The redfish are on the prowl. Yes, it was a great week of redfishing.

The week began with my old friends Bob and Carol Bass, of St. Cloud, Florida. They brought along their friends Ben and Bonnie. I love to fish with Bob and Carol. They love to fish, and yea, they're basically nuts. Lot's of fun. This was Ben's first experience with this type of fishing. Bonnie came along as an observer.

We began the morning in darkness casting TerrorEyez for ladyfish, the creme de la creme of redfish baits. We had problems getting the fish into the boat, and only had two in the well when the bite was over. So, we headed to Chino island in search of shiners and pinfish. Bait was plentiful there, and we were baited up in short order, leaving boats on the flat throwing their nets who were already there when we arrived.

We had to wait a little while for the tide to get right, and had no action at the first stop, but it didn't take long to get things going at the second stop. Bob and Carol were admittedly a little rusty at the hook setting technique, as they had missed fishing last year when they took a trip to Australia. Ben was learning all the way. We had a ball with those reds, but I couldn't tell you how many of the 30 or so we had on, actually made it into the boat. The biggest was 30 inches/10 pounds, and the gang also caught a couple of big rays and a couple of trout. I think Carol put the most fish into the boat. Even Bonnie said she had a great time just watching all our antics.

Tuesday was supposed to be a trip with my great friend Russ Hubbard, of Dixie Plywood, and some of his customers, but things fell apart for Russ at the last minute, and he and Tom Davanaugh couldn't come. Russ, ever thoughtful and not wanting to leave me hanging, told Steve Whitt to invite his lovely wife Pam, and make the trip by themselves. Steve had been out with us once before, but this was the first time for Pam. It was also Pam's first flats and light tackle fishing experience.

At our bait stop, Steve soon proved he had the hot rod, and put all 5 ladyfish into the boat. I caught a jack and a trout. We were in great shape bait-wise, as 5 ladyfish steaked up would be enough for four anglers. We didn't need to castnet shiners and pinfish. Out on the flats, we had a pretty good bite once the water began moving. Steve and Pam had at least 20 redfish on, and landed at least half of them. The largest was 10 pounds. Steve also missed one big snook. I think Pam was real surprised at how hard those reds fight, and went home with sore arms. They were both a lot of fun, and we had a blast all morning. We finished the day at the Green Flash on Captiva. The Waterfront is closed for a couple of weeks while they redo their seawalls and docks.

Thursday morning, I helped our Lee Country Professional Guides Association do a benefit for some of our local disabled veterans. It was a short trip, with fishing only from 8 to 11 AM. I was on the water at 6 to get bait, and back at the dock from Chino by shortly after 7. Bait was quick, easy, and beautiful. We had a lousy tide to fish the vets, and not a lot of time, so I elected to take my three guys, Dave, Jim, and Joe, trout fishing. They were quick to tell me that last year, fishing on the full moon as we were on this day, that no one had caught much of anything.

We made a couple of stops along the way to my first trout hole to fish schools of jacks and ladyfish that were crashing bait. I was mainly interested in action. I kept a couple of ladyfish for the next day's fishing. After the first couple of trout holes failed to produce anything but slack tide catfish, I was afraid we may suffer the same fate. I didn't want to spend a lot of time running, but finally elected to head to Foster's Point at North Captiva where I knew big trout were plentiful. It was a good call, as we caught fish after fish, first small, but finally up in the slot, and the boys took home a mess of beautiful trout for dinner. The boys also caught a small grouper and a snapper.

Friday was the trip of the week. Jeff Klitch, of Dayton, Ohio, his brothers Tracy and Sean, and friend Jim were down for a week on Sanibel. All of these fellas are in law enforcement. We had a late tide, and the weather was threatening rain. There was a tropical system in the southwestern Gulf that would soon become Gordon, and a front approaching from the north. We were in the beginning stage of a weather squeeze play. I just hoped we could get the trip in.

We headed to Chino Island for bait. After making one move we were in bait everywhere, and soon ready to fish. I also had the steaked ladyfish I'd saved from the DAV trip. We had some time to kill before the tide began moving, so I took the boys right back to Fosters for some trout action. I figured it would give them time to get used to the equipment and my boat rules before getting into the redfish. By the time we'd caught a dozen or so trout, things were getting right for redfish, and we were off.

The breeze was very variable, and it kept shifting as the storm cells moved along the coast. We did get rained on before it was over, but we were OK with getting wet as long as there was no lightning. Variable wind is public enemy number one when you're trying to chum the redfish on the flats. It's tough to get things going when you can't fish where you're throwing your chum! It took a little bit, but I soon had a great redfish bite going, and they didn't care what bait we showed them.

I started things off with the ladyfish, but two of those didn't last four guys long with a good bite going. Soon we were throwing sliced and diced pinfish and tail-hooked shiners, and the reds were eating it all. Me and my police department had a blast. Of course, the three brothers were all over each other every time one of them missed a fish, or I had to remind one of them of how to handle the tackle. They were all a hoot, and their friend Jim was funny as hell, especially with a fish on the end of his line. I heard a lot of, "Oh boy, I can't wait to see how you're going to write this up in your fishing report!" But, as the morning passed, everyone got into the groove, and the fish were really coming into the boat. The Klitch gang kept me really busy; too busy to keep count of how many fish we actually caught. But, I can tell you from experience, and from their comments, that they must have caught 10 redfish each. It was a great day of fishing, and the boys said it was their best guided fishing trip ever.

By the time we got in that afternoon, tropical storm Gordon was in the news. The weekend and perhaps the first part of next week are definitely in jeopardy. Oh well, it's that time of year!