This was a week for renewing old friendships and making new ones. It was also the week of the full moon, and by the later part of the week, poor tides. The extreme light conditions during the night would make morning fishing difficult. Snook and redfish are nocturnal feeders, and for several days either side of the full moon they feed heavily in the moonlit night, and aren't hungry come morning. It's just one of those things we have to work with.

First up this week were Bill Chancy, who recently moved to the area, and his younger brother Bob, who was down visiting. We had a full incoming tide to fish, but it was the moon that I was worried about. There was plenty of bait of all sizes on the flat north of Chino Island. A little Purina Tropical Fish Food was all that was necessary to load the wells. I did notice that small threadfins were showing up and starting to plug up my castnet.

I started Bill and Bob off fishing the various cuts that get strong current flow on the first of the incoming tide. These are usually great places for snook action. Although Bill and Bob missed several fish, the action was predictably slow. They managed to boat one trout. Bill, a mountain of a man, was bothered by poor circulation in his legs, and didn't do a lot of fishing in the early part of the trip. In addition, he wasn't feeling well in general, and was waiting until we got on a good bite.

As the tide flooded the flats and made conditions right for redfish, we made our move to find them. It didn't take too long before we had a good redfish bite going, but Bill and Bob had a terrible time trying to get one hooked, as do most anglers new to this sport. The problem lies in the fact that you're making very long casts (100 ft. or more) with light line, typically 8 pound test. If an angler strikes at a fish when he first detects a bite, he will have a hell of a time getting one hooked, because he will be a long way from having all the slack and stretch out of the line before his rod is way behind his body and/or he feels fish at the other end. The result if a missed fish.

Well, I think Bill and Bob must have missed the first 20 reds who wanted to be caught. I seem to remember showing them how to do it on one fish, and they were really amazed at how long I let the fish run until I hit him. After that it was look out redfish. The Chaney team still managed to boat around 20 redfish even after missing that many. I think that both Chaneys were surprised at how strong those redfish were, and were about ready to get out of the heat by the end of the trip. We had a great time. I've already received a great email from Bill telling me how much they enjoyed the fishing. Bill and Bob were lots of fun, and although they didn't think so, they did just fine with the fish.

Tuesday, my friend Mike Gorga, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, was up for the first of two days of fishing. He's down for a couple of weeks, and we have another trip scheduled for next week. His uncle Bill Farrell was along for the fun.

We had nearly identical conditions as on Monday, with east breezes at around ten knots. The tide would be roughly an hour later, which meant the redfish bite would probably be an hour later. Although bait was still plentiful, I noticed more small threads gilling in my castnet. I decided I would bring my 1/4 inch glass minnow net Wednesday, and avoid all the gilled baits.

After catching bait at Chino, we spent some time playing jacks. They were up smashing bait on the bar, and that always means fast action while it lasts. I guess Mike and Bill must have caught around a dozen fish before we decided to go chase snook. The snook still didn't want to play early, but the boys boated a couple of trout. We finally headed to the redfish flats around 10:30. We were a little early.

I had to do a lot of live chumming, and we had to wait for a while, but we finally got the redfish to turn on. It was a late bite, but it was Mike's and Bill's first experience with reds, and after around a dozen to fifteen of the hard pulling critters weighing up to eight pounds, they'd had enough and were ready to head in. It had been a beautiful, fun day on the water, and it was great to see Mike again.

By Wednesday, we had a dead low tide at around 10:00 AM. Although the moon and tide would now be a problem, I figured we would have a good chance of finding some tailing redfish, or redfish in a pothole, somewhere. George McRobbie, of Perth, Scotland, was my charter for the day, and I sure hoped I could put him on some fish.

Bait was still at Chino, but by now there were some many threadfins I could barely lift the next into the boat. There was still plenty of bait, but I had to cull out the good bait by hand. By the time I had bait gathered, I looked like I was covered with a layer of ferry dust, and the boat was an absolute mess. The tiny scales of the threadfins were on everything, and very hard to get off. I sensed a change in the bait situation was coming.

I decided to take George to fish some of the potholes in an area known as Flamingo. I had done extremely well there on the winter low tides in the past. Shortly after poling to the edge of the first hole, we saw a red swim right across the bow of the boat. Then a tail popped up just outside the hole. I threw some chum into the hole in front of the tailing fish to try to draw him into the hole. I followed with a tail-hooked shiner. It was eaten immediately. George was pleasantly surprised at the dogged, determined pull of his first redfish. He followed that fish with two gafftop sail cats, and a hardhead.

We weren't in Flamingo long before I noticed we were losing our bait. That always induces a feeling of panic. I quickly pulled anchor and polled for cleaner water, thinking that the water might be low on oxygen. I knew we had redfish there to catch, and we probably could have caught a few, but I couldn't take a chance on losing all our bait. We left there with a redfish, three catfish, a ladyfish, a jack, and three trout under our belts, and have our bait dead. Damn!

I headed on up the Sound to the area known as the Triangle in hopes of finding tailing reds. After stopping at a small mangrove key and putting some baits into the hole, I noticed several big reds tailing not 50 yards away. I invited George to leave the boat and go after the fish on foot. George was game. But, by the time we got to the fish they had quit tailing. The tide was now on it's way in, and coming hard, and we never even got a shot at those fish.

