I can't believe May is already down the dumper. Man, time definitely flies faster as you get older. Oh, well. At least the passing of May is bringing ever better snook fishing. There were some great trips this week.

First up were Chris Grube, from Indianapolis, IN, and his father-in-law, Ken. Chris and Ken tangled with a ton of snook, and lost many to the barnacle encrusted Austrailian Pine ourfalls, but they boated 30+ snook, just the same. The biggest was a 9.5 pounder that measured 30". The boys had a great time.

The next day I had a trip with Bob and Robin Leonard of Port Charlotte, FL. This was a trip I had donated to the Charlotte FCA Chapter, and they were the happy winners. The Leonards live in New Hampshire, and winter in Florida. This year was the first time they had ever stayed this late. They had no idea of the fishing they were about to experience.

Bait was a little tough that morning, and it took more time than the customary one or two casts to gather 250 shiners. In fact, I stopped at around 150, and told the Leonards that if we had a hit on every bait in the well, it would be a fantastic morning. I don't think they realized I was serious.

From the first cast at the fishing grounds, they realized I was. We did have a hit for every bait in the well, which is typical for this time of year in this place, and when we quit at noon, there were nine baits left. The Bob and Robin had missed hits, spit hooks, and broken lines all morning long, and still boated somewhere between 30 and 40 snook. They said it was the most fish they had ever caught.

The following morning I was one of five boats doing a group trip organized by Jason Robbins, of Ft. Myers, for a large group. My cousin Capt. Terry Middleton was the contact, and organized the participating guides. I wound up with only two people, Lori and Norm.

At the fishing grounds all snook hell broke loose from the first cast. Lori, who really likes to fish, had never done anything like this, and had some problems getting into the groove. She kept responding when she would first see her line bounce with the customary first tap of the snook, or the paniced struggle of a shiner about to get eaten, and kept taking the bait away from the snook before it was actually eaten. I kept telling her to wait on a tight line and to feel the weight of the fish, but human nature being what it is, she kept striking early. I finally dubbed her the "premature hooker".

After 20 or so misses she finally got the hang of it and started to put a hurting on the snook. She still lost a lot of fish to the trees and to thrown hooks, but before the morning was over she and Norm had boated over 30 snook, and I had tied lots of lines. It was a great morning, and I only threw away five baits.

The last trip of the week was another group trip organized for us by my good friend Joyce Rehr, of Salty Angler Guide Service. We were to pick up 10 people with 5 boats at South Seas Plantation, on the north end of Captiva. When we got there, there were 5 boats and 16 people waiting to go fishing and sightseeing. South Seas had apparently gotten the info wrong in the booking process.

I told the group I wanted serious fishermen on my boat, and Steve Lupton, of Summit, NJ, and his sons Mike and Erick, and his nephew Jack were soon aboard. Of course, we went straight to the snook grounds. We fished from 8:30 to 11:30 AM, and it was the usual pandamonium on the beach. Lots of broken lines, misses, and spit hooks, but the boys put 36 snook in the boat in three hours. Not bad at all!! Back at the South Seas T-Dock none of the other family members who'd gone on other boats would believe that they had caught 36 snook.

June will bring stiffling heat, afternoon thunderstorms, and snook, snook, snook. It should bring good tarpon fishing, too. But I have a hard time getting interested in catching one or two tarpon in a morning, when I know I can take my customers out for 30 to 60 snook. In fact, with experienced anglers on board, there will be days in June, July, and August, that we'll crack nearly 100. Redfish will be slow through August, but you can't ask for a better fishing forecast than that.

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