We had a week of pretty good fishing, this week. My customers did pretty well on the redfish, and contrary to popular opinion, ALL the big ones are not offshore to spawn.

I was scheduled to fish with Jeff Kates, and his dad, Jack on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. I had bait well problems that I hadn't been able to resolve over the weekend because I was out of town. I asked my good friend Capt. Mark Bess of Skinnywater Charters to stand in for me, so I could get the boat in working order, and take care of some final details with BarHopp'R I.

There was a front on our doorstep Monday, and the wind was southeast. I figured that if things were normal, Mark and the boys would have a good day of catching. It turned out to be a tough day, though. Oh, Jeff and Jack had a great time with Mark, and Mark worked hard to put them on fish, but the fish weren't real interested. I think they bagged one snook, one redfish, and half dozen trout for the day.

Now Mark is a great guide, and he is always at the top of my list for referrals. So, you can imagine how I felt about fishing Tuesday, the day after the front passed. Typically, the fishing just shuts down for two or three days after a front passes. I met Fred and Polly Leibold, of Oak Hill, Florida, at the ramp Tuesday morning in the apologetic mode. I told them I figured it would be a great day of fishing, but a tough day of catching.

I had figured that bait would be impossible, as Mark had not scored any descent bait on Monday. So, I stopped and bought hand-picked shrimp at Danny's Bait House, along with some frozen threadfin herring. I also had some left-over frozen ladyfish. I was prepared to fish without live bait.

I was on the water at 9:00 AM, but wasn't to pick up Fred and Polly until 10:30, so I had an hour and a half to burn. I hadn't fished for pompano yet this winter, so I decided to hit the waters out off the Sanibel Pier to see if I could snag some. I thought it might be a viable alternative if I couldn't get anything going in the backcountry. Well, I've yet to see a pompano. All I caught was scorpionfish and lizard fish. With a half hour to go to pickup, I decided to snoop around the causeway for signs of bait.

I set up a drift with the motor at idle across the down current side of the second span. I watched, and watched the water, keeping an eye out for birds. Finally, I saw a couple of mackerel jump as they smashed baits just off one of the pilings. I knew they were jumping for the fun of it. I got out my 1/2 inch net and got up-current of the spot. As the boat drifted to within reach of the spot where the macks jumped, I laid the net out in a giant circle. I figured I was wasting my time, until I pulled on the rope. I figured I was either hung on the bottom or had a huge load of threadfins. To my surprise, I had a net full of huge shiners, so full I could hardly lift it into the boat. That was the most beautiful bait I've seen a good while! I was now armed with every conceivable bait I could want for the rest of the trip. I headed to the docks to pick up the Liebolds.

I headed straight to one of my favorite winter low tide redfish spots. It's a big pothole with nothing but very shallow water all around it on a good winter low tide. Most conventional flats boats can't even get to it. The BarHopp'R fleet is the next best thing to having a fleet of airboats, but are much quieter. We were soon sitting in just inches of water pitching our potpourri of baits to the deeper water, which was a good foot and a half deep. It wasn't long before the action started.

I did my best to keep an accurate count, but when the action gets crazy, it's really hard to do. I've done it so many times, though, that I am sure that Fred and Polly boated 25 or more big redfish to 11 pounds, 6 trout to 4 pounds, and at least one snook. I forgot to jot down in my records how many snook they caught, but I'm sure they got at least one for the Slam.

It was a great day of fishing that I didn't really expect, and the big shiners seemed to make the difference. The Leibolds were delightful folks to spend the day with, and were thrilled with the action.

Back at the ramp, one of our local guides who I've only recently met came in to dock. We struck up a conversation, and I soon found out that he had tiny little shiners in his well. I showed him the bait I had and told him that I was going to attempt to keep it alive in the well overnight with the aerator. He said he lived on the water near Tarpon Point, and said he'd like to have the bait for a snook trip the next day, explaining that he could keep it alive off his dock. Well, I explained that if he would keep it alive overnight, I'd be perfectly happy to split the bait with him the next morning. That way we'd both have some nice live bait in the event we couldn't catch any more. He agreed, and after transferring the bait to his boat, sped away up the river.

I was up and ready to go early the next morning in spite of a late pick up time with Jeff Kates. I called the keeper of the shiners to let him know I would be at the dock by eight o'clock. He didn't really sound to happy to hear from me. Actually, I think he had visions of taking all the bait down to Estero Bay where he was going to fish that morning. That would have been fine if I hadn't been around to get my share of the bait, but I was. He pulled in at around 8:30 and we divided up the big baits. He still had what appeared to be a couple hundred tiny shiners he was going to use for chum. I thought it might be a good idea to have a couple of handfuls of that little bait for chum, too, and asked him for some.

