REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/28/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

It's Christmas week, and there's not a lot going on between the holidays and cold fronts. I managed to run two trips, with two of my most valued customers.

My old friend Tom Ross brought his 6 year-old son Brett down from Tampa for his first trip in the shallow water. Tom said Brett had had a bad experience on an offshore trip, and he wanted this trip to be part fishing, part shelling, and all fun. He wanted Brett to see that he could go out on a boat and have fun on the water without getting sick.

We began the day with an effort to catch bait at the third span of the causeway. We managed to catch threadfins, some pinfish, and mojarra, but I really didn't expect much to eat them with the water so cold. We had a seriously low tide, and I knew a lot of beach would be exposed, so I suggested to Tom that we do the shelling part of the trip first. We headed to the beach at Cayo Costa, where Tom and Brett walked about a mile, and filled a large bag with great shells including many olives, angel wings, kings crowns, turkey wings, welks, pectons, and others. Tom was just amazed at the quantity and quality of the shells they found. He even found a part of a jennonia.

Happy with the success of their shelling excursion, we decided it was time to let Brett catch a few fish. Trout were the obvious target for the youngster. Tom and I did most of the fishing, though, as Brett seemed to be winding down. He did reel in a few. We caught 15 or so trout including a dozen really nice fish at the top of the slot and bigger. Most were caught on Bass Assassin jigs, but one big trout did crush my Stillwater topwater plug. We finished our day with a fabulous lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant in St. James City.

The day after Christmas my good friend John Hitt and I were out for the first of two days together to wind up the year. I told John that bait was all but impossible, and that even if we caught bait nothing was likely to eat it, anyway, and we agreed to fish artificials. John and I both enjoy fishing with lures.

We had one bodacious low tide, and I began with a run up to Demere Key, where we fished the large holes and edges. We caught a number of really nice trout there, but never really got a good bite going. From there we went south and fish some other potholes without much success. Finally, we headed in to Long Cut to see if we could jig up a snook or some trout there. We caught a few more trout for a total of a dozen or so, and John got one snook nearly to the boat on a curly-tail jig.

Yes, the fishing is tough right now. They all seem to have a case of cold water lethargy. We need a couple of good weeks of warm weather to get things back toward normal, but the cold front just keep on coming!

I want to wish all my customers and friends a most healthy, happy, and prosperous 2003. I look forward to seeing many of you again next year, and to renewing old friendships and beginning new ones.

Tight Lines!

 

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REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/21/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

There is no official fishing report for this week. I want to use this space to thank all of my loyal friends and customers that make up the BarHopp'R family of fishermen and women for making 2002 a better year than I would have ever expected after the September 11, atrocity. Thank you for being brave enough to go on with your lives. Those of us who do remain free.

Our country faces difficult and uncertain times in the future. We will probably be at war before February. Our economy is shaky. We live under the daily threat of terrorism. But, we Americans love our freedom, none the least of which is our freedom to travel and pursue angling adventures. For that reason, I feel confident about the coming year.

I want to wish all in the BarHopp'R family a very Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy, prosperous, and joyous New Year. God bless you all, and keep you safe.

 

 

 

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REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/14/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

Bad weather and a bad economy are combining to make the guide business a tough place to be lately, unless you have another job. That makes for short weeks and short fishing reports. This week was no exception.

I had a trip scheduled Monday with my good friend Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania. It's usually just Bob and me, and it's always a good time. Bob loves to fish, and is an easy going fellow. Mother Nature had other plans, however, as she brought rain squalls and thunderstorms, and blew us out. It blew like hell from the north on Tuesday, and Wednesday was supposed to be the best day of the week with another front showing up on Thursday evening or Friday.

Bob and I left the dock at 6:30 on Wednesday, knowing we had a very poor falling tide, and a north wind at about 15 knots. I figured we would struggle. We headed to the third span of the causeway in hopes of finding bait as easily as in the last few weeks, but bait was scattered. Bob took the helm of the F-16, and maneuvered me around so that I could throw the castnet. We hit bait on three of about six throws, and had a good combination of assorted shiners, threadfins, pinfish, and a few mojarra. Several of the other guides weren't so lucky. Some had decided to anchor and chum, but I suspect the current was too strong for that to be effective. We were LIFO, which pleased me, and were quickly headed for the first hole.

