My apologies to all those who've been patiently awaiting my weekly fishing report. I'm happy to say that I've been so busy there just hasn't been time to sit down and get to them before now. I'll try to do better.

This week started out with Terry Hubbell, his beautiful wife Michele, and teenage son Brian, who were down for a quick weekend reprieve from Highlands, NC. I had Terry and Michele out a couple of years on the flats of Sarasota Bay, and we spoon-fed lots of big redfish. Michele was thrilled with the way they pulled. Terry is a great guy who used to build high end homes on Sanibel Island a few years back. He now builds in North Carolina. Michelle, is one of the prettiest women you'll ever see. She has the same beautiful smile that can light up a room, that I found irresistible in my wife, and like my wife is absolutely stunning without the first bit of makeup.

We drew a pretty nasty day to try to fish. The wind was north/northwest at 20 knots, and it was cold and wet. In addition, the tide was laying flat for most of the day. I knew it would be a tough day, but the Hubbells were game for anything. We started out in north Sarasota Bay, and worked both the east and west sides over pretty well with spoons. Nothing!

I decided to go south and fish the flats and mangroves around the Midnight Pass area. Our diligence and perseverance paid off. We put 4 redfish in the boat, and let 3 get away. A little story on Michelle. I hooked a monster of a red. When you've caught as many of them as I have, you know as soon as you stick the fish whether it's big or not. Usually, you think you've run you spoon into a log until the log shakes its head. I hollered for Michelle to come and take the Shimano Chronarch 100A/St. Croix combo and land the red. In her excitement, she grabbed the rod, but also wrapped her hand around the line at the same time. Before I could get a word out of my mouth, the fish bolted and broke off. Oh, well! As I recall, two others got away at boatside.

We had a great time, and it was great to spend the day with the Hubbells again. And don't you know that back at the very busy ramp, we were the only boat with ANY fish on such a nasty day.

The next morning I was back down in Pine Island Sound with my neighbor Jim Pavelczyk, and his best friend Bill Jr., and Bill's dad, Bill Sr. from Alaska. Conditions were forcasted to be a little better with wind north at 15, and a high of 70. As usual, there was no bait that could be caught in a reasonable amount of time, so we elected to fish shrimp.

We spent the first half of the morning trying to entice a snook or red, but there was nothing doing! So, around noon, I decided that we needed to put some fish in the boat, and went trout fishing. Although, it wasn't a fast and furious bite, we did manage to put 30 to 40 trout in the boat by early afternoon, and we went back to the dock happy campers. Jim, who's a funny guy, and lots of fun to be around, laid back and let Bill and Bill catch most of the fish.

Wednesday, I was once again back in Sarasota fishing with Mike Russell, his 17 year old daughter Laura, and his young son, John Adam, of Mt. Vernon, Indiana. We bought shrimp at Hart's Landing, and were off to north Sarasota Bay. I decided to trout fish on a flat I hadn't fished in a long time. I figured the brisk 15 knot east wind would drift us right down the flat.

It turned out to be a great drift. The first fish in the boat was a 37 inch cobia. It hit John Adam's shrimp like a ton of bricks, and started burning line off the reel. All John could do was hold on and enjoy the ride. I chased her down with the trolling motor. After a gallant fight, the fish came along side. I was surprised to see a cobia subdued that quickly, until I realized she was missing half of her tail. Man, if she'd had the whole thing, that fight might have turned out differently. Cobia are supposed to be 33 inches to the fork of the tail to be legal for harvest. This fish had no fork, but was 37 inches to the end of her tail, and more than long enough to where the fork would have been.

Next Mike nailed a Spanish mackerel that was around 26 inches long. A big mack! We also got around 6 nice trout off that flat. Up in the shallow water we managed to trick one 26 inch redfish, and in the deeper waters off the flats we got a pompano. So we went home with all kinds of stuff in the well, and Mike had lots of meat for the cooler. He was nice enough to let me take home a cobia and pompano fillet, both of which, I dearly love!

Thursday, I was back down south running a trip with my cousin Capt. Terry Middleton. He had given a free trip to the son and daughter-in-law of his best client, Dr. and Mrs. Leonard Medura, and needed me to take Doc and his wife Dianne in my boat. It was a tough day of fishing with the wind howling out of the east at around 20. We called it a day early. Terry's boat had caught four small snook and a red, I believe. Len and Di caught 5 nice sized jack crevallle, a flounder, lost a snook, lost a trout, and boated a trout.

Friday was a day I'd rather forget. A couple of days earlier I'd fowled a spark plug. I didn't think too much about it, as they were the plugs I'd broken the motor in on running a real rich oil mixture. I changed the plugs. The next day I fouled the same plug again. The following day it didn't foul out, but was nearly there when I checked it after the trip.

Well, leaving the dock that morning, it was missing on one cylinder. As the motor warmed, the plug started to fire, but the engine wasn't crisp. On the run up the Sound, the motor shut down like you'd turned off the ignition switch after running at around 4500 RPM for a while. I could tell it was fuel starving. I was concerned, to say the least. Once we got to the fishing grounds, I put the trolling motor down, and it wouldn't run, either. Damn! The wind was howling out of the east, and boat control without a trolling motor was pure fiction, and a push-pole was out of the question.

I had Jim Spring and his best friend Ray, from Lake City, Florida. I'd fished them last year around the same time, and we had a great time. This year, they've had so much rain up there, that all the rivers are out of their banks, and the fishing is terrible. They came down especially to fish with me again, but it wasn't to be. Around 9:00 I asked the boys if they'd like to pretend this morning never happened, and reschedule a snook trip during the summer. They knew that I needed to get the boat to the shop, and quickly agreed to call it a day. It turned out to be a long day.

I got to Smith Marine as quickly as I could, to see about the trolling motor. I couldn't find anything obviously wrong, so I figured there had to be a problem with the motor. Craig Smith was nice enough to take me right in and put me at the front of the line. After some serious troubleshooting, he determined that the new Hawker Trolling Thunder drycell battery pack had gone bad. It was measuring 25 volts, but wouldn't deliver enough current to run the motor. Danny quickly installed a new battery, and I was off to see Craig Wildason at Outboard Motor Connection, in Venice. I was worried about my Yamaha.

I explained the problem I'd been having and showed Craig one of the fouled plugs I'd removed and saved. He looked at it, stuck it to his tongue, and told me that the fouling on the plug was salt deposits. He pulled the right cylinder head off, which revealed salt on all the pistons, but to a lesser degree. He check the left bank, and it show some minor salt intrusion, too. At this point, Craig was reasonably sure that the gasket on the expansion chamber between he two cylinder heads must be blown. It was either that or a cracked block. They pulled the cover off the chamber, and there it was, a gasket that hadn't properly seated, and was burned. The culprit was found.

Craig sent me down to Ingman's Marine in Port Charlotte to get gasket kits. I returned with the parts as he and his mechanic, Jayson were leaving to sea trial a boat. Craig instructed me to leave the gasket sets and my keys in the bow of this old boat in front of the shop. I did, and went home. By six o'clock I was getting antsy, and called the shop. Craig, obviously frustrated, told me he had just returned from the sea trial to find the old boat, gasket kits, and keys gone, and they didn't know who owned it. He had a work number for the owner's wife, and it was late Friday afternoon.

Craig knew I had a trip Sunday, and desperately needed my boat working. He made another trip to Ingman's Saturday morning, and had me up and running by noon. What a guy! What guys! Craig Smith and Craig Wildason have been an unbeatable team, and have bent over backwards to keep me on the water. My thanks to them both.

If you have questions or comments, or would like to book a trip, please email me at capt@barhoppr.com.

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