Now folks, please tell me if I'm wrong. By all means, send me nasty-grams if you think I'm being unreasonable here, but the guy told me he couldn't give me any because he had to keep it all for chum. Excuse me! Didn't I just share some very nice, big snook baits with this guy? Is it unreasonable to expect him to share a few of his small baits? I didn't think so! Well, I didn't say a word. I wished him good luck and headed to the Waterfront to pick up the Kates boys. But, I'll tell you, he'll never see another bait from me until I see a different attitude from him. I believe in helping and sharing as much as possible, and that just ruffles my feathers.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was already raining when I left the ramp for St. James City. That front had stalled, and was now coming back on us from the south. I was pretty well soaked by the time I got to the Waterfront. Jeff and Jack were there waiting with bells on, and canceling the trip wasn't even a remote option. I headed straight to a hole up in the Sound that always has lots of ladyfish and trout in it. The bait that had survived the night, was alive, but not looking very good. Most of it had red noses, and many of them were swimming sideways. Besides, every day is a different day out there, and I wanted to have cut ladyfish as a bait option.

I tied on gold and silver spoons, and a swim-tail jig. Jeff was almost immediately into the ladyfish. Jack, was having some trouble with his casting, so I gave him the quickie BarHopp'R casting clinic. From that point on, his casting improved, once he got his timing back. It didn't take long before we had half dozen ladyfish in the boat, and were ready to go to my redfish pothole. I knew the fish would be there. They're always there on that low tide. It's just a question of whether they will eat, or not.

By the time we got there, we were all soaked and freezing. It was blowing pretty good out of the northeast. Perfect conditions for this spot, but terrible conditions in general. It took a few minutes, but after one minor adjustment in position, we were on fish. Jack started out doing well on catfish, but Jeff was catching reds. They were eating the cut ladyfish. We were so damned cold we couldn't hold our rods still, but we had a blast just the same. We didn't have the furious action of the day before, but the fish were running bigger, on average. By the time we finally tossed in the towel, Jack and Jeff had boated some 8 to 10 redfish to 12 pounds, 9 or 10 nice trout to 4 pounds, 5 catfish, and lost 2 nice snook. Probably mostly because of being so cold, the boys missed as many reds as they caught. We had plenty of hits, but it was hard to convert them into fish because of the violent body spasms we were having.

Thursday morning, the weather had cleared, but the wind was roaring at 20 from the east/northeast, and the barometer was over 30.30 and rising. I knew it would be a really tough day of catching. Once again, I was on the water over an hour early, and decided to go check out the causeway for bait. My first throw after some watching the birds, netted only a few pinfish, but the second throw I loaded up on big shiners and threadfins. I knew that if we didn't catch, it wouldn't be for lack of good baits.

I picked up Jeff and Jack, who were as happy to see it dry and sunny as I, and headed right back to my ladyfish hole. It didn't take us long and we were once again loaded up with plenty of ladyfish to chunk. We were off to the redfish hole. I knew it would probably be a different story with the glamour fish, but remained hopeful that we could trick them into eating.

It didn't take long to get our answer. Oh, Jack got into the catfish again, catching 5, and the stingrays were willing to eat. The boys hooked two monsters they couldn't go anything with! They also caught a half dozen or more trout, and lost a couple of nice snook, but the reds just didn't want to eat. Jeff boated a beautiful 28 inch red, and that was it for the day. There was no question they were there. They just had the lockjaw.

We had a great time in spite of the slow bite, and it had been a great two days with a couple of great guys. Jeff is an avid, and very skilled fisherman. Jack, his dad, wasn't much for fishing in his younger years, and missed doing that with his son. He's only recently realized that it's a wonderful way to make up for lost time with his son, Jeff. Now, that's really cool, folks. It's never too late!

Well, this is the last fishing report before Christmas. I want to thank all of you who have sent me Christmas cards very much for doing so. I also want to apologize for not sending you one back. I quit sending cards when my mailing list grew to over a thousand, and just got out of hand. Please accept this email wish as your Christmas card.

I also want very much to thank every single one of you who have allowed me to guide you in the past year. Thank you for the opportunity, for your confidence in me, for your business, and most of all, for your friendship. 1999 was again a record year, and none of it could have happened without each one of you. I am thankful for each and every customer and for each and every new friendship. Many of you have kept in touch throughout the year, and many have already scheduled trips for the year 2000. Hopefully, I'll be hearing from many more of you as time goes on. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season, and may you all prosper in the new millennium. See you in Y2K!