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It's July in Florida. It's hot, and humid; the dog days of summer. But, one of the best kept secrets about Florida summers is that we're actually cooler than many, if not most, of our far northern states. Our business typically slows way down this time of year, and I know some guides who just take the hottest part of the summer off, once the tarpon run is over. Probably not a bad plan. I'm in the middle of finding a suitable replacement for both BarHopp'R's, and we have the 4th of July holiday also thrown in, so I'm glad I have a slow schedule right now.
I had a trip scheduled Monday with my friend Mike McMahon, and his wife JoAnn, of St. Leonard, Maryland. It was my first time to meet JoAnn. I put the borrowed Backcountry into the water than morning, and don't you know the batteries were stone cold dead. I couldn't see in the dark as I felt around, but I suspect that one of the switches had been inadvertently turned on with a knee and left something running all weekend. I hated to tell Mike we couldn't fish, but that was the bottom line. I had nothing else to fall back on. We agreed to give it a try again on Friday.
Tuesday, I had a trip with Pete Dagostino, of Longwood, Florida, who is a friend of my good friend and customer John Hitt, at UCF. There was so much going on at this time, I have to admit that I failed to make notes about our catch, other than that we'd had a good day. I remember that we were able to get good bait at Picnic Island, and that we went outside for snook along the beaches, but I don't remember exact numbers. I'm thinking we caught 15 to 20 snook, though.
Mike McMahon called me Thursday night and told me he was at the local hospital with JoAnn! She was having a problem with her heart, and I couldn't tell you what the condition was called, now, but I think it had the word fibrillation in it. Mike had to cancel our Friday makeup date, but thank goodness JoAnn recovered and is doing well. That's all that's important!
The first trip of the second week was with a new customer, Tony Berringer, of Sioux Falls, Iowa. Tony was new to fishing, and certainly to the way we fish, which is usually a good thing. We got started at first light and quickly caught nice bait at Picnic Island. We headed out to the beaches for some snook, and fished a beach close to some good shelling beach, since Tony wanted to do a little shell collecting while we were out. The snook were on, and Tony, with no bad habits and apparently no male ego in the way, quickly caught on and caught plenty of fish.
Once the snook fishing slowed at that spot we headed to a stretch of beach nearby on North Captiva to do a little shelling. After about an hour of that we headed to the restaurant at Cabbage Key. Tony said he'd heard some of the stories about Cabbage and wanted to see it for himself. We sat right across from one of the big banyan trees and had cheeseburgers in paradise. They were mighty small burgers, but were pretty darned good. By the time we finished lunch and got back to the boat, the weather was looking pretty threatening, and we pointed the Backcountry toward the home ramp.
By Wednesday, the weather was turning around on us because of a tropical wave to our north. We had southwest wind at 15 and better, which makes it impossible to get outside and fish the beaches. We were also into a week of very poor tides, with no water moving. That's a tough combination for catching fish, but fine for teaching, and that's exactly what my first trip with Dirk Steinhoff and his eleven year old son Carl, from Germany, was all about. Although Dirk wanted to learn about our fishing since he now has a home in Cape Coral, I wanted to try to put him on a fish or two, but it was just to rough and dangerous to try to fish outside. We did run across a major school of ladyfish feeding in one of the passes, and we and several other guide boats who joined us, had a good time with them. By the end of the morning, Dirk said he'd learned a lot. He and Carl were lots of fun, and I hope to take them fishing under better conditions in the future.
The last trip of the week with Bob Kouba, of Naperville, Illinois, was another teaching trip. He wanted to learn the how-to's so he could find some success from his own boat. We were still under the influence of the tropical wave, and still had a lousy tide, so it was perfect for teaching. Bait was good at Picnic, but after that things got tough. We did manage to catch a couple of fish while teaching, but that was it. We finished with a great lunch at the Waterfront, where Bob assure me he had gotten exactly what he wanted in the way of instruction.
I had spent Thursday trying to conclude negotiations with the two major contenders to build my next boat, Action Craft and Talon. I began early in the morning at Action Craft talking with Ron Horton. He was very helpful, but couldn't give me a final number until it went through San Carlos Marine. They were to FAX the final figures to my credit union and to me within a couple of hours.
I went from there to Talon Marine in Sarasota, and talked to Rob Wilkens, who was also very nice and willing to try to put me into one of their new F-16's. The Talon F-16 is one incredible flats boat, and is pricey. Top quality always is, and it doesn't get any better than what rolls out of the doors at Talon. The fit and finish, attention to detail, and overall quality are immediately apparent, especially if you've been looking at other boats. Make no mistake, Action Craft builds a very fine boat, also, but the Talon is the 550 SEL of flats boats.
Rob had sharpened his pencil overnight, and presented me with numbers I can make work, and it looks as if I'll be in the boat of my dreams within four to six weeks. We just have to work out some details to get things rolling, and I have to get my boat up there so they can transfer engine, etc. to the new Talon. I did go for a test ride on a very windy, choppy day in Sarasota Bay, and was amazed at how soft and dry the ride of the 17 ft. Talon is. It's quite amazing. The decision to go with Talon was made much easier by the fact that San Carlos Marine never did as of Friday, anyway, send the purchase order I was waiting on, and I never heard from them or anyone at Action Craft, either. I can't imagine why, but the mere lack of follow-thru was enough to turn me to Talon.
I'll be keeping my readers posted with the progress of the F-16, and will attempt to get some pictures of my boat in various stages of it's construction onto the site. All of you folks who have trips coming up in the fall are in for a treat! Below are some thumbnails you may click to view the full size picture of the new ultra wide ride Talon F-16.
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