Tuesday brought calm winds and a 75 degree high. Beautiful. I had my old friend John Franck out for a short trip. I decided to fish with live shrimp because I didn't want to waste a lot of time trying to find shiners. We fished some holes in Buttonwood on the extremely low tide and caught 9 redfish, 1 trout, and a ladyfish. It was a beautiful day to be out.

Wednesday, the camera crew was over from Orlando to wind up our video, hopefully. We had another nice day with a high near 80. We had just parked on a low tide hole that is perfectly visible to anyone paying attention, when a Bradenton guide, and I use the term loosely, came screaming through a mile or so of no wake manatee zone right up to my boat. He proceeded to make a total ass of himself by proclaiming to me that he owned that hole, and apparently every other hole in Sarasota Bay. He was in an absolute rage, and did all this with his clients aboard! If I'd been on his boat, I'm afraid I would have insisted he take me back to the dock. My camera crew was shocked that anyone would behave like that, especially with his charter on board. I've since talked to a couple of other Captains who tell me he has done that to many people on Sarasota Bay, and that he is a major hothead. I've since had some heavy artillery mounted on my boat. God help him if he ever does it again. Caveat Emptor!

On Saturday, I had Chad Guessford, who had caught 37 snook with me on a summer snook trip, along with his friends Joe and Eddy. We were back in Pine Island Sound, and bait had moved to the Sanibel Causeway. Catching shiners during the winter can be downright dangerous, for both the Captain and his castnet. We have to throw a 10 ft. net in 25 feet of water usually moving at about 6 knots, and control the boat at the same time. It's downright dangerous, but it's the only way you're going to get bait during the winter. Even then, there may be no bait for your efforts. As a bonus, we usually destroy at least one castnet per season on the oyster encrusted pilings of the causeway.

We loaded up with two or three throws and were off to the backcountry. The weather gods were smiling on us with northeast winds to 15 knots, and a high of around 78. Chad caught 10 trout, 2 snook, 6 reds, and 5 flounder. Joe caught 10 trout, 2 reds, 1 snook, and 1 flounder, and Eddy got 12 trout, 3 snook, 2 reds, and 3 flounder. That's a total of 65 fish. They went home smilin'.

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