I had five trips scheduled for the week, and lost one. The big news this week is redfish, redfish, redfish. The reds are finally prowling the flats, and we really scored on them this week.

First trip was on Sunday! Yes, the holiday weekend. I did a two boat trip with my good friend Capt. George Halper, of Hawkeye Charters, and we had to pick up and deliver back to Barnacle Phil's in Safety Harbor. I didn't know when I left the dock at 5 AM that morning, that it would be the last trip on the old Yamaha from BarHopp'R I. I rode in the dark to Picnic Island, the first bait stop. I've never had any luck catching shiners before the sun comes up, but George had arranged for a 7 AM pickup, and I wanted to try to have bait when I arrived. George said bait had been plentiful and easy in the north end of the Sound, and that he'd have some extra for me, but I didn't want to count on that.

As I expected, there were no shiners to be found on the Picnic flat at 5:30 in the morning. I gave it about an hour before I picked up and headed to Chino Island. Chino wasn't much better, but as the sun began to dawn on the horizon, a few baits began to show up. I didn't want to be too late showing up at Barnacle's, so I took off at 7 with about three dozen baits in the well. Surely not enough to fish with.

George and I both arrived at the fish house at the same time. Bait had been tougher than usual for him, too, but he had scored a couple of good nets on his two last throws. He gave me some extra bait, introduced me to my party, and we were off.

George and I both knew we had a terrible tide to deal with, and knew it would probably be tough fishing. It was high and outgoing when we got out there, and I wanted to try to find some reds or snook on the flats before the tide had a chance to get too low. I headed to one of my favorite areas, and we managed to get a couple of redfish and snook to eat, and put one red in the well.

Once it was over on that flat, I decided to head across the bay for trout. While we were running I found a big feed going on near McKeever Keys, with fish popping on top in every direction. I figured it would be ladyfish, jack crevalle, and speckled trout. I was right, and for the next couple of hours my guys caught fish on nearly every cast with a Cotee jig rigged with a rootbeer body with a silver glitter tail. One of the fellas was a highschool senior who just loves to fish, and he was having the time of his life catching all those fish. I suggested that we go and look for snook or redfish, and he let me know he was quite happy with all the fish he was catching. By the time it was over and we were ready to head back to North Captiva, we had caught at least a hundred fish, and had a red and some nice trout in the well, to add to the catch from George's boat. The boys were looking to feed a bunch of folks that night.

It had been a good trip, but I knew in my heart the trip was mark the end of an era. For the last several times out, I had thought I detected a different sound from my old Yamaha. When I took off on this morning, I could definitely hear a metallic clattering. Not, loud, but there. I knew it was the signal of an impending failure. I just prayed I wouldn't be left 30 miles from nowhere with a blown motor and George's customers. On the way home, it was even louder, and the motor started to miss, and wouldn't run over 4,200 RPM. I prayed to make it home in one piece. I did, but I knew it was probably the last trip. The trip had been further marred by the second failure of the switch that operated my Power Pole! It's a $40 Bendix switch that I had just replaced a couple of months ago. And, if that wasn't enough, my port side trim tab stuck in the down position, and wouldn't retract, making the Talon want to become a submarine from the starboard side. What else?

I had a trip for Tuesday that I was sweating being able to run. I tried to reach my party with no luck, to let them know that I had arranged for another guide to take them fishing. I had to get the Talon into the shop to get the switches replaced, and have my number one motor man Craig Wildasin, at Outboard Motor Connection, in Venice, Florida, take a listen to the old Yamaha. Craig had build that motor for me many years ago, and it had run almost flawlessly for all these years, and probably had well over 4,000 hours on it. If that's not a testimonial to the quality of the work his shop does, then I don't know what is! Ironically, after making arrangements for my Tuesday party Harry Evans to fish with another guide, he called and left me a message that he was canceling because he had experienced motor problems with his boat, which he needed for the rest of the week to entertain his friends.

So, I was up and on the road early Tuesday morning. At Talon, Gary, Rob, Mike and the rest of the crew were just great as usual. Mike did the repairs, and quickly replaced the Power Pole switch, and found that the Lenco ram on the port side was bad, and replaced that. They didn't charge me a penny, which I think is just wonderful. The people at Talon are as great as the boats they build!

From Talon I headed straight to OMC to see Craig, and get a diagnosis on my motor. I knew what it would be, but had to hear it from him. Sure enough, he said it was about worn out, and time for a new one. He had a 99 Yamaha 150 Salt Water Series on consignment from someone, and said that it had come off a boat that looked brand new and had very few hours. He had replaced the lower unit for the owner, and sold him a larger motor. Craig had checked it out, and was sure it was a good motor. He arranged for me to buy it for $4,600 and did the installation for me. I left the boat with him.

I made arrangements to split my Wednesday trip with John Cook and Jim Swalby with my best bud Capt. Butch Boteler. We met Butch at the ramp at 7 AM, and headed to Picnic island for bait. The bait had been great there before I took my week off, but something was different, as we didn't see the first shiner that morning. We headed to Chino, feeling confident bait was be plentiful there. It was, and it was much nicer than it had been the last time I gathered bait there. We had spent more time getting bait than we would have liked, but we would make up for that on the backside.

We headed north looking for another big feed to get John and Jim started with. We found bait schools and birds working off McKeever, again, but the fish weren't there eating, yet. So, I suggested we go to one of my favorite spots in the north end of the sound where redfish have been hanging, and Butch agreed.

