Although hurricane Georges moved out into the Gulf and toward the upper Gulf coast, we continued to feel strong southwesterly winds and some rain as the storm made its way east across the panhandle later in the week. I think the wind kept most of us guides in port for most of the earlier part of the week.

My first trip was Thursday with John "J.J." Johnson and his dad, John Johnson, of Floridana Beach, Florida. They own a waterfront mobile home on Pine Island, which they like to visit regularly. Of course, they love to fish the local waters from their 17 ft. Key West boat. To save them a long drive around a lot of water, I was to pick them up at the Waterfront Restaurant in St. James City on the island.

We weren't even near the high tide around daybreak, but the high southerly winds already had the tide nearly up over the docks. I knew it was going to be a rough, wet ride, but hoped the fish would eat, and the bait would surrender peacefully.

Well, bait didn't exactly jump into the boat, but it didn't take too long to gather enough for the day's fishing. I decided to fish on the Sanibel side of the Sound to try to get some windbreak from the island.

I really expected there would be a strong bite with the southerly winds, and although the fish were eating, it wasn't with the reckless abandon I had envisioned. I made the first cast in order to show them where the bait needed to go, and that first bait was quickly consumed by a big snook before I could even hand one of the Johnsons the rod. I stuck the fish to set the hook, and quickly handed the rod off to J.J. Within seconds I heard the line part with a sharp crack. Damn! Easy come, easy go! The fish had broken off in a hard charge.

Through the course of the morning, John and J.J. had probably 40 strikes, but the boys had a hard time waiting long enough to set the hook. When you're fishing eight pound test and making 100 ft. plus casts, it is imperative that you wait on a completely tight line before you strike the fish. If you don't wait, and you strike early, you wind up with the rob well behind your body before you hit anything solid, and the fish is lost.

Although John and J.J. missed many more fish than they caught, they were great guys and took it all in stride. We had a great time in spite of the conditions, and they managed to boat 6 or so snook, and 6 reds. I was hopeful that they would get more to the boat, but J.J. told me that if they boated 4 fish when fishing on their own, they figured they'd had a good day. They took home plenty to feed the gang.

I was afraid that Friday would be a weather repeat of Thursday, but the promise of 10 to 15 knot breezes made by the weather forecasters Thursday night actually came true for me and my friend Lew Joseph and his buddies. We drew an absolutely fabulous day. Lew had brought along his friends Ray Lister and Bunky Bruce, all of Ft. Myers, and wanted to concentrate on catching some snook.

I started on one of my very favorite snook holes, which had given up several nice snook the day before, but the snook didn't want to eat. There were several missed hits. I moved to the next hole, where we missed a couple more, but caught none. The third spot produced similar results. Hum!?! The fourth hole produced several redfish for Ray. We were right on the fringe of one of my favorite redfish flats, and I knew the presence of those fish meant there were plenty of reds on that flat. I knew we were close to them, and also knew we would probably catch some snook. We moved up about a hundred feet to the next hole, and from the time the first bait went into the water we had a redfish bonanza that lasted more than three hours. Lew, Ray, and Bunky caught redfish just as fast as they could having double after double, and triple after triple. On two occasions, I managed to throw a bait out and complete the quadruple hookup. The biggest fish was just under eight pounds, and by the time we left the fish biting to go look for snook, we had boated 40 or more reds. There were at least a dozen get-a-ways, as I know I tied at least that many lines.

We made three snook stops, but the tide had already turned, and the fish didn't want to eat. It gave me a chance to show Lew how to fish the spots. So, we ended the day with a couple of trout, a jack, and 40 or so redfish. It was a great day of fishing, and catching, with three guys that love to fish, and J. J., if you read this, you should have been here tomorrow!!