The first week of February offered up some great weather and some great fishing here in southwest Florida.

I missed a very important wedding of two of my closest friends, Butch Boteler and Arlene McLarty, of St. Cloud, Florida. The wedding was Saturday, and I had forgotten I had a trip with John Long, and couldn't be there. Butch and I have been fishing buddies for many years, and he's one of the best fishermen I know. They came to Ft. Myers for part of their honeymoon, and I was privileged to take them on a honeymoon fishing trip. My best bud Capt. Mark Bess was off, and I've been wanting him to meet Butch for a long time, so I invited Mark to join us.

Bait was still plentiful at St. James Creek, and I had 50 shrimp on board in case we stumbled across some tailing redfish. I first headed to some of my favorite potholes in hopes of finding plenty of trout in the holes, and plenty of tailers on the flat. We only saw one tail pop up momentarily, but there were some good trout in the holes. I figured that was a good place to let Arlene get back into the fishing groove. I failed to keep track of how many fish we caught, but it was quite a few trout.

As the tide started in we moved to a snook hole. There, Arleen caught the best snook of the day, a 26 inch fish. As I recall, we had lots of hits, and landed a few snook, but I don't know how many. From there, we went hole hopping. Poor Arlene, exhausted from many days of little sleep and hard work in preparation for their wedding, was about out of gas, and needed to nap, but I kept bothering her each time we moved to another hole. I don't think she ever did get a descent nap.

We fished until around three o'clock, and caught some big trout. Butch wanted to buy some Trolling Thunder batteries for his flats boat, so we went from the water straight to Smith Marine. I introduced Butch to Craig Smith, and Butch bought a couple of the big Group 31 batteries. We hung around until nearly dark, then split up the mess of fish we had and headed home.

Tuesday dawned a beautiful day much like Monday. Paul Docktor and his good friends James and Ron were down from Chesterfield, Connecticut, to try their luck. These guys were a lot of fun. I took James and Ron, who is a golf pro, a while to get the hang of setting the hook on a real tight line, but they patiently heeded my coaching until things started to come together. Ron observed that fishing is harder than golf. We had constant action all morning long, and they heard my fishing war call, "HIT 'EM!!!" quite a few times. When the numbers were in we had boated a 9 pound redfish, a half dozen snook to 25 inches, at least a couple of dozen nice trout up to four pounds, three jacks to four pounds, a nice flounder, missed lots of hits, and Ron broke off a big snook.

The boys decided to take my advice and finish the day with lunch at The Waterfront Restaurant. It was everything I had promised, and Paul, James, and Ron enjoyed the lunches, atmosphere, and great service as we relived the events of the morning. It was the perfect end to the perfect day.

Wednesday's trip was one I was looking forward to. Chuck La Bar and his beautiful wife Kimberly, of Las Vegas, Nevada, were booked for a half day. I'd talked to Chuck a lot via email, and knew he was the kind of guy I love to fish with. Chuck started his career as a marine biologist, and now works with the endangered land tortoise. He LOVES to fish! Kimberly is new to fishing, and wasn't sure that she wanted to come, but I know that by day's end she was glad she did.

After gathering bait at St. James Creek, we headed north. I figured the best way to start Kim off would be with trout, so that's where I headed. Kim quickly got into the groove with the trout, and decided she like the assembly line I was trying to keep going; taking her fish off and giving her a fresh rod ready to go. I guess we caught a couple of dozen trout.

From there we went looking for redfish and snook. The fish weren't in some of my favorite potholes like they have been, but Chuck did get to feel the furious pull of an eight pound redfish, and lost another near the boat. We also got a flounder and some catfish.

I headed to another of my favorite snook spots, and figured we'd finish off the morning there. I don't remember what we caught there, but I believe there were several snook boated. By around 12:30 Kim, Chuck, and I were all more than ready for some lunch. We headed to the Waterfront once again and had a great lunch. Chuck and Kim agreed that it was the perfect way to end a successful fishing trip. I sure was out of the mood to clean fish by the time we returned to the ramp.

Thursday, Chuck had a full day scheduled. Kim had decided she'd had so much fun Wednesday, she wanted to come along, but not for the full day. So, Chuck and I caught bait and headed up the river for about an hour. We were to pick Kim up at 10:00. I headed first to Shell Creek, to one of my favorite spots. The tide was running out of there so hard that I couldn't get my anchor to hold the boat. The best I could do was slow it down. Chuck quickly hit a couple of jack crevalle and missed a couple of hits. I decided to move to a different hole where the current wouldn't be quite so strong. I'd no more that gotten the anchor set when Chuck hit a really big fish. It was big enough that Chuck couldn't get it's attention on 12 pound test tackle. It finally broke him in the trees. I missed a couple of hits, as did Chuck. Soon, Chuck had another line in the trees. Maybe the pressure from trying to break the line pulled the anchor in the current, and the boat started heading for the trees. Chuck had maneuvered himself to my starboard side gunwale while I was getting the engine fired up. I put the engine in reverse, and saw Chuck do a sort of "Statue of Liberty" routine as he said, "Damn, Captain!" as he went out of the boat with rod and reel in hand. I first took the rod from Chuck so he could hold onto the boat while I drug him to shallow water where he could get back into the boat. We had a good laugh, and took off to pick up Kim.

