A three day weekend and a day lost sitting in the local Dodge dealership made it an abbreviated work week for me. Although it started off slowly, it ended pretty well. Here's how it went.

My long time friend and customer, Bob McGuire, was up for Tuesday. We've fished together many times and never had a bad day. This would be a stinker that ended that streak. We had a high tide first thing in the morning, which meant it would be falling all day long, and the fish would have full tummies. Kinda like fishing on the full moon.

There were a lot of storms around, and I wasn't even sure we'd even get to fish the morning out. We got beautiful bait at Chino, once again. The problem was we couldn't find fish that were interested in eating it. Because the snook on the inside are mostly small, we targeted redfish for most of the morning. We've been catching a lot of yearling snook, fish that are 11 to 13 inches, that are the byproduct of last summer's spawn. It appears that we had a very successful spawn last year, which will be good for the fishery. As for the reds, we were on fish, but they refused to eat, no matter how much chum I threw at them. Maybe if I'd had some ladyfish, they would have eated that. But, I didn't have any in the boat.

After trying thye reds in several places, we opted to try to catch a few snook before the water disappeared from the flats. We caught 3 small snook and a trout, and that was the catch for the morning. We ended our morning at the Waterfront Restaurant, where we heard stories that echoed our own experience that morning. No one had caught much of anything. But, Bob is one of my favorite folks, and he's easy going as they come, and we had a good time in spite of the poor catching.

Thursday morning I finally met Bob Langbehn, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, who I'd been eager to meet for some time. His son Ken, and Ken's friend Mike were along. Bob has four boats, if you can believe that, and one is a ProCat like BarHopp'R I. His boat is serial number 1, and has a large center console, bimini top, and a 90 hourse Tohotsu motor, and no trolling motor. Bob seemed to be in disbelief that our boats were of the same manufacture. My BarHopp'R looks bigger than it is with the small Action Craft console set off to the right side. Bob was amazed at the difference a 150 Yamaha motor made in the performance and ride.

We got plenty of pretty bait at Chino, once again, and were off. The Thursday tide was much better than it had been on Tuesday, and I was hopeful that I could really get the redfish going for the guys. But before that, I wanted to go check out the Stickbeach. It had been a good month since I've been able to get out there. Today, for the first time in weeks, we had an east wind. After making the time committment to get there, we were rejected by the snook, and didn't get the first bite! I gave it about half an hour, and fished out in the trough, and up on the wood without so much as a hit. I'm done with the Stickbeach for this year, and I guess that means forever, since it will soon disappear.

We headed back inside feeling sure I could get the reds going. At the first stop we only got one 29 inch fish to eat. I knew the fish were there, but couldn't figure out why they wouldn't turn on. I moved to another location where I knew the fish were holding, and started the chumming proceedure all over. Nothing. To prove a point, I pulled the boat up on where we had been chumming and casting, and sure enough, reds went scooting all over the place. I quickly anchored and tried again. We boated another 29 inch fish and a nice trout. Finally, in desparation, we went for snook, boating 4 small fish.

We finished the day with Bob's first trip to the Waterfront Restaurant. The boys assured me that our day would have been a great day of flats fishing on the east coast where they live, but I was really disappointed that I couldn't get the reds to bust loose for them. But, Bob is a big, jovial man who likes to laugh, and we just plain ole had a good time.

Friday my single angler was Dr. Tracy McKay, of Jacksonville, Florida. Tracy is in his last year and a half of residency, and a super nice fella. I had put him with Capt. Tommy Stephens back in May to fish up in Sarasota Bay. Tracy couldn't say enough good things about Tom, and had a great trip with him. It is the dog days of summer now, and I hoped and prayed that I could give him a trip that equalled his day with Tom. Tracy had caugh some nice snook with Tom, but no redfish, so I naturally wanted to get him on some reds. But the results of the previous two trips had me spooked. I decided to catch ladyfish first, assuring Tracy that if there was anything that would turn on the reds, it would be ladyfish bait. Tracy hooked many of the silver leapers, putting around half dozen in the boat before we headed out to catch shiners and pinfish. There was plenty of that bait still there at Chino, and it wasn't long before we were stalking the redfish. I went straight for the ladyfish. I used some of the shiners and pins for chum, but we presented the ladyfish as bait.

It didn't take long to get things going. It didn't take Tracy long to get into the groove, either. I think he only missed two fish all morning, and one was to a cut line. Tracy had a blast, and I had a blast keeping him busy. We kept three lines in the water, and had numberous doubles and a couple of triple hookups. One of the rigs I'd brought along was my Shimano Stella 2500 on a Shimano V Rod. Those of you who know me know I have fished Daiwa Emblem Z's for a couple of years now, with much greater reliability and performance than the Shimano Stradics ever gave me. But, I've got to tell you that the Stella is one exquisit piece of fishing machinery. The drag is unequalled in all of fishing, and it is so smooth and free as to be as close to a perpetual motion machine as you could get. To catch a fish with it is a real fishing high. Well, Tracey let me land one big red with it. What a tool.

Tracy's count was 17 big redfish, two of which were small enough to go home with us. Most of the rest were 7 to 10 pounds. One of those fish had an incredible 84 spots on it. It was one of the most beautiful redfish I've ever seen. Once the breeze layed down at around eleven o'clock, it became unbearably hot very quickly, and Tracy and I decided we'd had enough fun. Oh, the fish were still eating, but we were heading to the oasis known as the Waterfront. I called Tracy up on the bow as I trolling motored off the flat, as I was sure we would be able to spot a few of the reds we'd been catching scooting off the flats. We weren't ready for what we saw! Once I got up to where we'd been casting, and just a little beyond, the bigs reds were everywhere. There had to be hundreds of them gliding through the waters all around and in front of us. What a beautiful sight! We could probably have stayed and caught reds for a couple more hours, but we'd had enough.

Tracy wants to settle somewhere in our area between Venice and Naples. He's going to bring his wife down on a fishing trip, in hopes that a good day of fishing like this one will really turn her on to living in this area. I hope he settles in the Ft. Myers area, as he's going to make a great family doctor, and I want to be among his first patients.

In closing this report I'd like to leave you with an update on my wife Jean. She has completed her chemotherapy recently, and is now doing radiation treatments. She has five weeks of those left. She's starting to grow some new fuzz, and is doing very well, thanks to all of you who have offered your prayers and to a great group of doctors looking after her. But even with insurance we are left with many unpaid medical bills. They just seem to be falling out of the sky, at times. For this reason, I am seriously considering selling my backup boat, BarHopp'R II, which is the 96 Paradise. Some of you have fished from it. It is the same hull as BarHopp'R I, but with a different deck configuration. The first thing I did to it was get rid of the big console and cooler seat, and re-rig it with the same Action Craft console. It is nothing but wide open fishing machine, very stable, plenty fast, and shallow running beyond belief. It is considerably lighter than #1 due to the difference in deck design, and Kledgecell construction, and will run shallower than #1. She has less than 300 hours on her, and has always had the best of TLC. I'll be looking for around $15K for her, so, if you are interested drop me an email.

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 239-628-3522, and the new cell phone number is 239-633-5851.