As predicted in the close of the last fishing report, hurricane Gordon became a weather event for southwest Florida. We got lots of rain, and winds up to maybe 35 or 40 MPH, but basically dodged a major bullet as the storm skirted up the west coast and made landfall in the Panhandle area.

Roger Butcher and his beautiful wife Janie, from Oviedo, Florida, were supposed to fish on Monday. We wisely decided to move their trip to Tuesday. We had a really late tide, and didn't start until noon. I didn't figure there was any chance of catching ladyfish in my usual spot, so we went straight to Chino for bait. We got plenty with no problem. I went straight to one of my fall snook spots hoping that some fish would be there on the low tide. We caught 8 or 9 before the bite was over. The water was an absolute mess. There was debris floating everywhere making it all but impossible to fish.

Before we'd had time to barely wet a line at the next stop the storms were upon us. We ran to the Green Flash, which was the closest thing to us, for cover. We had a great lunch, and Roger and Janie had drinks. There were a lot of storms cells around. We ran back out once it looked like it might be safe to do so, but didn't get to fish long before more weather was threatening. The dirty water and wind coming from all directions as it fed the storm cells was making things impossible. We ran back to the Green Flash, and finished our trip there. Buy the time the weather had passed and it was safe to go back out, we elected to make a run for the docks. We hadn't gotten to do much fishing, but you know what, we'd had a absolute blast. Roger and Janie were great folks, and great fun to be with. They had their own boat with them, and hopefully learned enough to be helpful with fishing later in the week.

Barry Fitzgerald, of Agoura Hills, California, was up for Wednesday, but I regrettably elected to cancel the trip because of the weather that was still feeding Gordon. In addition to the weather forecast, we had a miserable tide, and so much floating debris that it seemed a foregone conclusion that catching anything would be nearly impossible. I hated to cancel the trip as I hadn't seen Barry in some time. Hopefully, we can get together next time he's here.

The last trip of the week, on Friday, was with John Bruning, of Mount Prospect, Illinois, who I last fished with back in December. I also fish with his brother Chic. John is a lot of fun, and this time he had his business partner, Mike along. It was Mike's first time on a BarHopp'R trip.

We went straight for the ladyfish, and had a morning of redfishing planned. On the ladyfish grounds, John had a very hot rod. He put most, if not all, of the 6 nice ladyfish in the well. Mike had trouble trying to reel fast enough to keep the line tight enough to land one. We also caught a couple of nice trout. We were in good shape with plenty of bait. We had a very early high tide, and I was sure that our best bite would come early, before the tide began falling. So, I was anxious to get going to the flats.

We had a good bite going almost immediately. John, who is already a BarHopp'R graduate, got into the groove pretty quickly, but Mike predictably had trouble with the hookset, even with circle hooks. But, we had a grand time, and had a good 24 or more reds on the line, and landed at least 12 of them. Not bad!

So, it was a tough week for fishing guides in southwest Florida. We're in a very volatile weather season, and we could have more tropical storms or hurricanes before the season is over. But, when we can get out there on a good tide, the fishing is great!