Well, this week has been more of the same unbearable hot weather and reverse wind pattern that is giving us morning storms coming in off the Gulf. It was also a week of predictable fishing. The reds and snook have been showing up on the same stage of the tide, on the same part of the flat, again this week. Once the area oyster bars cover, the fish show up to eat.

My friend Roy Hobbs, of H & L Builders in Kissimmee, ended last week and started off this week. Roy got 10 snook to 26", 4 redfish, a trout, and a ladyfish, for a west coast slam. We've been catching the snook on shiners, but the reds have been mostly caught on silver Tony Acetta Hobo spoons. Once the reds show on the flat I'll throw a couple handfuls of chum to try to keep them there. They're moving up into water that is 1.5 to 2 feet deep, and you can almost always see them push as they move onto the flat. Sometimes it's difficult to get close enough to them to get a shiner to them from a large boat like mine, so spoons offer a great way to reach the school from a long way off. Once the fish have settled and are eating, they'll readily run down a spoon.

Later my good friend Capt. Mark Bess and I went out for a morning of fishing and found the fish waiting on us and ready to eat. We caught about 8 nice snook, and 10 or more reds up to 29". All the reds were spoon fed, except the big one. We even had a couple of doubles. The highlight of our morning wasn't our fishing, but that of a porpoise. He came up into the flats after our redfish and put on quite an exhibition of shallow water acrobatics while running down a redfish. I was amazed that the reds didn't flee the scene, but the just kept their distance, for the most part. It wasn't until he came back on the flat for dessert, and cornered the school between himself and our boat that they took off. That was quite a show. We'd had enough and were on the way in by 10:30 AM.

To close the week, Roy Hobbs was back over from Kissimmee with his brother-in-law Duane Musclewhite, of Cordelle, Georgia. Duane had never caught redfish or snook, so we wanted to break him right. Our fun was delayed from the outset by a storm that brewed up very near us as dawn broke. The storm was making lots of lightning and noise, and we decided to wait and see what it was going to do. It didn't seem to move much in the following half hour, so we decided to get out there and catch our bait. By the time we had our bait, the storm had rained itself out.

As we neared McKeever Keys I noticed a school of fish feeding on top and decided to stop and see what they were. I figured it was jacks, but it turned out to be not only jacks, but ladyfish and speckled trout, as well. We caught probably 20 or more of the three species before the action subsided. I tried a couple of other holes around McKeever, but the tide was not yet right, so I decided to go with what has been working so well for the last month.

We caught a few snook while I was waiting on the reds to show up. Once they did show, it took them a long time to settle down and actually eat. We chased them around for quite a while, presenting bait, but they just weren't ready to eat. They finally began finning, and I knew they were ready. I moved the boat upwind of them and began a drift so as to come in completely quiet. Once within casting distance, we quickly hooked up three fish out of the school, and had our triple play. All the commotion blew the fish out and we had to go find them again. We got another three reds before the action stopped, giving us a total of 6 reds to 25 inches, 15 snook, and 4 trout, and a total of over 40 fish and several slams. Roy lost a huge snook after fighting it for a while just before we were ready to call it a day. We did catch a lot of keeper sized snook, though.

It's time for me to go and restock my tacklebox with some new spoons. Boy, spooning those reds in shallow water sure is fun!

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