With Kim aboard we headed north. I had decided to take them further up into the Sound so they could see more of the country. We hit several potholes without much action except catfish. Finally, I hit a big hole that I don't think I've ever fished before. Shortly after catching a trout and a flounder we saw several big redfish scoot along the edge of the hole. I threw some chum, and it wasn't long before we were hooked up. We caught several redfish to 26 inches in that hole, and had our first double. If I hadn't missed a hit, we'd have had a triple hookup. Chuck and Kim were loving those redfish! What a fight! By now, Kim was pumping and reeling like an old pro.

We headed further up the sound to fish some holes near the mangroves. Although the action wasn't furious, Kim caught a beautiful 27 inch snook at the first hole, and Chuck caught one the same size at the second hole.

I was saving the best for last, or at least hoped I was. Figuring the tide was getting about right for my final destination, I headed for one of my favorite flats. I put out quite a bit of chum, but we didn't draw any fire. I kept watching a large school of mullet that seemed to be hold up in one spot not far from us. Once in a while they would spray, like they were being chased. I was almost sure that I could detect some redfish boils in their midst. I moved up close enough to get a bait to them. Wallah! Fish on! For the rest of the afternoon we had near pandemonium on the flats, as nearly every bait that left the boat was eaten by a huge trout or a redfish. Chuck and Kim were absolutely amazed! By the time the foray was over, we had boated a dozen or more trout ranging from 23 to 27 inches, or 3 to 5 pounds, and at least two dozen redfish of all sizes. We left them biting as I dumped leftover bait while we left quietly on the trolling motor. It had been a fantastic day, and Chuck wanted desperately for me to take him and his father fishing on Monday. I just couldn't, so I promised to fix him up with a good guide.

Friday belonged to Mike Howard, of Brookfield, Hew Hampshire. He's an old Florida boy who's stuck in the cold country. He also had a place in St. James City, on Pine Island. Mike's a programmer, who was taking two of his top customers, Bill and Brian out for a day of fishing. I picked Mike, Bill, and Brian up at the Waterfront Restaurant at seven o'clock, and we went around the corner to St. James Creek for bait. Problem! There was no bait. It had disappeared. We chummed and moved, and chummed and moved. Nothing! I went to a different area near the causeway. Nothing. Remembering the only place that seems to be holding bait in Sarasota Bay, I decided to check a nearby creek. The bait was there. Two throws and we were on our way fishing. I also had some nice hand picked shrimp left over from the day before, and some tiny little shrimp from Sanibel Harbor Marina. I couldn't believe what they charged me for them!

We had an outgoing tide with the low around noon, so I figured it was going to be slow going until the afternoon incoming tide. My ace in the hole would be the last stop of the day before. If the fish were there yesterday, they'd be there today, right in with all those mullet. So, we went trout fishing first. That always gives me a chance to evaluate my customers' angling abilities, and how much coaching they might need. Trout don't fight as hard as snook or reds, so it's a good fish to start on. We caught at least a couple of dozen during the course of the morning.

Around noon, we switched to snook. The boys had quite a few hits, but only managed to boat two of the critters. Finally, it was time to make my move to the flats to find those mullet schools and the redfish and trout that would be with them. I arrived to the area only to find another guide boat already there. He was about a hundred yards from where I wanted to set up, so I poled quietly in. There was plenty of water for both of us. I watched him chum as I poled in, but never saw his customers catch a fish. Shortly after throwing my first bat full of chum, one of the boys hit a snook. To my surprise, shortly after that snook, the other guide pulled out. He should have stayed.

I had to move up a couple of times, but as soon as I got to where we could get our baits into the large school of mullet on a really long cast, we started catching redfish. These weren't big fish, mostly running 18 to 20 inches, but we had a blast with them. Bill and Brian had their hands full with these guys, anyway. They were perfect for their first redfish experience. We ended the day with 25 to 30 redfish, a couple of snook to 25 inches, and the couple of dozen trout from earlier in the day. Bill and Brian did require lots of coaching, but finally got the hang of it, and took my needling and teasing in good humor. We had a great time. I'm looking forward to another trip with Mike and his two sons in a couple of weeks. He tells me they're great fishermen, and won't need any coaching.

Saturday, I was off to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my daughter on her birthday, and to made a raid on the Bass Pro Outdoor World in Dania. Man, that place is incredible. I spent about 4 hours in the store Saturday, and another couple on Sunday, and haven't seen half of what's there. They did put a serious dent in my wallet, though. I strongly recommend to anyone that you go to one near you, if you haven't yet been.

I put Chuck and his Dad with Capt. Mark Bess, in BarHopp'R I for a Saturday trip. I told Mark where the fish were and how to fish them. He knows the area well, but I didn't know if he'd think of fishing in the schools of mullet, and I wanted to make sure he could put Chuck on lots of fish. Boy, did he ever. Mark told me the fish were there in even greater numbers, and they were bigger. The big trout were also back, after being gone for a couple of days. They had a great trip. Way to go, Mark!