It was a great week of fishing, marred only by one breakdown and one slow redfish day. Here's how it went.

My friend Eric Wickstrom, of Purcellville, Virginia, was up for Monday and Tuesday. I was up for it. Fishing with just one angler is almost like having the day off in comparison to keeping up with two or three anglers. I knew Eric would respect my expensive tackle, so I brought my cache of Shimano Stellas and Sustains for us to play with both days. Eric is a very good fisherman, and a most interesting guy, and I knew we were in for two days of great fun.

We headed straight up the river for ladyfish on Monday morning. At the usual spot there wasn't much doing. I noticed birds working to the northeast of us about half a mile. Figuring there either had to be a big jack or ladyfish feed going on, I headed BarHopp'R I in that direction. When we arrived we were treated to one of the biggest ladyfish feeds I've ever seen. The fish were in an absolute frenzy. For the next hour or so we must have caught 30 to 40 ladyfish on practically every cast, as well as 4 jacks, 2 nice trout, and a large whiting. I'd never seen a whiting take a bait like a TerrorEyez! It was a blast!

I knew the reds were waiting for us out on the flats. We'd put a dozen ladyfish in the well for bait. I asked Eric if he was ready to go chase reds, and the answer was a resounding yes. Once we arrived at the flats the bite wasn't what I expected, but in two spots, one on the east side in the mangroves and one on the west side, we hooked around 18 redfish, and Eric boated a good dozen of them to 9 pounds. It was a great day, but Tuesday would be even better.

Tuesday morning, as we headed upriver to the same area, I notice a major feed going on. There were literally acres of fish busting bait everywhere. I was pretty sure they were jacks from the way they were acting. We stopped and tossed our TerrorEyez. For the next hour we caught jacks on nearly every cast. By the time the frenzy was over, Eric and I had boated more than 30 jacks, and Eric had landed a nice 30 inch snook. As I headed northeast up the river I hit something submerged in the tannin stained waters. It made a heck of a clank, and I figured I had just hit something with my Skegaurd. We were right back into the big ladyfish feed right where we had found them the day before. We left them biting to go and concentrate on redfish with at least 30 ladyfish caught. I noticed that every time I stopped and selected neutral, the shift dogs would grind until I wiggled the shifter a little bit. I was afraid that when I hit the submerged object, I might have bent a shift dog, or something. I also knew that I could simply have a shift shaft beginning to fail. Time would tell.

We had a better tide, and a better wind, now out of the southwest. The reds were hungry and ready to eat, and for the next several hours Eric landed about 20 of the 26 redfish that ate our baits. That's a great batting average, and I think we have a rising BarHopp'R star in Eric.

My customer for Wednesday was George Layton, of Bradenton, Florida. George is a physical therapist who treated my mother when she first went into IHS in Sarasota. He's a hell of a nice guy, and we've been wanting to fish together since we first met. We were finally going to pull off a trip. George and his neighbor Ron Hunter came down Tuesday evening and spent the night at my fish camp. We had a fabulous dinner at the Seafood Center and Crab House, and by the time I went to bed that night my ribs were sore from laughing!

None of us slept well that night. We were all too wired about the next morning's trip. I had plans of putting George and Ron on bunches of hungry redfish. But the Grim Reaper of outboard motors had other ideas. As I launched BarHopp'R from her Boatmaster trailer and went for reverse, I found reverse missing in action. I put down the trolling motor and headed for the trailer. George and Ron had gone to park their truck, and were shocked and disappointed to find me putting the boat back on the trailer when the got back down to the ramp. We were all terribly disappointed.

I headed up I-75 for Outboard Motor Connection as quickly as I could. Upon arriving to a nice welcome, Jayson quickly determined that the problem was indeed a failing shift shaft. My good friend and owner, Craig Wildason, told me that if I could hang around they would have the powerhead pulled, shaft replaced, lower unit serviced and checked out, and me ready to go by quitting time. I can't tell you how thankful I was. I headed to Sarasota to wait for their call. True to his word, Craig had me ready to go late that afternoon, and I was on my way back to Ft. Myers. Craig's bill was very reasonable. The only hitch was that they had found a hole corroded through part of the intermediate housing. Jayson had done many permanent fixes of this common problem with sealant, and was reasonably sure that the fix would work on my engine. We wouldn't know until the next morning.