The first stop was out of the wind, and after we had caught several nice jacks we were nearly consumed by no-seeums. They were awful. They got into our hair, or what's left of it, into our clothes, into everything, and I felt like I was on fire. I remembered I had some Skin-So-Soft, and got it out and sprayed Bob and me with it. It gave us about five minutes of reprieve, then the bugs came back as if they had developed a taste for the stuff. I think we could have scored some snook there if we had been able to stay, but it was just impossible.

Through the morning Bob managed several big jacks, which he loves to catch, a gag grouper, a big gafftop sail catfish, and a couple of lost trout. It wasn't until the last stop of the day, where we worked a long canal edge, that we found some snook that would eat. Bob got four descent snook before the tide quit running, altogether.

We headed to the waterfront Restaurant for lunch, and I think it was there the we realized we had finally quit burning and itching. I had the scallop basket, and no one does scallops as well as JD and his crew. Awesome!

It was clear for part of the day Thursday, but began raining off and on in the afternoon, and I began to suspect my Friday trip with Ted Shotzberger, of Stevens, Pennsylvania, was in jeopardy. The radar didn't look too bad Thursday night and Ted and I agreed to make the call in the morning. We also agreed that we didn't mind getting wet, as long as there was no severe weather with lightning involved.

Friday morning I was up at three o'clock to the sound of the trees banging the side of the fishcamp. That's a pretty good meter that the wind is in the 20's. Not good. I got up and checked the radar on the computer, and there was lots of bad weather sitting just offshore. Lots of heavy stuff. So, I called Ted and moved our trip to Saturday morning. I told him that it would be blowing like hell from the north, but the rain would be cleared out, and it wouldn't be dangerous, but the fishing would be tough.

So, Saturday morning we met at 6:30. He presented me with a bag of goodies that included lures manufactured by a friend of his back in Pennsylvania, and some lubricants. They were great looking topwater poppers that looked to be Yozuri quality, complete with saltwater hooks, but produced by Stillwater Lures, in Manheim, Pennsylvania. He brought me two Smack-it 1-1/4 oz topwater poppers, 2 Smack-it Jr's, and two Clatter Shad. I figured it might be a good day to try them. It was howling from the northwest. We headed to the third span of the causeway for bait, and I knew it would be tough when I saw how bad the chop was in front of the second span. Fortunately, Ted is a boat owner, and did a great job of handling the Talon and keeping me in the boat. I guess I threw half a dozen times, and got baits on several of the throws, including one good hit of threadfins. It was enough for him to fish if we managed our bait well. I felt lucky not to have been ejected from the Talon, as some of the waves were three feet in height, and it was very hard to stand up.

Ted and I headed of into the Sound. The first thing we found was that the hard wind had the weak incoming tide at a standstill. It was barely crawling, and if the passage of the front weren't enough to kill the fishing, this probably would be. We fished a number of good snook spots in the Sound without so much as a hit. It wasn't until we were on our way up the river that we found our first fish. I tied on one of the Stillwater Lures Smack-it Jr.'s Ted had brought me, and almost immediately had the first snook on. We lost three or four on the plug, but Ted finally caught a nice snook on a threadfin. Later, in the river, we caught a nice jack crevalle on the same plug. We never saw another snook, or any other fish. It was the toughest day of fishing I'd endured in a very long time. Ted was great, though. He told me he'd had a great time, and that he sometimes goes days fishless back home! We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to enjoy a great lunch and lick our wounds. Note: Stillwater Lures can be reached at 717-664-2935. They have a nice color brochure.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Ted Shotzberger with a very hard earned snook!

Since it's a slow week of reporting, this is a great time to tell you about the castnet I've been using for some time. I have for years used either West Coast Nets or Caloosa Nets, both locally made. I have preferred West Coast nets for a number of reasons. A few months ago, my good friend Lew Joseph, of West Coast Nets, gave me a new net to try. It's called True Spread, and retails at about half of what the West Coast Classic Pro Net sells for.

The True Spread is a professional style net with six pie shaped panel construction. It features double knotted monofilament netting, all hand tied nylon braided lead lines that are triple tied and locked at each mesh, 100 lb. test monofilament braille lines, a 12 millimeter Aussie swivel to reduce braille line twist, 1 oz. ball lead sinkers, giving 1 1/4 lbs. per foot total weight, and a 5/16" hollow braided poly floating hand line of 30 feet.

