Well, it was another great week to be the Captain of the BarHopp'R fleet. I made some great new friends and got to spend the day with my old friend Russ Hubbard on Friday.

The week started with Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania, and his buddies Jay and Frank. Bob had wanted to fish two days with me, but I only had one open. So, I put him with my buddy Capt. Mark Bess, and they had a great time and caught lots of fish. He warned me that the trip with Mark would be a tough act to follow. I knew it would because Mark had two anglers, and this would be a party of three. Three anglers on the Stickbeach are nearly impossible to keep up with when the bite is on the way it should be.

While bait was easy, the snook bite wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. Bob, Jay, and Frank fished hard, but Bob was now the only one with any previous experience at this kind of fishing, and the boys all missed a lot of fish. They were great guys, though, and lots of fun. They did their level best to follow my coaching lead and get the fish into the boat. By the time we were ready to head inside, they had boated some dozen or more snook, and 15 to 20 nice trout, along with a jack crevalle and ladyfish. Once the bite was over we headed inside to see if we could catch a few redfish real quick, but we had to settle for missing three fish.

Back at the docks Bob told me that he had really enjoyed his trips with me and Mark, and the way the BarHopp'R fishes three anglers. He said he would book his trip for two again with Mark, and his trip for three with me. Sounds like a great plan, Bob. Mark and I both enjoyed you and your friends and are looking forward to next time.

When I arrived back at the office Monday evening, I was delighted and surprised to find a box from my customer for two days last week, Doug Anderson. Inside were an eight pack of different dark ales from some of the Colorado micro-breweries, and a check for $120. What a class thing to do. Thanks so much, Bob. The dark ales are delicious. Wish we could get them around here.

Tuesday was the first of three trips with Bob Stensland and his good friend Marc Wegman, of Portland, Oregon. Bob and Marc are both early retired executives from Intel, and have done a lot of fishing all over the world. This would be their first experience here. Knowing these boys were experienced anglers, I brought along some of my best tackle, Daiwa Emblem Z's mated to St. Croix Tidemaster rods.

After gathering bait at Chino Island, we headed up to Redfish Pass and down to the Stickbeach. Large tarpon schools were everywhere along the beach, probably as thick as I've ever seen them. We passed them by. We were soon on the snook action, and the bite was pretty good. No matter how good an angler you are, when the action is there, you're going to lose fish to the trees. Bob and Marc kept me pretty busy all through the morning, and we never left the action at the Stickbeach.

I had a chance to wet a line a couple of times, and caught the biggest snook of the day, and beautiful 12 pound fish of 34 inches. Bob was quick to tell me that where they were from, when the guide caught the biggest fish, he had to pay the customers for the trip. I told him I'd bring it up at the next Guide's Meeting. Bob and Marc had a great morning with about 2 dozen snook and 2 dozen nice speckled trout caught, as well as one redfish, a couple of mackerel, 2 jack crevalle, and 3 catfish. I think Bob and Marc liked the level of action as well as the great challenge of getting the fish out of the cover.

Wednesday, we loaded two of my Perception Swing fishing kayaks on BarHopp'R I and headed for the flats. Bob and Marc wanted to do a day of kayak fishing, and are experienced at doing it. I would stay back with the boat and just stay in the area. I had put together a couple of fanny packs full of spoons, top water plugs, jigs, etc. and they each carried two rods and reels. I first dropped them on a shallow flat that is usually full of redfish. They fished for at least a couple of hours and only caught one jack, and had a trout blow up a plug. I stayed off in the deeper water in the boat and tossed a spoon with my Chronarch, and caught a nice redfish.

We elected to load the kayaks and move to the mangroves on the last couple of hours of the incoming tide. The boys found a little more action fishing the trees. Bob hooked a nice snook that got away near the boat, and had several follow his lure right to the kayak. Ditto for Marc, who lost a redfish, and saw several. It was a slow day of catching with artificials, but Bob and Marc had fun in the kayaks.

Bob and Marc had originally thought they'd like to chase tarpon on the third day of fishing, but after the slow day of catching from the kayaks on Wednesday, decided they'd like to go a catch some more of the more than willing snook and speckled trout on Thursday. We hadn't been anchored on the snook long, when I noticed tarpon rolling a couple hundred yards behind us. I asked the boys if they wanted to go take a quick shot at a tarpon, and they agreed it might be fun. We pulled anchor and motored out just offshore to throw baits at some of the poons that were now scattered in pods along the beach. Twelve pound tackle is small for the job, but we had fish that appeared to be in the 40 to 60 pound class that were definitely doable. Bob had one take at the surface, but struck too early, and we were left with a large boil in the water. It's really cool to have tarpon rolling all around your boat. The boys elected to continue the snook action rather than chase tarpon, which was fine with me.

Back on the Stickbeach the action was good and steady all morning. By the time we were done, Bob and Marc had boated more than 20 snook, 40 trout, a redfish, and a jack crevalle. It never ceases to amaze me how many other boats will come and go there without catching any fish, or catching very few, while those who know how to fish the beach are catching as fast as they can. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my three days with Bob and Marc. They were great fun and good fishermen, and I think they enjoyed our summer snooking.

Friday, my old buddy Russ Hubbard and his son David, wereover from West Palm Beach to fish with one of his suppliers, Will O'Leary. Will takes Russ on a fishing trip if he buys over a certain amount of wood products from him in a year. Last year we had strong wind that really stirred up the water outside, and Will got seasick before it was over. I was afraid it might be a repeat performance as the wind was already blowing from the west at about 10 Friday morning. Will said he had taken Dramamine and would be OK. We caught our bait, and headed for Redfish Pass to see what the Gulf would look like.

The beach was bumpy, but fishable as long as the wind didn't pick up. I knew at some point in the day it would, though. We decided to go for the action. It was a good call, because the fish were hungry. The guys were having some problems standing up on the casting deck, but they got the job done. They caught fish after fish until around ten thirty, when as I was about to scoop bait out of the rear well, the deck nearly smacked me in the face as a big roller passed underneath. Of course, the nose drops when that's happening, and the deck goes out from under you. We decided it was time to take it back inside, and even with the Dramamine, Will was getting queasy. We left the beach with 28 snook, 18 nice trout, and a jack under our belts.

I headed for redfish country to see if we could add some of those bronze torpedoes for a slam. It didn't take too long to get the reds going throwing both live and sliced and diced chum. The preferred bait of the day seemed to be cut shiners, and in the next couple hours we boated 12 redfish, and missed several. I hated like hell to take Russ, David, and Will away from those reds while they were eating good, but I had to get to Smith Marine and pick up BarHopp'R II, which had already been sitting there for several days. Otherwise, I would have kept the boys right there on that bite until it was over.

As it is, I think we have a strong contender for Angler of the Month here with 59 fish caught in a morning of fishing. We'll have to see how the rest of May plays out. It's always great to renew old friendships, and it was sure good to see these boys again. That's the best part of this business; the great people you meet and friendships you make.