Sunday morning. I can't believe it's not raining as I prepare the boat in darkness for the first trip in a week. I was hopeful that the sky wouldn't betray me when the sun rose.

My party was to be Ned Otto, of Orlando. He had been referred to me by Bill Alexander, who had to cancel the day before because of the awful weather. They were both staying at the Radisson Inn, and were both from Orlando, but didn't previously know each other.

We had good tides early in the week, and I was sure I could put Ned on the fish if the weather would just hold. Ned said he was game to fish as long as there was no electricity in the air. I agreed.

Bait was easy, and I loaded both wells to capacity. Our high tide was around 11:00 AM, and I wanted to be on my flat and start fishing a couple hours before that. We hit a couple of spots looking for snook, but the fish hadn't moved in yet. I went to my final destination early, deciding to just wait the fish out.

As soon as the tide got high enough, I put out some chum and the action started. It was slow at first, but didn't take long to really go crazy. Ned actually started fishing at around 9:00 AM, and by 11:00 AM, he declared he'd had enough, and was ready to go home. The total for the two and a half hour session was 1 trout, 2 snook boated (4 lost), and 26 redfish to 27 inches. Oh, there was also one good heavy shower that really soaked us, but we stayed right there and fished. Ned returned to the ramp sore and happy.

Monday brought more of the same kind of fast and furious action for a party of three, who caught to many redfish to even try to count.

Next up were John Giddens and his 14 year old son, Cory, who both love to fish. The Giddens boys are from Miami, and fish a lot both there and at their place in the Keys, but they don't get to fish for snook or redfish very often. My plan was to wear them out on the mid-afternoon high tide.

Once again I loaded up with probably as many as 800 shiners. We fished some traditional fall patterns and caught a snook, some trout, and a red, and saw several big snook in a spot I didn't expect to see them yet. I was waiting on the water.

Around noon, I made my move to the flats. I figured we would be able to catch reds until around 3:00 or so. Wrong! The fish weren't there, or at least, weren't eating. John and Cory caught a few snook, and missed quite a few more, but no reds. By 2:00 PM I was getting worried. I had chummed and chummed, and no reds. I was considering a move to another area.

I decided to try one more thing before moving. I reasoned that with the high tide considerably lower that the previous week, because of the change as we get into fall, that the fish may be holding farther away from the boat because they're aware of our presence. I tied on a larger weighted popping cork that would allow me to get the bait another 30 - 50 feet away from the boat. First cast....wallah!! Redfish.

With the reds biting like crazy, I called it a wrap at 4:00 PM. The total catch for the day was 4 trout, 6 snook ( many missed), and 24+ redfish. Most of those fish were caught in a three hour period.

The following day I was back at Smith Marine having 5 Accon locking hatch pulls installed on "the BarHopp'R". I thought it would be a quick and easy job involving drilling five 2 inch holes, and mounting the latches, but you know these things always seem to turn into major projects. We had to bend each one of the lock arms to make them fit in my application, and with lunch and interruptions it turned into an all day deal. I didn't mind, it's always fun to hang around Craig's shop. All the while, I knew my cousin Capt. Terry was out there somewhere tearing up the reds. The tides for this coming week aren't very favorable, but if you don't mind fishing the outgoing and low tides you should be able to find the fish holed up somewhere. Until next week, tight lines. Capt. Butch

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