The first thing you notice when you take the net out of the bucket is the obvious high quality of components and construction. This is a very well made net. In fact, one of the first times I threw it, I caught a big catfish, and by the time I got him out of the net, it had a hole about 8 inches round in it. Most nets would continue to unravel from an unrepaired hole like that, but not the True Spread. I intentionally left the hole to see what might happen. That was months ago, and the hole has not grown at all. The net is in tact.

The second thing you notice is how beautifully the net opens when you throw it. It truly is a True Spread net, and it's aptly named. Now that we are catching bait around the causeway, I have found that it is a great net for catching the bait down deep, because it has enough lead to get it down over the bait quickly. Another selling point as a bridge net is that at half the cost of a West Coast Classic Pro, it doesn't hurt nearly so badly if you have the misfortune to loose it on bottom obstructions.

Bottom line is; it's a great net, not even considering the price. Might make a great gift for your favorite angler this Christmas. You can check them out on-line at www.westcoastnets.com , call them at 1-866-249-NETS, or email them at info@westcoastnets.com .

My calendar is empty for the last two weeks of December because I had planned on being out of town over the holidays. I've had to change those plans, and now find myself needing to book some last minute trips. So, I'm offering a Christmas Special to anyone who would like to take me up on it. I will discount any trips not currently booked 25% through December 31, to any customer I have fished with in the past, and 15% to any new customer. That means the 6 hour half day trip that normally goes for $400 is $300 for existing customers, and $340 to new customers through the holidays. So, come on folks, lets go fishing!!

 

 

 

 

 

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REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 12/7/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

Every guide I'm talking to lately has the same story. There's no work. We're feeling good to get in one or two trips a week, right now. Besides the obvious financial burden, it doesn't leave me much to talk about. I'll try to make it entertaining.

The first trip was on Sunday with my good friend Capt. George Halper, of Hawkeye Charters. He had booked a two boat trip through Outdoor Connection, and hired me as the second boat. I was happy to have the trip, even as I saw that the weather would likely be nasty as our date approached.

We had to pick up at South Seas Plantation. The plan was that I would stop at the Sanibel Causeway and hopefully get enough bait for the two of us to fish with. I was up and on the water before the sun came up. It was already raining. I headed to the causeway to do what I absolutely detest doing; catching bait at the bridge alone in the boat! It's damned dangerous! I staged the boat at the third span where I had been getting bait, and could see it flicking everywhere. On the first throw I had what looked like enough for both George and me. I threw two more times, and just picked out the better shiners. I headed to South Seas and marker 2.

It was quarter till eight when George pulled up as I sat anchored with my PowerPole. He looked about as thrilled to be out there as I was. We were both already pretty wet. George headed on in to pick up our party, as I continued to eat a soggy sandwich. When he returned, he had seven fishermen! I knew George would have to take four, and felt sorry for him. That's just way too many for our style of fishing. Hell, three anglers is too many! I had three, and was determined to make the best of a cold, wet, and overcrowded situation.

Since George had had one of the worst days of his guiding career the day before, we decided he would follow me, since our party wanted to try to fish together. Well, folks! This presents a whole new group of problems. Flats and backcountry fishing isn't something you can typically successfully do with more than one boat. Seven lines in the water in the same whole would indeed make things complicated.

I took our party to a great snook hole that can survive two boats. Unfortunately, the snook weren't about to eat. We gave it maybe a half hour, and I was ready to move on. The second stop was a great snook hole, but one I didn't know if we could successfully fish two boats in. I think both George and I were surprised and delighted to find the hole was full of big ladyfish, and a few trout. Our seven anglers had a blast catching the high flying leapers. They didn't want to leave, and it made the rain more bearable.

Eventually, though, my guys really mastered the ladyfish, and I sensed it was time to do something else. Jim, one of the brothers in my party, mentioned that he had been out with my old friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez the precious Friday, and had a great time catching several tailing redfish. I knew it was a long shot with the front now on top of us, and the wind blowing like hell from the north, but I figured I could find us a few redfish somewhere on the Buck Key flats. Problem is, it's a large area consisting of several miles of beautiful turtlegrass flats and scattered oyster bars. The question was, where to begin?

