It's been a week of brutal heat, goofey weather, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, redfish.

Early in the week, my number 1 fishing buddy, Kevin Grover, of ANSI in St. Pete, broght his friends Todd, Mike, and Kirk out for a hot day of fishing. I knew it would be a tough one with the tide we had, but vowed to do my best. We were on schools of reds all morning but they just wouldn't eat, probably because they had been eating all through the darkness of the morning hours. We did manage 4 snook.

As the tide was reaching the last part of its outgoing stage, I ran north in the Sound to the Demre Key area and found large schools of reds there. The story was the same; all over fish and they wouldn't eat. I ran on up into the triangle area to look around, and made a stop at Benedict Key, but nothing was doing. So, I ran back to the flat at Demre and the fish were still there, in a different area. I saw them push toward some potholes and figured they would eat once the tide started in. They did! Kevin and the boys got several reds in the 33 to 34 inch range, as well as a few trout. Finally.

Later in the week, with good morning tides, the story was different for Dr. Gary Shierling and his lovely wife, of Ft. Myers. While in route to the fishing grounds I came across a school of fish frenzy feeding on small baits. I couldn't resist stopping to see what it was, because Mrs. Shierling had told me she didn't like to fish, but loved to catch. Catch we did! We threw silver spoons for about 45 minutes, and hooked a jack crevalle or ladyfish on nearly every cast. We also got one bluefish and a few small trout. It was fun, but the Shierlings voted we go off in search of redfish.

I quickly found reds schooled up right where they were supposed to be but we had trouble catching them at first. The spoons that have been so effective for the last few weeks, were of no interest to the reds this morning. I put a popping cork about 18 inches up from the hook and hung a shiner out. Boom. Big reds. I rigged a couple more float rigs and the Shierlings had a blast catching 20 or more beautiful redfish from 22 to 29 inches. It was a great day, but at 98 degrees without a whisper of breeze, it was unbearable. We quit early and went home happy.

I wound the week up Saturday with a trip with my old friend, Terry Bair, of Sarasota, in his Key West. After catching bait at the Middlegrounds, we ran up to the Long Bar area looking for school reds that Terry had seen there last week. We fished spoons and shiners under floats for three hours, but only caught trout. One was a beauty of 24 inches. To finish the morning we ran across to the Buttonwood area, where we were pretty sure we'd find some reds in the mangroves. The first stop was the charm. We boated 10 or more reds of 25 to 29 inches, and broke off no less than 7 at the trees. We ran out of popping corks, and returned home early, hot, tired, and happy.

Redfish seem to be all over, and they're big, broad shouldered fish that fight like hell! On the high tides fish the mangroves and oyster bars, and on the low water, fish the potholes. Be patient. You'll find them. If not, stake out somewhere and let them find you.

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