Although this week was a week of vacation for me, I did manage to get out twice with a couple of friends for some just for fun fishing.

Wednesday morning I met my good friend Capt. Tom Stephens at the 10th Street ramp in Sarasota. I was excited about getting to go fishing without any pressure to find fish, and not having to be the guide. Tom took us a short distance from the launch to catch bait. We anchored and chummed, but nothing appeared. We decided to move to the Middle Grounds, and as we left we ran across tons of nice bait not 25 yards from where we were anchored. A couple of throws had us loaded up.

Tom knew where there were lots of big jacks held up. Jack crevalle are probably the hardest fighting fish in our waters for their size. They're fierce! I was all for some easy jack action. I don't understand why jacks don't get more respect from sport fishermen, or some guides. Because they're not particularly good on the table, they get a bad wrap! We caught plenty of jacks at the first spot running up to 7 pounds.

Once the action slowed there, we went to what used to be one of my favorite snook holes when I fished Sarasota Bay a lot. Although I did break off a big snook in the pilings, all the rest of the fish were jacks, too. I'd guess we caught nearly 30 jacks in all. After the action slowed we went and did a little exploring, and found an oyster bar that was loaded with fish, but we spooked them before we could get the boat stopped. We settled for a couple of trout and called it a day. And a fun and relaxing day it was. Thank you, Tom!

Friday, I was fortunate to join my friend and customer Dave Latimer, of St. Petersburg. We have a trip planned for December 3rd, to fish up in his neck of the woods, which I'm really looking forward to. Dave had emailed me that he was going to go exploring in preparation for our trip, and I kind of volunteered myself to join him. Dave was nice enough to welcome me aboard his 17 ft. Polar, which is well equipped with poling platform and jackplate. We decided to go explore the Cockroach Bay area of Tampa Bay with lures only, since neither of us had ever fished it.

We met at the small, but nice little ramp at the end of Cockroach Bay Road south of Ruskin at 6:30 AM. We worked a whole lot of water real hard with topwater plugs and spoons, and had two snook strikes, both missed. We had fun, though, and really enjoyed the beauty of the area, which is very similar to the Burnt Store shoreline of Charlotte Harbor. There are lots of mangrove keys, oyster bar, and cuts everywhere. It looks very fishy, and probably is at the right time. I just don't think we were there at the right time. Knowing the tide would soon be done, we headed out to the barrier bar to see if we could score some trout. Things were tough there, too. Dave and I put a big $2.00 bet on the first fish. Dave drew first blood with a nice trout on a gold spoon. I wasn't having any luck with my jig, so I decided to try an old trick I used to use years ago, when I did lots of trout fishing. I tied a swirly-tail jig to the back of a Mirrolure Top Dog, leaving it about 2 feet from the plug. I was soon catching trout. Dave said he remembered reading about that trailer jig rig on my website. After the third trout, Dave was quickly tying one up for himself. The trout bit good for about a half hour before the top of the tide, then abruptly quit. I had caught 8 or 9, and Dave had caught 3. Dave had the money fish, though.

We putzed around for about another hour without so much as a hit. When Mother Nature shuts them down, she really shuts them down. We called it a day, and agreed to make it double or nothing on the next trip. It had been a great day on the water. I hadn't walked out of Dave's Polar, which by the way, fishes really nice. I love a boat with lots of deck. I love exploring new areas, too, and Dave was great company. Dave absolutely loves to fish, and probably should consider guiding. He'd be a good one. My thanks to Dave for a great day on the water.

Although I'm taking off four days over the holidays, I'll be fishing Sunday through Wednesday, so there should be plenty to report on next week.