I settled down on one of the deeper areas to the north. George came in on my right side. I began chumming with shiners, threadfins, and some chopped ladyfish from our previous stop. I put out three rigs with ladyfish steaks on them, and one with a shiner. After the long, wet ride across the Sound, and exaggerated by the 25 knot north wind, everyone was freezing to death! I had a feeling that if we could catch a few reds, the boys would be ready to go home, and that was fine by me.

Even though all the conditions were against us, a few fish ate. My guys managed to catch 3 nice reds, and missed two others. George and his crew caught one or two, and missed a couple, also. As I had anticipated, the boys were ready to toss in the towel, and so were George and I. God, we were miserable, and George and I still had a very long ride home in the cold rain.

Just to make things interesting, the strong wind and wind driven water on the stern of my 9 ft. wide Talon combined to sheer the stressed bolt on my PowerPole, and send me sailing toward some stuff I didn't even want to encounter with my boat hull. I grabbed the pushpole and jammed it into one of my parties hands and told him to try to stop the boat while I desperately tried to get the anchor out and stop the boat with it. I know what you're thinking! Why didn't I just crank the motor? Well, the wonderful Yamaha that always starts in an instant didn't want to start!!

After some tense moments we were anchored, and I managed to get the motor started. It was simply so cold, it needed to be choked. Once the motor was running, I tied off my disabled PowerPole to the poling platform for the ride home. We were off to deliver our frozen anglers back to South Seas!

On the long, wet ride home, I couldn't help but smile and feel smug at how my Talon F-16 just danced it's way across the three foot seas in front of me. Although I was soaking wet, not a drop of it came from the Sound. Somehow, being in such a fine vessel make those nasty, windy days so much more tolerable!

My one-time customer and long time friend Lew Joseph invited me and another old customer and mutual friend, Mike Henry, owner of Pipestone Fly-In Outposts, in Ontario, Canada, to join him for some tripletail fishing on Thursday. When I stepped out of the house Thursday morning, I knew it would be a tough day to try to sightfish tripletail. It was blowing!

We decided to give it a try, anyway, and headed out. Lew wanted to catch some bait, so we headed to the third span of the causeway. Since I thought we were only going to fish tripletail, and didn't anticipate catching bait, I wore some ironed and starched duds that I usually wouldn't wear fishing. Lew would throw the net!

At the causeway, I took the helm. Lew took the net on the bow. I eased him up to the bridge and he threw the net. What I didn't know, and couldn't tell from Lew's body language, was that his net was hung on the bottom! We were in a brisk southeast wind, and a raging tide, moving probably 6 knots under the bridge. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest as I saw the rope pull tight on Lew's wrist, and realized he was hung. The boat was sideways to the current, and I knew that if I gunned the engine, it would be the last we ever saw of Lew alive. Lew held on for dear life as the wind and current tried to pull him from the boat, as I tried to gently get the boat turned to the current using Lew and the anchor point. After what seemed like an eternity, the boat was turned, and I was able to give her some throttle to get the pull off Lew's arm. Lew was understandably pale white and shaking. Thank God he was able to hang on! My instinct was to grab a fillet knife and cut him loose, but I didn't' know where to find one. Neither did Mike.

We finally got the boat over the net, and got it up, and to the credit of the West Coast net, it only had a couple of severed braille lines. I was just thanking God that we had averted what could have been an absolute tragedy. And, there you have, folks, why I won't catch bait around the causeway by myself! It IS dangerous.

After we got our wits about us and made a few more throws with no success, I suggested we just go tripletail fishing, and to hell with bait. Everyone agreed. We headed up to and out of Redfish Pass, and began running crab pots. We must have run 300 pots without so much as seeing a fish. Mike had been telling tales of the snook he had been catching inside, and I suggested we go to his magic spot and catch some fish using lures. We all agreed.

It was a bad day to be fishing, and in the end I caught the only two fish caught; a specked trout and a snook. But, the fish caught didn't matter. It had been a great day on the water with two old friends, and the near tragedy with Lew on the net drove home how precious good friends, and life, are! Be safe out there, folks!

 

 

 

 

 

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REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 11/30/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

Weather was once again a factor in this week's fishing. Although we caught lots of fish, fishing for the glamour species, redfish and snook, was tough, indeed.

