Sunday was the second day of fishing in Flamingo with my buddy Rus Hubbard. Monday was a travel day. If you haven't yet read the story about our trip to Flamingo, check it out in the Articles section. Since I'm working this coming weekend and the tides during this week are so poor, I scheduled Tuesday through Thursday off. That only leaves one day of fishing to talk about in this report.

Friday's tide was the best of the work week, and that sure wasn't saying much. It was high first thing, then going out for the rest of the morning. We also had a 15 knot northeast wind blowing, which doesn't do anything for the fishing. Kevin Bressman, his brother Paul, and friend James Puckett were down from Orlando to try their luck. I knew our best shot at reds would be early, so we were off to the river to catch ladyfish at 6 o'clock. There were plenty of ladyfish to catch, and even though the boys missed many it didn't take too long to put 5 in the well. Trout and gafftop sail cats also love the DOA Terroreyez we were throwing, and we caught 5 nice trout, and 6 cats.

We headed to the flats in hopes of finding some redfish that were still hungry, but I knew it would be tough. A slow bite doesn't give my customers much time to master the long, tight line hookset, and it does take time for most folks to get the hang of. I don't recall now how many reds were missed, but the boys managed 3 reds to 9 pounds, and 1 snook. It wasn't what I wanted to see them catch, but we had a great time just the same. We finished the day with a fabulous lunch at the Waterfront, which is finally reopened after a three week shutdown to rebuild their seawalls. God did I miss having lunch there!

As the week ends the weather folks are talking of a large Arctic cold front heading this direction, that could be bringing record cool temperatures. We've got a week of good tides ahead of us, but an early season cold front could make things difficult. Stay tuned!