch a shiner to save my life, even though I could see them.

So, I moved on to Chino Island, where to my surprise the water was somewhat murky. I anchored in the vicinity of several other boats that were already there chumming. I didn't see any bait being caught, and became concerned. But, on my first throw I had a pretty good strike on shiners, and knew the bait was there in good numbers. After a couple more good strikes we were off. I didn't want to waste a lot of time catching bait that nothing was going to eat in the first place.

We headed straight to Redfish Pass with out bait. To my surprise there weren't but a couple of other boats fishing the Wall. I rigged one rod with a large shiner without weight, and another with a large splitshot to keep the bait down, and a large pinfish. I had Steve and John pitching the baits up near the rocks as we drifted along on the falling tide with me trying to hold position with the trolling motor.

We made half dozen passes on the tide, and had about half dozen strikes, mostly on the pinfish. Steve put one snook in the boat. It was not enough action to keep me interested in this kind of fishing, and Steve soon fessed up that it wasn't his kind of fishing, either. We moved on to the shallows.

Eventually, we wound up on the east side of the Sound. All week, I had been trying to fish some of the deeper spots that would have at least a little water moving on the slow tides. I figured that with no rain to drop the water temperature on the flats each afternoon as it normally does, the fish would be looking for water that was a little deeper, and therefore a little cooler.

We kept at it and eventually found 4 more snook and 3 trout, but still had nearly every bait tossed killed, and a few misses, too. Steve and John were great, and didn't mind the slow action, and assured me at the end of the day that they had had a great time.

Friday belonged to Neil Manausa, his son Stephen, of Ashburn, Virginia, and his brother-in-law Fred, from the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. Neil had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and this was the last day of his vacation. I desperately wanted this to be a great day, but I knew it was not to be. It just wasn't in the tidal cards. In fact, it wound up being the toughest day of the week, if you can imagine that!

We headed straight to Chino Island for bait, and got plenty without much trouble. The water was at about 1.7 ft. by the time we were done catching bait, and I thought we might have a shot at some fish while the water was up and just beginning to move, but that proved not to be the case. We got kill strikes everywhere we went, but had one hell of a time getting anything with scales on it into the boat. At one spot we managed three nice speckled trout and a big mangrove snapper. At another spot, we finally got a snook in the boat, and it was young Steve that caught it. Neil managed four hardhead catfish, giving them the Trash Can Slam. They even had some baits that were ripped to shreds by who knows what. Again, Neil, Steve, and Fred were very understanding of the situation, and in spite of the slow going, we had a great time until the heat just overcame all of us.

The common theme this week was that every day was a very tough day. Yet, the common theme was also that to a man, everyone had a great time. When the catching is this tough, and was further handicapped by my back problem, I spent a lot of time apologizing to my customers. But, at the end of each day each assured me that they had a wonderful time, and some even asked me to make sure I mentioned that in this fishing report. I guess there's a lesson to be learned during the tough times; that just being on the water, enjoying all the wonders that nature has to offer, enjoying the anticipation and experience, enjoying the company and camaraderie of good friends, and learning new techniques.

The tides next week are much improved over this week. We don't get real strong tides during the summer, but we get nice high tides, and these are about as good as they get. If we can get into our normal afternoon thunderstorm pattern with rain reaching the Sound to cool the water, I believe we'll see some good fishing happening on the inside. Without that, the water will remain as hot as it usually is in August, and it will be tough regardless of the tides. We'll see soon enough.

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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