Last week ended with hurricane Irene knocking on our door. But at the last minute she turned east, and went up Florida's east coast, putting us on the dry side. We actually got our weather from Irene last Thursday and Friday. Although we were spared the hurricane, we weren't spared from more slow fishing!

I didn't realize it at the time, but Monday would go down as the best day of the week. My friend Tom Davanaugh was up from Naples with a cool gal named Terri, who sells his products. Terri has done a lot of blue water fishing, but this was her first flats fishing experience. Terri was a lot of laughs, and caught on quickly to our brand of flats fishing.

We had a very early tide, and I wasn't sure if bait would be a problem after the brush with Irene. As is turned out, there was plenty of bait, but getting the fish to eat on the falling tide was another matter. We went after redfish, first. I chummed the fish heavily, but could never get them to really go into a feeding mode. We finished out redfishing with 8 small reds. I was surprised to see the smaller reds on that flat at this time of year.

From the flats we headed to the river for some snook fishing. The action wasn't fast and furious there, either, but enough to have some fun. We boated 6 or 7 snook, a snapper, a ladyfish, and 5 jack crevalle to 4 pounds. We ended the day with about 23 fish, but no keepers. But, in fairness to the numbers, we missed quite a few fish. From the river we headed back to St. James City for a lunch at the Waterfront. On the way back to the ramp I told Terry that she could probably catch a snook at the dock. I guess she didn't believe me, because she was absolutely shocked, and thrilled, when she pulled a 25 inch fish out of the pilings with 8 pound test.

It was good to see Tom again, and to be a part of introducing Terry to the fun of flats fishing. She was a good student.

Tuesday, Ron Jones was down for a much needed vacation from his home in Colorado. Ron and I had fished together for the first time on June 7, and had a great trip. Ron's a super guy. I was in hopes that we could get the fish really turned on for him this time, but knew it would be tough to pull off with the weak tides and ever brighter night sky. Ron was joined by his best friend Jeff XX, and Jeff's nine year old son, Steve.

Bait was again plentiful at Fosters Point, and it wasn't long before we were on the flats trying to get the redfish going. We got quite a few hits, but Jeff and Steve had a hard time getting used to the tight line hookset, and we only managed to boat 7 or 8 reds to 24 inches. As on the day before, we headed up the river when the redfish bite quit. The bite was slow, and the snook were small, and we only got about half a dozen, along with a snapper, and 4 jacks. We finished the day out with a wonderful Waterfront lunch. It was Ron's first time there.

Wednesday morning I picked up my friend Kevin Haag and his friend Steve Rabold, at the Waterfront in darkness. This was my third trip with Kevin, owner of Douglas Realty in Cape Coral. Steve is an attorney from Ohio, who recently built a home near Kevin's. I think this trip was to introduce Steve to our local flats fishing. I was very pleased when Kevin told me that what I had taught him on previous trips had opened up a whole new world to him and his young son, and that his son recently caught a 36 inch redfish.

We would be fighting the combined effects of poor tides, east wind, and a nearly full moon. The fishing was getting tougher as the week progressed. The outcome was fairly predictable. The fish had lockjaw. Bait was good and plentiful, and it was a beautiful day, but the fish didn't want to play. I worked hard trying to get something going, but our best efforts yielded 4 redfish (along with several breakoffs and misses), 2 snook to 25 inches, a stingray, and 4 trout in the boat. Even the trout didn't want to play. We finished the day with a lunch back at the Waterfront, and cleaned our limit of redfish and a trout there at J.D.'s cleaning station. In spite of the slow fishing, it had been a fun day on the water with Kevin and Steve.

Thursday would dawn an even tougher day for Gene Weidemoyer and Gary Goodenow. Gene and I had been trying to get together for some time, but Gene's unpredictable schedule had caused him to have to change his plans. I hated that Gene's first trip would wind up being on such a slow day, but I knew that with a cold front on our doorstep, that's what it would be.

We had beautiful bait, and we fished out hearts out. We were only able to trick two redfish, a jack, and three trout into eating. The snook refused to play at all. Oh, we were on fish all morning long, without question. They just wouldn't eat. But, we had a great time in spite of that. Gene and Gary were fun guys, and gave me lots of laughs. Shortly after we got to the Waterfront, my old friend/customer Mike Henry, owner/operator of Pipestone Flyin Outposts walked in and joined us. He certainly livened up lunch with some great tales and jokes.

I met my friend Jim Bach, from Loxahatchee, along with his brother Dan, and his dad, Ron of North Ft. Myers, ready to fish if they wanted to. But, the wind was howling out of the north at 20 or better, and it was cold. I knew, especially in light of how the week had progressed, that it would be the toughest day of the week if we fished. I advised that since the Bachs are local, we reschedule our trip for a better day. If they had been here from somewhere far away, with no alternate dates, I would have been willing to challenge the Gods, but today it seemed pointless. We all agreed, and headed to the Split Rail for breakfast. We had a good time talking about past trips and fishing in general, and the boys finally headed home around nine o'clock.

I took BarHopp'R II back to Charles Waddington for another attempt to repair a deck problem, and spent a good part of the day working on the web. And that's the way the week went.