Tuesday, my friend Capt. Kevin Holley was gracious enough to take me out and show me around Matlacha Pass, an area I've spend practically no time in, but which offers just as much fishing as Pine Island Sound, and is about the same size. It is littered with oyster bars and mangrove islands. It looks like more paradise.

Kevin and I had no agenda. I would have been happy to just ride around and look and listen to Kevin's comments about the different areas. But, of course, we brought a couple of rods. Couldn't resist. Kevin was ready to run all the way down to the causeway to catch bait. I suggested we skip worrying about bait and throw some plugs. I love to lure fish, but rarely get a chance to do it these days.

So, I spent a wonderfully relaxing morning with Kevin, feeling like I was a charter customer as he poled his 20 foot Backcountry around while I cast a silver spoon with my Chronarch. We saw quite a few fish, but most weren't interest in my offering. The first take I had was when a redfish appeared out of nowhere as I was lifting my spoon out of the water for another cast. Needless to say, he broke the line in an instant, as there was nothing to absorb the shock of his hit at the end of my rod.

A short time later, in the same flat, I landed a nice redfish. It was a gorgeous, dark bronze fish, who's color had been tinted by the tannin of Matlacha, accenting her white belly. After a nice fight and some ventilation, we watched her swim away, undamaged by her encounter.

As the noon hour approached we headed down to St. James City for a wonderful lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant. The food is always wonderful, the service is always fit for a king, and your plate is always full. Lunch at the Waterfront is the perfect way to end a fishing trip, and I'm encouraging my customers to make the stop.

Thursday, my good friend Capt. Kevin Chamberlain and I headed south from Sarasota's 10th Street ramp to do some exploring. After catching some beautiful bait in a place that I just cannot divulge, I headed to what used to be one of my favorite winter snook spots on Siesta Key. I told Kevin it always had snook on it in the past, but then, I hadn't fished the area in many moons. Well, the spot did not disappoint! It had snook on it all right, but Kevin only managed to coax two of the 7 or 8 that crashed his baits out of the cover. We had some big snook in there. Too big to turn with 12 pound tackle. Kevin commented that he'd forgotten how productive shiner fishing can be.

From there, we headed further south to check out some of Kevin's favorite haunts. We didn't find the snook and redfish we were looking for, but we did manage to catch a couple of redfish, a snapper, a ladyfish, and a couple of jacks. It was awfully windy, which made fishing tough. We had a great time spending the day on the water, and talked a lot about our websites.

Friday, my friends Capt. Tommy Stephens and Al Shank and I headed to the north end of Sarasota Bay to see if we could find some fish. Fishing has been tough in the area according to just about everyone I've talked to, and had been pretty tough for Kevin and I the day before, so I was mentally prepared for another slow day.

I headed straight to what used to be one of my favorite low tide spots in the Buttonwood area. We anchored and started chumming. It wasn't long before we had some redfish action going. Tommy had the hot rod, and I wasn't sure why until he revealed that he had switched from 30 to 20 pound leader. The difference in visibility seemed to be the difference, and Tommy was getting more hits. Before the action died down there, we had caught 7 redfish, lost 2, and boated a couple of trout.

Next we went across the bay to the Longbar area to fish another spot where I've done well with redfish. We got about half dozen snook there, and as we drifted down the flat, Tommy ended the day with a nice 31 inch snook on a spoon.

Saturday morning, I left 10th Street ramp and went straight to catch bait by myself. I knew I would make a real mess in the boat, and didn't want to get John Long and his wife Ann, of Columbia, Maryland, and his sister Charlotte of Sarasota, all nasty with mud and seaweed. Bait was tough, and I ran late, and didn't make it back to the dock until about 8:20. I went straight to the spot where we'd scored reds the day before, but they were gone, and I couldn't pull them in with chum. I went to a flat that usually gives up plenty of trout. Not so much as a hit! I was growing concerned. I headed to another spot that ALWAYS has trout on a low tide in the winter. Bingo! We caught about 20 or so trout pretty quickly. They were running small, so we elected to see if we could find some larger fish.

Our trout fishing was interrupted by three flounders and a very nice Marine Patrol Officer, Mrs. Hoback, who issued me a citation. By the time we got done with our visit, the tide was getting up pretty good, and I suggested we go try to catch some snook and redfish. I headed to the same general area we'd scored in the day before, but I started fishing about 100 yards closer to the bar that I had fished the day before. Several bats full of chum produced no explosions. We put a couple of baits out under popping corks. Boom! Boom! They were eaten right away. More bait, more hits. For the next couple of hours John and I tangled with about 25 to 30 snook. He boated around 15 snook up to 26 inches, and missed the rest. By the time we'd fished for about an hour, I had the snook popping the chum pretty well. So, we left them biting, and wound up having a pretty darned good day of fishing in Sarasota Bay. Ann hadn't fished, but had been content to enjoy the nature and the outing. Charlotte caught enough trout to make her arm hurt, and sat out the snook fishing. We'd all had a great time.

Next week, it a full week back south in the Sound. The weather is promising to be great. I sure hope the fishing will be, too.