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It's Monday. The maiden voyage of BarHopp'R I with her new Yamaha 200 broken in. I had booked Monday and Tuesday, or so I thought, with Bill Byers, of St. Petersburg. That morning I met Bill's son and daughter Brett and Nicole, and son-in-law Tora, but no Bill.
The wind was already roaring out of the east, as another tropical system was forming out in the central Gulf. I didn't know it then, but it would dominate, and ruin our weather later in the week.
There was plenty of bait at Foster's Point, and we were soon on the way to the flats. The tide was not favorable at all, as it was high at around daylight, and outgoing for the rest of the morning. Not a tide I like to fish because it usually means the fish are full from eating on the incoming tide, and are ready to leave the flats until the next incoming tide. Today would be a classic case in point.
I stopped at one of my favorite snook spots thinking we would surely coax a couple of snook to eat. Oddly, the snook weren't eating, but trout were. It's very unusual to catch trout in that shallow location. After half dozen or so, we elected to move on in search of snook and redfish. We fished hard and did a lot of chumming, but through the rest of the morning only managed to boat 3 redfish and one keeper snook. The Byers gang was interested in feeding the eleven people in their vacation party fish for dinner, and with the 3 redfish, 1 snook, and trout they kept, everyone got to eat fish. The had missed four redfish hits, too.
As we said our good-byes back at the dock, I asked who I'd be fishing with tomorrow, and no one knew anything about Bill fishing the next day. I sensed we had a problem. Back at the office I had a phone message from Bill confirming that there was a misunderstanding. I called Bill fearing the worst. We had been leaving each other telephone messages back and forth. Bill had originally booked Tuesday. I had understood him to ask me in a message if I could also fish Monday. What he had actually wanted to do was move the trip to Monday. I had left him a message that Monday was fine, thinking he wanted the second day.
Well, Bill was one very nice, and gracious gentleman, and said he'd be glad to fish Tuesday so I wouldn't miss the day. I didn't realize how much I would appreciate Bill's gesture until later in the week.
Tuesday, I met Bill for the first time, along with his lovely girlfriend Stephanie, and Tora's wife Cheryl. My good friend Capt. Mark Bess was fishing a party of three with my friend Russ Hubbard, and was making the maiden voyage on BarHopp'R II with the Yamaha 150 mounted. Mark and Russ headed to Foster's Point to get started on the bait while I waited on Bill to arrive.
The wind was once again howling out of the southeast, and a small craft warning was up. It was pretty chopped up in the Sound. The skies were gray with rain clouds feeding moisture to the tropical depression in the Gulf. I was hopeful the fish would be in a more cooperative mood.
We arrived at Foster's to find Mark having boat problems. They had discovered gasoline leaking from the water/fuel separator filter under the rear deck. Seems the water it trapped inside had rusted through and created a pinhole leak. I passed Mark a screwdriver, and he quickly bypassed the filter, and was back in business.
To top it off, bait was tough. The shiners just didn't want to show. We both did a lot of throwing and chumming with the Purina tropical fish food. Finally, the shiners began to gather in descent numbers, and we were able to load up and fish. Before we were even done with bait, the bait pump in Mark's boat quit. Fortunately, Mark had a backup system in place, and he was able to keep the bait fresh with an aeration system in that big well. I'll tell ya, I switched to the Mayfair cartridge type pumps so that I could easily replace motors on the water, but they just are not reliable. They are a constant source of aggravation, and I dare not leave the dock without a couple of spares. In addition to the motors cooking on a regular basis, the supposed stainless motor shafts routinely rust in two, and the plastic impellers routinely split and fall of the motor shaft, leaving it useless. I don't recommend them to anyone.
Mark and I hit two of our favorite spots on the flats. We didn't have the action I was looking for from the usually great holes, but I knew Mark must be on fish, because he wasn't moving. After trying a couple more spots, we moved to join Mark on a nearby hole. Bill, Cheryl, and Stephie managed to boat 8 or so redfish, 3 snook, a trout, and a jack. I think Mark, Russ, and the boys boated a dozen or more redfish, and a snook and trout or two. By around 11:30, the weather was starting to look very threatening, and we made the decision to head home.