Thursday morning, Tom Smith, and his lifelong fishing buddies Charlie and Jim were ready to try their luck a second time. I was concerned with the northeast wind blowing at 15, which meant that we were finally out from under the influence of Gordon, and had high pressure building in. That's usually bad for fishing. But, the first test we had to pass was the patch on the motor. I cranked her up, and she seemed to be as good as new. We were a go! We headed straight to the ladyfish. It wasn't long before we had 6 of the many ladyfish that chased our baits into the well, and were on our way. We also got one trout.

Once on the flats we were able to get a pretty good bite going. It wasn't a ravenous bite, but we had plenty of opportunities. Tom, Jim, and Charlie are experienced anglers, but still pretty new to this style of fishing, and predictably had their troubles with the hookset, even using the circle hooks. We had around 20 redfish on, and around 7 snook. The boys landed 1 snook and about 13 or 14 redfish. The guys are a lot of fun, and kept me entertained as they busted each other's chops when they missed fish. Those reds pull hard, and they caught enough to have them pretty tired by the time we headed to the Green Flash on Captiva for lunch.

Friday's trip was with two sixteen year old high school students, Eric Fosbender and his buddy, A.J. Alioto, from the east coast of Florida. The way I met Eric is in interesting story, indeed, but this is not the time or place to tell it. Anyway, Eric and A.J. had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and were looking forward to catching lots of redfish and snook. As I drove across the bay to pick them up at the Waterfront Restaurant in a 20 knot northeast wind, I feared it would be a very tough day. At the dock Eric and A.J. were waiting with Eric's mother, Marie, who was as sweet as she could be. She informed me that they had given Eric a choice of presents for his sixteenth birthday, and he chose the trip with me. She also said that the boys were using the trip as a high school project. We pulled away from the dock at around 9:30, and headed back up the river to look for bait.

We found the ladyfish right where they should have been, and had constant action, which the boys enjoyed. A.J. caught a big trout, which Eric let get away at boatside while trying to get it unhooked. They caught one other big trout and a jack, and put 6 nice ladyfish in the well for bait. I also wanted to have shiners for snook fishing early in the trip while the tide was low and incoming, so we headed to Chino Island. It didn't take long there to catch plenty of shiners and pinfish.

The first stop after bait was for snook. The snook were there, but the boys soon got a lesson in fishing humility as they found out that light tackle fishing in a high current for snook is not as easy as it looks. They had about ten snook on the line, but only landed 2.

Once the snook bite slowed, we headed to the flats for the redfish. As I poled onto the flats, I found fish right where I expected them to be. Problem was, they had lockjaw. We only caught one. Patience is often the name of the game with reds. I've waited them out many a time and wound up catching lots of fish, but they just never turned on. We headed to another spot where I've been catching lots of reds in the bushes, but we missed the only red that hit. Only the catfish would eat on the falling water.

I guess the boys were somewhat disappointed that I couldn't get the reds to play, but they'd had constant action with ladyfish, trout, jacks, and snook for a good part of the trip. Back at the dock A.J. completed the homework part of the trip with questions about the business. We'd had a good time. I had to do some stern coaching at times, but that's to be expected with a couple of sixteen year old boys, who's attention spans aren't as long as we'd like, sometimes. But the tried hard, and got into the groove, and I think they learned a lot. We're trying to find another day to fish that is compatible with their school schedules, and my rapidly filling fall calendar.

I made my first ever trip to Flamingo, down at Cape Sable at the tip of Florida, and for all practical purposes, at the end of the earth, with my good friend Russ Hubbard, who has been making trips there for years. I'll be posting a special report about that trip as soon as I can find the time.