It was a busy week, with seven trips scheduled, and six trips to report on. For the most part it was a windy week, as well. It made things tough at times, but my customers enjoyed some pretty good fishing.

The first victim of the wind was my good friends Pat and Ron Kolata on Sunday. Although Ron and I were scheduled to fish together on Wednesday and Thursday, Pat decided she'd like to take Ron, and her friend Doris, out on the boat for a day of leisure, and let Ron do some fishing. But, after battling the winds all day on Saturday, and knowing it would be as bad on Sunday, I suggested we cancel. I couldn't imagine the ladies would be very comfortable in the rough waters that would accompany the wind.

My customer for Monday was Earl Millett, and his good friend of many years, Pat McCarrick, of White Plaines, New York. It was our first trip together. We headed to Chino Island where bait had been great the week before, to find none. I worked for more than an hour without seeing a shiner. Frustrated, I headed up to Keisel's, where I had been seeing bait everywhere every time I was in the area. Sure enough, with just a little chumming we had bait everywhere, and were soon loaded up.

We concentrated on snook and redfish, first. We had a tide with good height, but little current flow, and I anticipated a slow bite. It was slow, but steady. We picked away at the fish, and as it turned out Pat had the hot rod for snook, boating 6 to Earl's 1. The boys also boated 4 nice redfish. Later in the falling tide we caught lots of trout. It had been a good day, all in all, and Earl and Pat were great guys, and the three of us had lots of fun.

Tuesday, I had my first trip with Paul Fasano, of Carmel, New York, along with his brother-in-law. Still on an early tide, we left the dock at 7 AM, and headed straight to Kiesel's flat. Bait came easily in a couple of throws.

I picked a spot I hadn't' fished in a while to begin the hunt for snook. Man, the snook were there, along with some redfish. We spent the whole morning on this one hole, and had lots of action. The boys boated 12 snook, but they had at least twice as many hit their baits that weren't caught, lost several big fish, and boated one nice keeper. Along with all the snook action, they boated 7 big redfish! It was a great morning of fishing, and all in the same spot.

Wednesday, it was time for the first of two trips with my old friend Dr. Ron Kolata, of Cincinnati, Ohio. I was to fish with Ron on Wednesday, then join Ron and Pat, and all their friends at their condo on Sanibel for dinner that night, then fish again on Thursday. I brought Pat a bottle of Crystal hot sauce for her to use in the wonderful stonecrab dip she makes, and couldn't wait to get into it.

Ron and I were facing a very windy day. A cool front had passed, and although it brought no rain, it brought wind and high pressure. But, in spite of a big northwest wind, the fishing was very good. We got bait at Kiesel's once again, and from the time we arrived at the first stop we had great action. We were targeting snook, but I usually put out a couple of cutbait rigs for redfish when I'm doing so. It paid big for us. We had immediate action, and the first fish was a red. Ron caught 7 big redfish in all, along with 20+ snook, a small barracuda, and a blacktip shark about 4 ft. long. It was constant action, and we never moved more than 50 yards from where we began that morning. We had a blast.

Thursday, it was nearly as windy as it was on Wednesday. Worse, the wind direction forced us to look into the glare of the sun on the water all morning, and apparently the pressure was up, as the bite was way off. Even bait was hard to catch. But, we managed. Ron is a great angler, but more than that just loves to fish, and take what comes with a grain of salt. We had to work hard at it compared to the day before, but Ron managed to boat 7 or 8 snook, 6 redfish, and one trout for the Slam.

It was a great two days with Ron and Company. It's wonderful to renew old friendships each year, and that's exactly what Friday and Saturday were all about, as well. My friends Alan and Pam Warren were back in town for two days of fishing, and the occasion was their anniversary.

Friday was a pretty nice day for Alan and Pam, and me. We still had a breeze, but nothing like what we'd had for the past several days. The tides were getting a little better each day, as well. Bait was getting tougher each day, though. We really worked for it.

We were getting started right at the bottom of the low tide. It was time for trout fishing in the potholes while the water was low. Some of my favorite holes are home to big snook as well as big trout. At the first hole we had lots of snook hits, but couldn't connect with one. They were hitting to kill, rather than to eat, apparently. Allan and Pam did catch several large trout before we moved on, though.