That was the queue to head to my favorite flat. We got there before the water was right and waited doing a little chumming. There was another guide working the area, but he wasn't catching, and I knew he wouldn't hang around long. Once he was gone, I went in and staked out, and started doing some chumming. I had to make a couple of minor moves before we got on the fish, but we finally did. George managed to boat around a dozen of the bronze torpedoes up to eight pounds, along with a couple of snook, before it was time to call it a day. George really enjoyed catching those fish, and made several comments about what a wonderful fish they are. George, who is a very skilled angler, was also quite surprised at how much pressure we put on those fish with our 7 and 7.5 ft. rods, which are short by Scottish standards. George was great fun, and it's always fun to compare notes with anglers from other parts of the world.

Thursday and Friday were reserved for my old buddy and one of my most regular customers, Kevin Grover. We had a three boat trip for Thursday and I'd enlisted Capt. Mark Bess and Capt. Kevin Holley to help with the guiding. Kevin likes to do full day trips, and with the very late tide, I figured we'd be making a late day of it.

Thursday, we all ran up to Chino for bait. We had to work for it, but we got what we needed. The threadfins were really thick and making a mess of things. Mark and I had also stopped and bought some shrimp to use for tailing reds. There's no better bait for tailers than a Texas rigged shrimp.

Once we had bait caught, I ran straight to the flat where I had planned to spend the day. The plan was to fish the tailing reds on the low tide, go to Cabbage Key or the Waterfront Restaurant for lunch, then come back and fish the afternoon high for reds again. Capt. Kevin went up into Matlacha, and we didn't see him again for the rest of the day. Mark, with Julie Clemens and Gavin aboard, went his own way for a while, but we had made plans the evening before, and I knew he would be showing up where I was when the water got down. I had Kevin, and two of his good friends Rick and Karen, from the Gainesville area aboard. Although they had caught many redfish, they'd never had the opportunity to fish for tailers.

I poled along the edge of the exposed flat for a while before we spotted any fish. Once we did, we got out of the boat and walked in to them. I carried bait in a floating bait net, spare bait-keeper hooks, and spare leader line in my pockets, along with my Boga-Grip.

The turtle grass was very dense, and the fish were feeding intently, and didn't notice the first few shrimp we dropped near them. But, finally, Rick hooked and landed his first tailing redfish. It was just under 27 inches, and Rick was pleased. That was the last we saw of the tailers. Seemed as though all the commotion put the fish down, or ran them off.

While we were occupied doing that, Mark had come in to the flat some distance behind us where one hell of a jack attack was going on and Julie caught a couple of those great fighting fish. We then rendezvoused, and decided to go to J.D. Hollway's Waterfront Restaurant in St. James City, on Pine Island. We had a great lunch, during which I got to know Mark's party Julie and Gavin, and my guys got to meet Mark. All the while, Mark and I were watching the water level on the seawall outside, waiting for the tide to get right. Once it was, we were off to redfish city.

It didn't take too long, once we were back on the now covered flat, to get the bite going. Mark and I worked along side each other, chumming as we went until we hit the fish. We both started catching at about the same time. Kevin missed several fish, but my group managed to boat more than a dozen reds, a couple of trout, and a couple of jacks. Mark's crew did even better, I think.

At around four o'clock, Mark announced that he had to be at a football game with his daughter that evening, as she was making her first cheerleading appearance. I offered to bring Julie and Gavin aboard, and let Mark take Rick and Karen, who were worn out, back to the docks with him. Julie and Gavin were all for that, and we caught another half dozen redfish before we called it quits. It was a great day, with lots of laughs and lots of fish before we were done.

Friday, Kevin was back with Julie and Gavin. My plan was to catch bait and then fish the mouth of the river for snook. The plan sort of backfired, as bait had all but disappeared off the Chino flats. I moved and chummed all over the flat, and we only got a couple dozen pieces of snook sized bait. The rest was small. Kevin, Julie, and Gavin, who had all fished the whole day Thursday with serious hangovers and practically no sleep, weren't all that serious about fishing, anyway, and we took what we had and went fishing.

The first stop was Shell Creek, and the first several baits Kevin put in the water were hit, but Kevin didn't get them hooked. Julie struck first gold and landed a snook. We only managed to land two or three more before the tide came to a screeching halt.

We decided to head back to the Waterfront for another great lunch and some relaxation and camaraderie. I had the spicy shrimp, and they were awesome. Afterward, we ran back out in a not too serious frame of mind and caught a few trout and jacks, and then called it a day.

It was a great two days of fishing and fun. Kevin Grover is one of my favorite customers, and loves to tease me about my boatside manner, and we always have fun. It was great to see him again after a long period of absence during which he sold his company.

Today, I bought my first fishing kayak. It's a Perception Prism. It is the first step in my plans for offering guided or unguided kayak fishing excursions to the backcountry, using the BarHopp'R as the delivery vehicle. I recognize that kayak fishing is becoming ever more popular, and think it's time to test the waters. There's no better way to sneak up on tailing redfish than in a kayak. I would be interested in any feedback or ideas any of you, my readers and customers, might be willing to offer.