Monday was my first outing with Mike Lawton and his ten year old son, Stephen. We left the dock at 10:30, in an effort to optimize the incoming tide. The wind was west/northwest at ten, and the high was to be 78. Knowing that bait would likely be tough to non-existent, I stopped and bought shrimp, but they were dreadfully small. We chummed several spots at Picnic Island with no luck, and wound up going to the second span of the causeway, where I netted enough threadfins for a day of fishing.

We headed up into the Sound, and it seemed there were more boats out than on a weekend. Everywhere I wanted to go, there was a boat sitting on the flat that would keep me from entering on the ultra low tide without making someone mad. So, I headed north. There was very little water. After an hour or more fishing a series of potholes around a mangrove key without so much as a nibble, we headed back south.

We managed to catch a lot of trout in the potholes, but only got one snook in all the other places we fished. They just didn't want to eat. We actually got the best fish of the day at what I call my "19th Hole" along the way home. Mike got a 30 inch snook on one of the threadfin herring, and I felt damned lucky to have caught that.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Mike Lawton with a nice Pine Island snook!

Tuesday, I was the number two boat in another trip with Capt. Gary Nucci. We had two young couples, who Gary said just wanted to get out and try to catch some fish, and it wasn't important what. They decided to have the guys go with Gary, and the gals, Brook Hawley and her friend Laura, go with me. That was great by me. Gary said he had planned to just buy shrimp and primarily trout fish. So, I bought shrimp and brought a tackle bag full of everything under the sun. We left the docks at 8 AM with a 15 knot breeze blowing out of the northeast.

I made a run to the causeway to see if I could mark any bait on the fishfinder there. I didn't see anything. I elected to stop at Chino, where I knew there would be plenty of pinfish, and catch some of those as an alternative to shrimp. In a couple of throws we had about a hundred, and were off.

Because the tide was falling, we went snook fishing first. We pitched pinfish and shrimp, and even some lures in some great snook holes without so much as a look. Brook did land one nice redfish, and was amazed at the pull it had in the deeper water we were in.

As the water got down past mean low water, we turned out attention to fishing for trout in the potholes. As the girls fished with shrimp and pinfish, I experimented with jigs until I found the combination that really caught fish. It was a green Bass Assassin on a chartreuse head, and once I had all three of us throwing that, we were catching trout three at a time. Many of the fish were small, but as we backed them into the corner of the pothole, we began catching bigger fish. We caught so many that the girls became bored with it, and asked if we could go snook fishing.

We headed up the river, which was so full of big cruisers it looked like I-75 covered with semis. Not where I like to fish, but I figured it was our best shot at getting a nice snook under bad conditions. We began with live bait, but I eventually switched them to DOA Terror-Eyez, and we managed to catch a couple of big river jacks. Lots of fun.

We had planned to go back to the Waterfront for lunch, but I folded the edge of one of my propeller blades somewhere along the way, and the prop was vibrating badly. It probably happened as I left the potholes we were trout fishing, as I thought I would not make it through the super skinny water. I knew running the motor with such a vibration could be very bad, so we elected to go straight back to the dock. Anyway, Brook's redfish seemed to be the fish of the day back at the docks, and everyone had a good time.

Wednesday, I was joined by my good friend Dr. John Hitt, of UCF in Orlando. He brought along his friend Dino. We elected to get an early start, and pulled out at 6 AM. I headed to an offshore marker to see if we could find shiners there. We anchored and chummed, but never saw the first bait. From there we went to the beach of Sanibel, and caught maybe a dozen small baits. Nothing more. We came back inside to the third span of the causeway, where there were quite a few boats trying to catch bait, and were loaded in two throws of my net. It was nice to have a well full of assorted shiners, along with some big threadfins.

We headed up into the Sound, and on the falling tide we worked a large area that offered good moving water. At one spot we had a lot of hits, missed several, and lost a couple of fish, but managed to catch a couple of nice snook and large trout. John broke off a nice fish, which had us thinking his 10 pound Power Pro must have been nicked on something.

As the tide got to it's lowest point, we turned our attention to trout, which John loves to fish, and caught a bunch of them on the same jigs as the day before. I urged that we leave the area before it cost me another $500 prop!!

I was to fish with Bob Smollen and his son Dan, who was in from Orlando, on Friday, but the weather was cold and blowing, and we figured we had a better shot at good weather if we fished on Saturday. Yes, I will do that for my regular friends and customers.