As we were preparing the boat for the ride home, I notice Mark hailing me. Turned out they were going to leave, too, but the batteries were dead, and they couldn't get the motor lit. I was able to get the Trolling Thunder battery out of the front of my boat, and pass it to Mark. They were soon running, and we all headed home, once again with plenty of fish for dinner.
I was surprised and pleased with the power of the Yamaha 200. We had to run straight up the wind going home, and I was able to put the BarHopp'R up on top of the rough stuff and fly. The ride was much smoother and dryer that way.
By Wednesday morning the weather had really deteriorated, and the radar didn't look promising. But Chris and Debbie Hauser, of Ft. Lauderdale, were on the fifth day of their honeymoon, and would not be denied their day on the water. Chris is a good looking young man, and Debbie a beautiful young woman a little younger than my daughter. They make a fine looking couple. Debbie, although an experienced angler, had never done any flats fishing. Her experience was all offshore.
We had no more than gotten our bait, and arrived at the first hole, when the first rains came. There wasn't any lightning, so Chris and Debbie elected to stay and get wet. This couple wanted to fish. After the initial soaking Debbie was so cold that she vibrated for the rest of the morning. We were rained on several times, and it drizzled most of the morning. It wasn't a good day to be out there, and the fish didn't want to eat, but the Hausers took it all in stride, and we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. We finally threw in the towel at around noon with the weather looking even more threatening, and I think we may have put half dozen reds and snook in the boat. Debbie and Chris get the prize for determination.
Mark had put BarHopp'R II back in order by the time I got home. He'd charged the batteries, replaced the bait pump, installed a new fuel filter element, and had figured out that one of the bilge pump automatic switches wasn't working. That explained a lot. When I had asked Mark the day before how the boat had performed with the new 150, he responded that it had a serious torque pull to the right, and suggested that I might need to add power steering. He did say that it ran well, but wanted to porpoise. Well, turned out that the right sponson was full of water because of the defective switch, and Mark had never used the manual bilge switches to remove any water, so he had been carrying around a full bait well, three passengers, and a hull full of water. That explained why the boat was pulling to the right, and why she wanted to porpoise. Mark said he realized what was going on when he pulled the drain plugs, and the starboard hull drained, and drained, and drained......
Thursday was to be a day with my friend Lew Joseph, and a couple of his friends. But we decided Wednesday evening that it would probably be too nasty to fish, based on the forecast and the weather radar. Turned out we were right, and it rained like hell all day long. That night, I met my Friday party Al Pozniak and his beautiful lady Debbie, also of Ft. Lauderdale, for dinner at the Seafood Center and Crab House. Al and Debbie are super folks, and we had a great evening talking, swapping fishing stories, drinking margaritas and wine, and of course, stuffing ourselves.
We decided to wait until the morning when I got up to make the call to fish or not. Al wanted to catch a few fish for Debbie, then take her sightseeing around the Sound, and stop at the Cabbage Key Restaurant for lunch. That would be cold and uncomfortable in the rain. I awoke at around four o'clock Friday morning and went straight to my computer and the weather channel radar. The whole southern end of the state was covered with rain. I reluctantly made the call to Al. We agreed to get together again soon, and went back to bed. It turned out to be the correct call, as it rained again off and on for most of the day.
So, Bill Byers, I want to thank you again for helping to salvage what would have been a really poor week if we hadn't fished Tuesday. I'm also glad Debbie Hauser was tough enough to brave the elements Wednesday, and give me a chance to get to know them. It was a fun, if wet day.
I've got a full week on the calendar next week, but don't you know we've got hurricane Geoerge steaming toward us in the Atlantic, and we're still getting dumped on by the tropical storm in the Gulf, which may have a name any time now. Could be another week of rainouts.
If you have any questions or comments, or you'd like to book a trip, please email me at capt@barhoppr.com.
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