The next stop was a snook stop. The fish didn't want to eat. We really worked to put 6 snook into the boat, but did get a keeper of about 30 inches. We decided to chase redfish later on the tide, and made our move. I put out live chum and cut shiners and pinfish, to put the smell of blood in the water. Nothing was happening. The fish didn't want to eat, but I knew I was on fish. We did catch a fish or two, as my friend Capt. Butch Boteler joined us on the flat, but they just wouldn't turn on.

Boteler finally moved on to parts unknown, but we stayed. I learned long ago that fishing reds is almost always rewarded by patience. You have to keep at it and believe, especially if you KNOW you're on fish. Finally, it happened. Not long after we were joined by a couple of weekend warriors in a yellow Key West Stealth, the bite began. The reds really turned on, and Alan and Pam had a blast catching some 15 of the bronze torpedoes, all while the couple who had parked not more than 50 yards off my starboard caught nothing. They were content to watch in amazement.

I had stayed late on the flat waiting, hoping, and knowing I would eventually get a bite. Finally, it was time for us to go. I offered our left-over bait to the fishless couple, and they were happy to have it. They had shiners, but no pinfish, and the reds were eating pins. Along with the bait, I gave them a few pointers, and we left hoping they would be able to catch a few redfish. We did leave them biting! What a day it had turned out to be.

We all went to dinner at the Matlacha Oyster House that night. Pam is a lean, mean, crab eatin' machine! We had a great dinner, and a great time. I love to be able to spend time with my customers off the water.

I wondered as I arrived at the already hectic ramp on Saturday morning, how I had let Alan talk me into fishing on Saturday. It was obviously going to be a busy day on the water. It was just after 7 AM, and I got one of the last remaining parking places. Worse, the wind was really blowing right out of the southeast. A sure sign that a change in the weather was imminent. As Pam, Alan, and I rode the Talon to Kiesel's for bait, I wondered what the day would bring.

Bait was tough. We got almost no shiners at the first stop in about 4 ft. of water. My buddy Butch Boteler was also on the water, out a little deeper, and was getting a handful per throw. I decided to move shallower, and it eventually proved to be the right move. It took some doing, but finally the bait came, and once it did, we caught tons of it. As we caught bait I had decided not to entertain even crossing the Sound in that wind. I was sure it would be ugly.

We began with trout and snook fishing in the potholes, but even once the tide began coming in hard, there was only a poor bite, at best. Oh, we had plenty of snook hits, but only managed to hook one. We brought many baits back to the boat with that classic scaled center section that can only mean snook. We caught a few nice trout there, as well, but the big surprise was that we Slammed in that spot with 2 redfish to the boat!

Once the bite slowed we moved on to another spot that gets great water movement on a descent tide, and I like to fish it while the water is low. We quickly had jack crevalle crashing our baits, and had a good time with them. Pam also caught a ladyfish. Alan was surprised and pleased to boat a 21 inch gag grouper, but it managed to get away from him and back to freedom before we could get a picture of it. We also managed a half dozen or so snook, including a nice 28 inch keeper for Pam.

From there we went in pursuit of redfish, again as the tide began to cover things, and we did manage to get a few to eat. Alan missed several great hits on pinfish under the old Cajun float, but he also caught a 9 pound red, and Pam caught a number of small puppy-drum on shiners, as well as a snook or two.

I think we were all pleased with the results of the day considering it had been a very windy Saturday, with boats everywhere. More than that, it had been a great two days renewing our friendship, and even nurturing it deeper. The Warrens are great folks, they're fishing people, and I love to fish with them. They decided to make the October trip an annual thing to celebrate their anniversary.

And that's how it went. It was a very busy October that followed a very scary August and September. But, as if by design, there's not a whole lot going on in November. The reports will grow short, once again if something doesn't happen. Stay tuned.

If you want to be able to continue to fish Florida waters please follow this link, "Manatee Zones: How You Can Help" and please take the time to become involved, even if you don't live in Florida. Let the politicians know WHY you come to Florida on vacation!

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