The fishing this week started out great, but definitely slowed with the passing of the brighter nights as we approached the Memorial Weekend full moon. We were under a high pressure system left by a passing cold front, as well. This wasn't the high pressure that builds in and controls our summer weather, but one associated with a winter-style front.

Monday was reserved for my old friends Mike and Cathy Krug, from Worth, Illinois. Mike loves to fish, and Cathy, much like my own wife, loves to sit and read a book and just enjoy being out. We headed up to Chino Island for bait, leaving the dock at six. Once in the chumming mode, only a couple of minutes had passed when I realized the water in front of the boat was absolutely sparkling like a fine champagne with shiners. I quickly grabbed the net, threw, and hauled in all the bait we needed for the day's fishing on the first throw. I love it when that happens.

Mike had never been down at the right time to do the Stickbeach routine, so we were off toward Redfish Pass. From the time we arrived on the beach and set the boat up, it was constant snook action. It's tough fishing in heavy cover, but when it's going the way it should, it can't be beaten for fishin fun. As do most, Mike missed at least one or two fish for every one he landed, and still managed to boat nearly 40 linesiders up to 5 pounds, as well as 3 trout, 3 nice mangrove snapper that we kept for the table, and a jack.

Once the beach action slowed we headed inside to spend the last hour or so looking for a few redfish. Little did I know then that would be the last day of descent snook fishing on the beach for the entire week! I chummed away the rest of my bait, and got three hits, which were missed. If we had been serious about catching redfish, I would have left the beach earlier, as we were on the flats at the end of the high tide, and it was already moving out. We left with no redfish under our belts for the day, but it had been a great day of fishing and great to see Mike and Cathy again.

Tuesday and Wednesday were reserved for Bill Meyer and his good friend Mike Hanna, of Deer Harbor, Washington. Mike had been on an earlier trip with a Bradenton captain who is renowned for abusing his customers, but had caught about 20 redfish and some snook and trout, and I'm sure he was expecting as good or better action on this trip. Normally, the action would have been unbelievable, but as I mentioned, the fishing was really off. The snook just didn't want to play. It's not a question of the fish being there, as they're literally there by the thousands, and will be until September. They were just in a funk, and it would get worse as the week wore on. I think we might have caught a dozen snook for the morning. Normally, every bait that hits the water gets eaten within a few seconds. If there was a saving grace it was that on the first cast of the morning Mike's bait was nailed away from the cover by a nice snook. She tried her best to get Mike back to the cover, but between Mike's fishing skills and my coaching, she was forced to boatside against her will. She was 7 pounds, I think. It was the best fish of the day. We also got a mangrove snapper and a couple of trout, as I remember.

When I returned home that evening, I found a message from Bill saying that Mike had a cyst on the end of his spine that had been aggravated by the boat ride, and they would not be able to fish Wednesday. I was disappointed, as I had decided to take them redfishing the next day, and say to heck with the snook. I felt confident I could put them on a lot of redfish. Instead, I used the day to drive out to St. James City, on Pine Island, and look at homes. I'm giving serious consideration to buying a place on the water there. I looked at half a dozen places, and found one that might fill the bill. It has easy canal access to the Sound, seawall, dock, and davits. We'll see how it plays out.

Thursday, Dr. Lance Kruse and his son drove down from their vacation spot on Siesta Key. Lance is a dentist from Northfield, Illinois. I had high hopes that the fishing would improve, but everyone I talked to was having the same problem. It didn't take long to get plenty of the baits that usually work such magic, but I did have trouble keeping them alive. Within an hour of arriving at the beach there must have been a dozen boats there trying to fish. Problem was, no one was catching squat with the exception of one boat. It was a guide boat from Sanibel who I see there a lot. As a rule I don't see him catching nearly as many fish as most of the other boats do, but on this day, he was the only one catching. They were boating a snook about every 15 minutes. Best I could tell, they were using pinfish, and they were fishing way out off the cover. Normally, that's breaking all the rules, but it was working for him. I tried fishing close, fishing out, and moving along the beach casting baits, and we only boated 4 snook and a couple of trout. Of course, there were some hits that were missed. But, the fish just wouldn't eat. I don't know if that guide had found a hot spot, or if he had figured out something to get them to eat.