It was still a brisk day, but much nicer that Friday. The wind was down. We headed to the third span of the causeway in search of bait, and I loaded the boat on the first throw! Although I hate catching bait around the causeway, you have to love it when it's that easy!!

We headed up into the Sound in search of snook, but the water temperature in the bay is getting dangerously close to 60, and seems to have put the snook in a hybernative state. They're just not hardly eating. We did find some nice fat trout in the snook hole, though, that Bob was happy with. The next snook hole again yielded some very nice trout to about 4.5 pounds. No snook! We did have one on, but it got away, denying us of our Slam.

We decided to try for some reds, as we'd caught a bunch the last time we were out, and Bob liked that. We found plenty of redfish on our first stop, but they were so spooky you couldn't get close to them. The water was glass slick, and it was bright and sunny. A tough combination. We couldn't get a fish to eat, so I moved to another area that always has reds, but offers a bit more cover. There we again found plenty of redfish. Dan got the first one by making a beautiful cast in front of several cruising fish. One ate, and it was great! We caught a couple more nice reds just before the tide quit running, and it was over for the morning.

Winter is definitely here, folks. The water is unseasonably cold, and is taking it's toll on snook fishing. That's not likely to change until we get enough of a warming trend to warm the water some. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for lots of big trout and great trout action, and redfish, jacks, ladyfish, flounder, and the like. Geez! That's not so bad, is it?

Winter cold fronts claimed several days this week, and I only got to fish Thursday and Friday. They were two great days sandwiched between weather fronts, but we caught some great fish.

The first trip I actually got to run was on Thursday. It was a two boat trip with Capt. Gary Nucci. We picked up our six anglers at Punta Rassa at 8 AM after spending the time from daylight catching bait. Gary went to the causeway, and I went to Picnic Island to see if I could scare up bait there without making a long run, or risking my life throwing around that bridge. Bait was tough, but I got enough to fish with three anglers. I didn't have the luxury of having extra to chum with, and Gary gave me a scoop of the threadfin herring he'd gotten at the causeway. What I did get was beautiful snook sized shiners!

I was actually surprised that Steve Duckworth, the fella that organized the trip, didn't cancel it. The wind was straight out of the northeast at 15 to 20 after the passage of the front, and we advised everyone that it would likely be a very tough day. The fish typically don't eat for a couple of days after frontal passage. Also, they wanted to fish for snook, which can be really tough to catch after a front. We decided that we would divide into the guys who wanted to take their chances with snook, and those who just wanted to go fish, and those who wanted to snook fish would go with me. Steve, and his two friends Chris Miliotes and Jim, came with me.

We had a very early high tide at around 10 AM. I knew full well that the catching, if it happened, would likely be over when the tide was over. It wasn't a strong tide, either, further adding to the challenge. So, I headed straight to the spot that I thought offered us the best chance of success early. It was a good call, as we had a much better bite there than I had expected we'd have. The wind and current made fishing difficult for my guys, and they missed a lot of hits. They did manage to put 8 or so snook to 28 inches into the boat, along with about the same number of speckled trout to 19 inches. Chris got the best fish of the morning with the 28 inch snook.

True to my experience and expectation, the fishing totally shut down once the tide quit running. Even after it began to crawl out, the fish didn't bite, save for a couple of ladyfish. WE fished some great spots without so much as a nibble. I don't think we could have caught another fish if we'd been fishing with dynamite!! it was a tough day, but we'd managed to make it a fun one.

Friday the wind was down to 10 to 15 out of the southeast as another cold front already approached. It was to have been my second trip with Dr. Vic Weinstein and his beautiful wife Randi, but we had been weathered out on Wednesday. So, this was our first trip. We had a great tide, and high to be around 81, and I was looking for a good day. We headed straight to Picnic Island, and were loaded with big, beautiful shiners in two throws after a little chumming. Everything was in place.

