I believe I ended my last fishing report mentioning the approach of a big storm named Floyd. Well, as you no doubt know by now, it was a factor in our weather for several days, although all of Florida ultimately dodged a major bullet. All I can say is God bless the folks in the Carolinas. They got creamed!

I did get to run my trips on Monday and Tuesday, although looking back, we probably should have stayed home on Tuesday. We were weathered out Wednesday, and I had Thursday and Friday scheduled off so I could take my mother, who's in a nursing home, to the dentist and for a long weekend. The result was another very abbreviated work week.

Monday morning I picked up Kevin Haag and his friend Jim Dougal at the Waterfront Restaurant with high hopes of a good trip and good weather. I had fished with them on the previous Thursday, and it was a very tough day, from start to finish, mostly because of weather. Kevin, who has done a lot of snook fishing, but very little flats fishing, especially for redfish, was eager to learn about how to chum the redfish in on the flats.

We had an early morning outgoing tide, which I hate to fish, but would have to make work. You may wonder why I dislike and try to avoid fishing outgoing tides on the flats. Well, to me it's about the same as fishing any morning within a few days before or after the full moon. The fish have been eating on the whole incoming tide. They come with the incoming tide for that purpose. By the time the tide is full and begins ebbing, the fish have full bellies. It can be very difficult to get them to eat. Additionally, they are much more prone to being spooked off the flats. Spook a school of reds on an incoming tide, and it's usually not a big deal. Within a half hour they will settle back down and go about their feeding. That's what they're there for. But spook them on the falling tide, and you'll not see them again. They will leave the table until the next incoming tide, and you have to go and find new fish.

So, having said all that, I opted to fish a pocket on a flat that is considerably deeper than the surrounding waters, and gradually drops off into a deeper channel. I have often found the reds holding there on the falling tide. The wind was from the northeast at about 15 knots. Not a wind that thrills me, either, but for fishing this particular place on this tide, it was ideal. It was this combination of elements that lead me to chose this spot. The choice turned out to be a good call.

We were armed with plenty of bait from Fosters Point, and were ready to chum those bronze torpedoes in to us. It didn't take long after I started throwing a combination of live shiners and the threadfins that didn't survive the ride, that we saw the action begin. The fish never went crazy the way they often will when chummed up on the incoming tide, but we had steady action and beautiful fish for most of the morning. We didn't get an accurate count, but we all agreed that Kev and Jim caught a dozen or more nice reds to nearly 10 pounds. I think Kev and Jim found the method of chumming and fishing those reds pretty fascinating. We had a great time, and have another trip scheduled in October. The reds should really be hot, then.

Tuesday morning I picked up Dan Hereley and his good friend Al, at the Waterfront Restaurant. Dan, who hails from Harvard, Illinois, has a place in Bokeelia and spends a lot of time here. Although it was our first time to fish together, I felt like I'd fished with Dan before because we had talked many times via email. By Monday night we were under strong influence of hurricane Floyd. Dan and I discussed the options via phone, and decided to go ahead and give it a try since as scheduled I didn't have any alternate days, and we also feared that Floyd would ruin the rest of the week. The wind was howling out of the northeast at around 25 knots as I made my way across the bay to the Waterfront.

We had nearly the same tide and the same wind direction. However, it was blowing nearly twice as hard. Reds are creatures of habit. I was sure they would be right back where I found them the day before. They were! I could see fish from the platform as I poled into the area. I thought we'd pull off a miracle under really bad conditions, but once we got down to fishing it soon became apparent that wouldn't be the case! I chummed like a mad man, and the boys fished hard, but the fish just wouldn't eat. Dan landed one redfish. The odd thing was that there were hungry catfish everywhere. Not just at that hole, but everywhere we went. Before the day was over, they must have caught at least 15 cats, along with a couple of big stingrays. After giving up on the redfish, we hit a couple of potholes to see if we could find some willing trout, and caught a few. And, that was our day; catfish, rays, and trout. I guess you could call it a salami slam! I did enjoy finally meeting Dan, and fishing with him, but it was very frustrating for me as a guide, to be unable to get something going for him. I hope he'll give me another chance under more favorable conditions.

Wednesday was a total blowout, but Pink Floyd fooled everyone and turned north just before it got to the east coast of Florida. Our primary effect was wind. We got less than a normal day's rain, and dodged a major bullet. I already had the rest of the week scheduled off, so it was a lean week, indeed. But as the weekend was drawing closer, the weather people were telling us of a new tropical depression stirring in the loins of the Caribbean. Uh, Oh! We'll see.