I know it's hard to believe, but I celebrated my 54th birthday on Monday, June 28. I originally had the day booked, but after having to reschedule the trip, I decided to take the day off. I'm glad I did, and think I'll make it a tradition.

Tuesday, I had a trip scheduled with Dave Fillar, a friend of some twenty years, now, who was a tenant of mine back in my early slum-lording days. Dave is a great guy, and a painter by trade. He's a very good one, too. He brought along his primary helper and ex-brother-in-law, Henry Grey. I was hoping for a spectacular day of snooking for Dave and Henry, as Dave hadn't been snooking in a very long time. We got bait up near Foster's Point, and were off to try our luck.

Although I'd ended the previous week with a bang, I was afraid that the copious amounts of rain and full moon would combine to make the fishing tough. I was more correct than wrong. Actually, we had a fairly good bite going for a good part of the morning, and should have boated at least 30 snook, but Henry, who Dave has been trying how to teach how to fish for years, just has a real hard time remembering what he's supposed to do, and when. He missed most of the fish that hit his baits. Still, we bagged 15 snook to 5 pounds, and 2 trout before we headed inside to try for some redfish. Dave said it was the most snook he'd ever caught in one session.

We spent about an hour on the flats and did manage to chum up a couple of big redfish. It was a brutally hot day, and both Dave had long sweated out his heart medicine, and Henry had done the same with whatever it was he takes, and they agreed we should probably head in a little earlier than planned. The heat really kicked my butt that day, too. Dave and Henry were happy to have enough fish to feed the gang back in Bradenton.

My good bud Capt. Mark Bess and I had scheduled Wednesday as a play day, and were going out to catch a tarpon. Reports were that the tarpon had been real slow for the last several days. We decided we'd go out and target big snook, instead. I check the radar on the computer at 4:00 AM that morning and saw a cell of rain sitting just off Sanibel, but didn't think too much of it. Well, by the time we got to the ramp two hours later that cell had brewed into quite a nice storm, and there was a 20 knot wind feeding it. Mark and I got out of the van, felt the wind, looked at the sky, and said, "Na! We don't need to fight this, today. There will be too many other good days." We hopped into the van and headed home. We spent the day working on projects and goofing off.

Thursday, John Payne was over from Sebring, Florida, for the first time in over a year. John's a great guy, and a good fisherman, and the last trip had netted him around 50 snook. John brought along his dad, Chelsea, a big, strapping man who still looks good at age 74. I had hoped that it would be another high intensity snook trip, but we were plagued with obstacles from the start.

The first was bait. I decided to stop at Picnic Island for bait, as the word at the dock was that there was plenty of nice bait there. Well, after chumming for a good thirty minutes, we hadn't seen even a small bait. I headed up to Chino. We worked two different spots there, and caught nothing but little shiners, too small to cast. We headed up to Foster's Point. It took some doing there, too, but we finally put together enough big baits to fish with, and had plenty of smaller baits to chum with. We were an hour and a half behind schedule.

We headed out to the Stickbeach. Once we rounded the point at Blind Pass, I realized that it would probably be tough for Chelsea to negotiate the bouncy water that was being kicked up by the now southeast wind. We fished for maybe 15 minutes. It appeared that the bite would be very slow. Getting beat up when the fish are going crazy is usually worth it, but when there's no bite, it's not! I suggested we head inside and try to find some fish in the Sound. John was more than agreeable.

Things weren't much better inside, but at least the water was flat and we could stand up. My boys fished hard, and I did a lot of chumming. We managed to score 5 snook, 1 trout, 1 ladyfish, 1 jack crevalle, and 2 catfish. I found myself apologizing for the tough fishing, but Chelsea said that for him it was a great day. I guess that just goes to show you that you don't have to put 30 fish in the boat to have a good day. We did have fun, and it was good to see John again, and meet Chelsea. I hope Chelsea will do a repeat performance next time John comes over.

I went to the ramp Friday almost dreading the day. I was afraid we'd still be stuck in the same bright moon, slow action mode. But, praise the Lord, things were different. Things were back to normal, at least for today. Bruce Heichelbech, his brother Jim, and friend Tim, were down from Crestview, Kentucky, to try their luck. It didn't take us too long to gather plenty of bait at Foster's, and we were off to the Stickbeach with a good mix of large and small baits.

On the beach, we had a great bite right from the start. Bruce, Jim, and Tim, caught snook steady all morning. I guess we were half way through the trip before I realized that these guys were setting some kind of record. I still had not tied the first line, or even a hook. These guys were doing a great job of hooking and boating these snook, and keeping them out of the sticks. Oh, I finally had to tie a few lines late in the trip, but it was just amasing to me, and I believe the first time that's ever happened. The best part was that we put 43 snook in the boat, if I remember their totals correctly. It was just an excellent morning of fishing, and we had a blast. Whatever kind of fishing these boys do back in Kentucky certainly had them ready for this fishing. Oh, I still did a little coaching, but they snook had the hookset down and were on their way. I hope they'll be back for another go at them next year.

Well, there you have it. The week started out tough, but ended up with a bang. Now, we're looking at the July 4th, holiday weekend. Who knows what we'll find going on when I return to the water next Tuesday.