Butch and I were at odds about where to begin looking for the redfish. He had been catching them in close to the mangroves in the shallows, and I had been catching them off in the deeper water, but the point was that we had both been catching them. We sort of compromised and got the boat set near the island. Butch threw a couple of handfuls of shiners, and we immediately had fish boiling on them. We knew they were reds. That was the beginning of the melee! By the time it was over, John and Jim had boated some 30 big redfish by our best count, and were worn out. All those fish had run from 7 to 10 pounds! What a time we had!

Butch and I had the time of our lives, too. He and I have dreamed of doing trips together like my other best friend Capt. Mark Bess and I used to do. Mark and I used to double up on those redfish and just whip them, and have the time of our lives with our customers. Now, it's time for Capt. Butch and Capt. Butch. Butch cleaned the fish, which allowed me to get myself on the way to Craig's shop in Venice to pick up my boat. Craig had promised to have her ready, barring any unforeseen difficulties.

At OMC, Craig was like a kind with a new toy. He had taken my F-16 for a test ride after all the installation work was done, and couldn't believe what a boat it is. He said it was the sweetest, coolest, flatboat he'd ever been in. And, he warned me that it really flew with the new 150 Yamaha. I couldn't wait to get it on the water and hear it run and feel her jump on plane for the first time. I knew everything would be fine, though, as it always is when Craig has worked on things.

Thursday morning came quickly, as I didn't sleep much for thinking about the Talon with the new Yamaha all night long. I met Jeff Kaulbars and his best friend John and took off for Chino Island for bait. Man, the new motor was quiet and powerful compared to the old ones. It seemed to jump on plane absolutely effortlessly. I was amazed. it seemed to have power to spare.

At Chino, before we could even get started with bait, we found fish popping everywhere. We got out the jig rigs and began to cast. We caught speckled trout, jacks, and ladyfish on every cast for a long time. Jeff and John kept remarking that it was the best fishing they'd ever done. They are both new to fishing and boating, and Jeff just purchased a Hewes Redfisher a month ago. He want's to learn, and that was a big reason for his booking this trip. They hadn't been doing well on their own. But, I knew that the best was yet to come.

I headed to the same flat that where we had caught the reds the day before, knowing that in all likelihood the fish would be right back there on the same stage of the tide. I pulled in and set the boat up. I threw some chum. Nothing. I was puzzled. I knew the fish were there somewhere. They had to be. After a few minutes with nothing happening, I decided to pitch a bait off the right side of the boat out into the deeper open water, where I have often caught tons of reds. The bait was immediately eaten by a big red, and I knew what was going on. For the rest of the morning, we absolutely pounded the redfish. Jeff and John were in a state of total disbelief as we had double and triple hookup after double and triple hookup. We kept count as best we could, and at shortly after 11 AM, the boys decided they were worn out and ready to go find some food. Our count was at 50 redfish, plus or minus a couple. The biggest was 12 pounds. Added to the tons of trout, jacks, and ladyfish they'd caught first thing in the morning, it was an unbelievable day of fishing, and they had plenty of fillets to take home for their families. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to celebrate the day over some fabulous food.

My Friday trip was with Darin Phillips and his wife Denise and daughter Shannon, of St. Cloud, Florida. Capt. Butch Boteler had made arrangements with him to come over and do some serious plumbing work on the BarHopp'R Fish Camp in return for a guided fishing trip. I picked them up at Butch's place in St. James City at around 7:30.

We headed straight to Chino for bait, and after a couple of small moves, got plenty of beautiful shiners in about 4 throws. We were totally loaded with enough bait for a couple of trips! Although the bait was plentiful, Denise wasn't able to catch any trout while Darin and I were catching bait. There was a tournament going on with a $30,000 purse, and I figured I'd better get out there and claim my spot before it was covered with boats. I headed once again to the flat where we'd caught over 80 redfish in the past two days.

As I approached the area, I could see a boat that appeared to be parked right where I wanted to fish. Once there, I could see he was close, but not in my spot. They were pitching to the mangroves, but not catching. They were soon gone. Knowing that the fish had been deeper the day before, I started my hunt in the deeper water, far from the bushes. I didn't take long before we had the first redfish to the boat. We were catching, but I wasn't able to get a good bite going and keep it going. We'd catch a few, and then it would subside. I kept moving closer to shore. Finally, we got the fish going pretty good, and had double hookups. Capt. George Halper pulled in a hundred yards or so away from me on the mangroves and fished for some time. I didn't see them catch anything, and wondered if he had seen that we were catching. Eventually, he took off.

We continued to catch redfish and have a blast. There were some trout mixed in. It took 14 reds to the boat before we caught one small enough to keep!! Some time later, George pulled back in nearby to where he had fished before. I had tried to call him earlier on the cellphone, but couldn't get his pager to work. Now, when I saw him facing my direction, I haled him in. I shouted to him that we were on the redfish, bigtime! I directed him to pull in on my port side. He had a party of four and said he had only found one red. They immediately began catching the redfish. We were at 21 reds when George joined us. We left George and his gang catching reds when we had 28 to the boat, along with half dozen trout, and a couple of catfish. Our biggest was 11 pounds. I hope George and his party continued to catch them for the rest of the tide.

Well, there you have it. In three days, my parties put about 110 redfish, and tons of trout, jacks, ladyfish, etc. in the boat, as well. I think it's safe to say the reds are on the flats, and the fishing in general has turned on. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that it should be good through November on the good tide days.

I have posted the final thumbnailed pictures on the Talon Page of this website, for those interested in seeing how one of these jewels goes together.

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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