We headed inside to try to pull the trip out with some redfish. As I approached the area I wanted to fish, I noticed a black Aqua Force. It was my friends and customers John and Mindy Moon from Oviedo, Florida, over on a week of fishing vacation. I chummed heavily and managed to get some action going, but never got the fish to go crazy. We caught 4 and missed 1 before it was time to call it a day. We took home 2 trout and 2 nice redfish, which along with the grouper from their trip the day before, would be enough to feed their gang of 16 folks. It had been a fun, yet frustrating day for me. Lance and Ed were great guys, and very understanding of how fishing can be, and were happy to have the nice reds and trout to eat.

Friday belonged to my old friends Mike Gorga and Joe D'Angelo, who were down spending a week of vacation from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. They had been fishing all week from a rental boat, and had caught one keeper trout and a 33 inch cobia. They were discouraged and ready to catch some fish. I knew it would be a tough day in the Sound, too.

Things got off to a rough start, though. I waited Thursday night until after ten o'clock to hear from Mike so I could give him the meeting time. I kept the line open, and checked my email regularly, but never heard from him. I knew he knew where to meet, but desperately wanted him there at 6 AM. The plan was to get bait quickly and get to the Stickbeach and get my favorite spot before the dozens of holiday boaters showed up.

I was at the ramp ready to go the next morning at 5:45 AM. Mike didn't pull in until 7:00 AM. I was not in a good mood! My plans were unraveling. We got to Chino to get bait just as my bud Capt. Mark Bess, who was doing a family day trip, was finishing up. We got all the bait we needed in one throw of the net, but once again had trouble keeping it alive. Mark was having the same problem. I figured the beach would already be so crowded there wouldn't be any place to fish, and elected to check the inside of the now closed Blind Pass. I was sure there would still be plenty of snook there. Once in the pass, I ran along the mangroves looking with my trolling motor. It wasn't long before I spotted a school of snook laid up under the mangroves. As I turned the boat around to fish them, Joe informed me that all the bait was dying. Damn! Apparently, now that the pass is completely closed and the water isn't flushing back and forth, it has become stagnant. We were forced to get out of there as quickly as possible and get to fresher water to try to save our bait. We managed to save most of them.

So, it was off to the Stickbeach. If you want to catch snook, you at least have to be where they are, and most of them are right there. The fishing was still way off, though. No one was catching much of anything. It appeared Mark had the fish of the day as he held up a nice one as we idled by. We only managed to boat 3 of the 9 hits we had until around ten o'clock. The highlight of the morning snooking was seeing a small tarpon of maybe 20 pounds crash a bait and come all the way out of the water. Of course, we all casted to it, but to no avail. Mark left for the flats, and we weren't far behind him.

As we approached the flat, I could see Mark off in the distance, and John and Mindy Moon on the flat along with another guide boat. They reported no action so far. I began chumming and put out three lines. It wasn't too long before we had a double hookup of redfish. They were beautiful fish of 28 and 29 inches. But, Mike wanted some meat to take home, and these fish were too big. The top of the slot is 27 inches. Over the next couple hours we hooked about a dozen more, and boated 8. They were all too big, weighing in up to eleven pounds. I called Mark and the Moons in to join the fun. Mark's crew broke off several before we were ready to leave, and I didn't see the Moons catch any. Mark hadn't showed up before I headed north for the weekend, so I'm hoping they sat right there and knocked the snot out of those fish for a good long while. Mike would have paid for a small keeping size redfish, but it wasn't to be. He commented that the folks back home would never believe all the fish were TOO big to keep.

Well, we made the best of the situation. It was great to see Mike and Joe again. They're great guys who love to fish, and they're lots of fun. I always look forward to trips with Mike and Joe, but you can believe that we'll be straight on the meeting time for future trips.