Well, sure enough, tropical storm Harvey, who was stirring in the loins of the Caribbean at the end of the week, was a factor for us here early this week. Monday and Tuesday were both rained out. I referred John Burgess, my Monday trip, to Capt. Tom Stephens in Sarasota, since John was originally coming down from there to fish. Tom was able to get John out on Thursday, and they had a great time. My friend Giles Boudrea was scheduled to come over from Pembroke Pines, Florida, for some serious redfish on Tuesday, but we wisely rescheduled him for next month.

I was able to get out Wednesday, with Joe Dowdell, a real estate attorney, and his lovely girlfriend, June, from Marathon. We wondered if the fish would eat at all this soon after the passing of the storm, and with the wind out of the north at around 15. Bait came pretty easily at Fosters Point, and was beautiful. The tide was low and had just started coming in, so my first stop was picked accordingly.

It didn't take long before we had some nice redfish eating our offerings. To my surprise, Joe and June were willing to leave the feeding redfish behind to pursue snook. They had not caught a snook in ten years, and really wanted to target the linesided speedster. It wasn't that they didn't like redfish, but they had caught some reds in the past, we had our limit in the cooler, and they really wanted to catch a snook, if possible.

Well, you know how Mother Nature can be. She often has other ideas, and this was one of those occasions. The snook just wouldn't eat. We did manage to catch one short, but that was it. They wouldn't even eat later back at the ramp. When you can't catch a snook there, you know they're shut down. We finished the morning with our half dozen redfish, 1 snook, a ladyfish, and a catfish, and headed for the Waterfront. We had a wonderful lunch and had an opportunity to visit without interruption. I was concerned about the trip, but Joe and June assured me they'd had a great time, learned a lot, and were comfortable with the call to chase snook. We had at least gotten to spend a great day on the water, after thinking our trip was in jeopardy from Harvey.

Thursday, one of my favorite customers and fishing friends, Tom Ross, brought his co-worker of ten years, Bob, down for a much needed day of R & R from the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. Tom is a lot of fun, and a great angler, and has given me several nicknames, one of the more endearing of which is "Fish-Nazi". Tom has also told me that one of the things that separates me from other guides he's been with is that I don't just tell you what to do, but I explain why it needs to be done that way. Tom hasn't been able to get out much because of work and family responsibilities, and I was hoping I could give him and Bob a great trip.

After finding the redfish willing to eat Wednesday, I was pretty sure I could get on them again. Bait was once again easy and beautiful, and it wasn't long before we were chumming for our first fish. And, it wasn't long before we had steady, although not blazing redfish action going. By eleven o'clock we figured we had at least 15 nice redfish in the boat, and had missed a few. I asked Tom if he would like to finish the last hour chasing snook, and he and Bob were quick to agree.

After trying a couple of normally good spots with a hit, I moved to one of my favorite snook spots and staged the boat. We put three baits out, and within a minute we had all hell breaking loose. Bob had a redfish, I had a snook, and if quickly became obvious that Tom had a great snook on his line. My snook ran left, and I just plugged the rod into a port side hole. Bob and Tom's lines were crossed, and I feared they would both wind up loosing their fish, but they handled the deal masterfully, and Bob soon had his red in the boat. Tom's snook wasn't such a willing participant in our game. She ran him all over, but Tom skillfully used the Daiwa Emblem Z 2000, St. Croix Premier rod, and Ande 8 pond test Envy line to put her at boatside before she could rub through the shock leader. Tom was huffing and puffing with excitement and exhaustion at beating his second biggest snook ever, a 33 inch 11 pound beauty. That was the fish Joe Dowdell was looking for! We spent a few more minutes trying to get a snook for Bob, but he lost one and landed another small redfish.

I had never taken Tom to the Waterfront before, so we were off to celebrate Tom's snook. We' d had a great day, and ended it in fine fashion. I was thrilled that I was able to put Tom on his second biggest snook. Tom thanked me for that, but I kept reminding him that it was he who had caught the fish, not me. I'd dare say that most folks would have lost that fish under those conditions. Tom didn't!

Friday turned out to be another great interesting and fun day with Norm Willoughby, a jet engine test engineer at Pratt Whitney, in North Palm Beach, Florida. Norm is an avid bass tournament fisherman, but had never done this brand of light line, shallow water fishing. It proved to be very different for him.

After gathering a mess of beautiful shiners and a bucket full of threadfins, we were off in pursuit if redfish. We were on the fish right away. I explained to Norm how to set the hook on our fish; point the rod at the fish, reel like hell, when you hear the drag going off through the straight rod, STRIKE! But Norm would keep right on reeling on the fish against the drag until I would tell him about it. I knew Norm knew better than to reel against the drag! But that's what he was doing, and it was causing a lot of missed fish and twisted lines. Well, finally, Norm admitted to me that he couldn't hear the drag clicking. He had a lot of hearing loss from all those years around those jet engines, and just couldn't hear those drags going off. Ah, Ha! So, we used teamwork. When he got a pickup, he'd go into the tight line reeling mode, and as soon as I heard the drag click, I'd yell, "Hit 'em!" Norm would hit 'em, and the fight would be on. It worked out great. And, as I knew he would, Norm proved to be a very skilled angler. But I think Norm learned a lot, too. He was shocked at how hard those big redfish pulled, and even more shocked at how much pressure we could put on those fish with 8 pound test line. I think he may have gone home rethinking how he fishes bass.

Anyway, Norm was one hell of a lot of fun to spend the day with, and an interesting fellow who is going to retire to some serious flats fishing in about a year. That's why he was on a learning trip with me. I'm sure I'll be seeing him again, either on the water or on my boat. But for the first two days of the week, it was JAPWIP! Just Another Perfect Week In Paradise!