The week started on Monday with a with a long run up to North Captiva to pick up the Evans family of Littleton, Colorado. I had to catch bait before making the run north, and plenty of it, as I had Stew Evans, his lovely wife Lucy, and his two sons Morgan, age 12, and Niki, age 11. Bait didn't take too long, as I made a couple of good strikes at 46 and 47 of the causeway and loaded the boat.

Usually, a party of four on the flats means trout fishing. It's really hard to have much success with snook and reds with that many in the boat unless they're very experienced anglers. I started the trip fishing some of my favorite potholes around Regla Island. There were a lot of trout, but most of them were undersized. We were dogged all day long, everywhere we went by terns and pelicans. I guess they were having a hard time finding something to eat, and they drove us nuts. We actually caught three pelicans through the course of the day! I think that's a record for my boat.

As the tide started to move, I moved to one of my favorite spots for snook on the early incoming tide. I got the boat set up, and the first bait that went into the water was smacked by a big snook, and broke off immediately. A minute or two later, here comes a green flats boat through the cut I'm fishing, on his big motor. It was a guide, and I use the term loosely, who thinks he owns the whole damned bay. I've seen him really show his ass a couple of other times. We exchanged words. He accused me of stealing his hole! This guy was way off on the other side of the island on his push pole when I came in there, and there was no way for me to know where he was headed. Usually, when someone is on the platform, they're working tailing fish, or something. Anyway, I'm not a mind reader, and he doesn't own the whole damned island. And that's part of the point. He had plenty of areas to fish on the side of the island he was on. Furthermore, if he had wanted to fish the same hole, he could has easily done so from the other side without bothering us. But no, he chose to act like a spoiled, greedy, little two year old brat who won't let anyone play with his toys. Son, if you read these reports, as I suspect from your smart mouth you do, then be advised that you're walking on thin ice with this old man. You can either get along or you can make war, but it's a war you can't win. Next time I'll tell the whole world who you are, for starters!

Anyway, we hit a few other spots working the tide and fighting the birds. Once the tide was right, I headed for the flats to do some redfishing. It wasn't easy with four aboard, but we had a blast. I chummed the fish into an eating mood, and we caught 3 big trout to 4 pounds, 3 snook to 25 inches, and nearly a dozen redfish to 31 inches. Everyone missed lots of hits, or we'd have had a lot more fish in the boat, but we caught plenty of fish, and the Evans took plenty home to eat.

Stew, Lucy, Morgan, and Niki were super nice folks and fun to spend the day with. I really hated to take them back to Captiva. I had a long way to run before it got dark, but decided to clean the fish for Stew since he really didn't have a descent fillet knife. I think they kept 4 reds, and a bunch of trout. It was a nice mess of fish all cleaned up.

Tuesday was FUBAR!! You military types will well know what that means. I was supposed to do a second trip with Mike Russell, and one of his clients who were coming down from Sarasota. I hadn't heard from Mike the night before as I requested, but I had kept the line open for his call. I feared there may be something amiss, but I was at the ramp and on the water at 6:30. I waited and waited. I thought maybe I had the wrong time. Capt. Steve Waugh volunteered to keep an eye out while I went to catch bait.

Out on the causeway I made a couple of strikes that were so big I could barely lift the net into the boat. There were a couple of anglers in a small boat nearby, so I asked them if they wanted some of my bait. They seemed thrilled with the prospect of having some live shiners, but couldn't get their bait pump to work right, so I only gave them a few dozen. I wasn't sure they could keep them alive for very long. They were a couple of fellas over from the Ft. Lauderdale area. We chatted for a few minutes, and I tried to give them some pointers on where to go with the bait. I hope they found some fish.

I went back to the dock and dutifully waited around until after the noon hour before calling it a day. I wasn't a happy camper. I couldn't imagine why Mike would stand me up. Well, Mike later emailed me and said that he had called the number I gave him and left a message, but received no reply. All I can say is that there was no message on this end, nor did the phone ring. I suspect that he mis-dialed the number and left a message on the wrong machine. Oh well, what's done is done. I hope we can give it another try next year, but I'll make sure he has instructions to the ramp from the start.

Wednesday, I had to make the run back to North Captiva to pick up Bill "Doc" Regis, of Stillwater, Minnesota. I knew from his emails that he had high expectations for the trip, and hoped that I could deliver. Again, bait was the first order of the day before heading north. At the causeway, my friend and fellow guide Capt. Paul Hobby, gave me plenty of bait for the day after he made a big strike like I had made the day before. I hadn't yet hit any bait to speak of, and I was glad to have it. Thanks again, Paul. See, no good deed goes unpunished!

After picking Doc up, I headed north to fish an area behind Cabbage Key. It was a beautiful day, and we got out of the boat and did a little wading, so we could get the baits into the mangroves where the fish are. Doc began to realize that this fishing was a lot different than anything he had previously experienced. Like nearly everyone, he was having trouble getting the distance needed. We did managed to catch one snook at the first stop. We fished a few other areas north before heading back down south.

Eventually, we ended up on a beautiful flat trying to chum up the fish for Doc. Although the fish didn't go crazy as I would have liked, Doc did have quite a few opportunities, but missed the hookset. After missing half a dozen redfish and several snook, Doc noted that he now understood what I'm talking about in my fishing reports. He did manage to boat a 29 inch, 9 pound redfish, and several big trout to 4 pounds.

Back at the docks at Safety Harbor, we ran into Stew Evans and his boy as they were coming in with their rented boat. Stew was nice enough to tell Doc how much fun they had all had on their trip, and some other anglers came over to see the fish I was cleaning, and told up they had been on a trip with one of the local guides and caught absolutely nothing. I hoped Doc felt a little better after hearing that!

Thursday was an enjoyable, relaxing day on the water with John and Mary Ellen Stohr, of Chesterfield, Virginia. We had the same slow crawling tide that we'd had the day before, with a flat spot right at mid-day, so we planned to make a lunch stop then. Bait was tough that morning, as was the fishing. We got a few trout.

We had a great extended lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, and then were off to our final destination for the day to catch some redfish. John and Mary Ellen soon ran into the same problem most everyone does. We had plenty of redfish hits, but they had one heck of a time converting them to hookups. Mary Ellen missed lots of fish, but didn't care. John missed some, and broke off several before I realized that Bass Pro Shops has apparently sold me some bad Excel 8 pound test line. I had brand new line on brand new reels, and after several breakoffs, I found that the line was testing about 2 pounds right out of the box. Very maddening! But, John and Mary Ellen were super easy goin folks, and the misses and bad line didn't phase them. They were just out to have a good time, and that we did! I think their totals for the day were an 8 pound redfish, a snook, and about a dozen big trout to 4 pounds in the boat.

Friday, I spent dealing with BarHopp'R II. I picked her up from Jeff Chesnes' glass shop and took her to Smith Marine for final rigging. I also had to do some last minute running around for parts like Accon pop-up goodies, etc., but she's in the final stages now. Craig tells me she should be ready within a week.