I headed to a favorite snook hole, but with help from the wind, the tide was already higher than it should have been, and the fish had moved out. I went to another of my favorite snook grounds, and as I made my approach to the area a nearby boat asked me to please stay at least 100 yards away, as they were fishing a tournament and had to take a polygraph test certifying they hadn't been within 100 yards of live bait! This 100 limit killed a lot of good spots, which displeased me greatly, but we let the anglers have the whole area. I took a long ride on the trolling motor to another spot, and as I approached a single angler in a white center console boat ran in front of me on his gas motor and claimed the spot it was obvious to anyone I was going to fish. My patience was growing thin, and I was finding it hard to remain the consummate professional. What I really wanted to do was run a bunch of circles around this idiot and leave. But, we left quietly and went somewhere else.

I guess you could say that we proved the Lord works in mysterious ways for sure, because we had a great bite right from the start, and for most of our morning. Yes, Vic and Randi missed their share of fish, but they did better than most, and really did well with the fish that counted.

It was about mid-morning when Randi's rod was nearly snatched right out of her hands! Hell, the big fish nearly snatcher her right off the bow of the boat! The reel was screaming, and I knew we had the snook of a lifetime. I went into the coaching mode, knowing that Randi had never tangled with anything like this, and immediately screwed the drag on the Sustain 4000 down as tight as I thought I dare go with the 30 pound Power Pro. I knew the clock was running on the leader if the big snook was anything other than lip hooked. I prayed to God the 40 pound fluorocarbon leader and knots would hold. I prayed the fish was lip hooked, and that Randi wouldn't drop any slack to her. After what seemed an eternity, Randi had the big snook alongside the boat, and I think we were all shocked to see a snook this big in such shallow water. I managed to get the BogaGrip on her lower lip, and swung her aboard. Randi was beside herself with excitement. Hell, we all were. There was a Maverick the same color as my Talon about 50 yards away, and they were hollering and cheering and clapping for Randi and her great feat! It was awesome. We took pictures as quickly as we could and got the big breeder back into the water and began to resuscitate her. She soon swam slowly away as if nothing had happened. Very possibly she had endured a number of such battles with anglers. Well, she was the snook of a lifetime for a shallow water angler, and weighed just over 18 pounds and measured over 38 inches. She was fat!

Vic and Randi caught 2 redfish, one with 9 spots, 8 or more big trout, several of which went 4 and 5 pounds, and 15 or more snook, including 3 other keepers. They had the Slam in a big way, with an 18 pound snook topping it off! What a morning!

We finished what had been a perfect day with a great lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant, where we relived the whole morning over a number of times, and Randi repeatedly reminded Vic of her BIG fish. She was funny, and as proud as she could be, because she had done it all herself.

I couldn't help thinking about Steve Duckworth from the day before. He had wanted to catch a big snook, but his timing was one day off. I'm sure he'll be happy for Randi, though.

Our guides' association was supposed to host a Big Brother/Big Sisters Tournament that we do each year for the kids, on Saturday. Mother Nature had other ideas, though as it began raining Friday evening, and rained until Sunday morning. We had lots of hi winds, thunder, lightning, and copious amounts of rain before it was over. It will surely cool things off for next week.

Awesome is the only word I can use to describe the fishing again this week, and it's the word often used by my customers. All my folks caught plenty of nice snook and big trout, and redfishing was good, too.

My customer for Monday was Shannon Hartich, who is the lovely wife of Roland Hartich. Roland and Shannon have been my friends for several years, and come over from Germany. The story of how Shannon fished Monday is fun. They have a young son, Nicholas, and didn't have someone to sit with him so they could both fish. So, they flipped a coin to see who would fish with me on Monday, and Shannon won, much to Roland's chagrin! Shannon's ambition since we first met is to catch a fish that would get her "Fish of the Week" on my website. I hoped this might be the day.

It was the new moon, and we had a great tide and great weather. I was expecting good things. We headed to Chino Island for bait, and were soon ready to fish. The first stop was for trout, jacks, ladyfish, and such, and although we caught fish, the action began slowly.

As the tide flooded the flats we made a move that proved to be the charm. We got into snook and redfish that were hungry, and Shannon had the time of her life catching those fish. She kept reminding me that Roland was going to be upset when he found out how well she'd done. By the time we were ready for lunch, Shannon had boated 13 nice redfish to 10 pounds, 9 nice snook, and a big trout of around 4 pounds. Her arms were sore. I told her I thought her 10 pound redfish would be tough to beat for "Fish of the Week" honors. As the week evolved it became apparent that I was right. Good job, Shannon.

Tuesday was my first trip with Dr. Dave Rallis, his beautiful wife MaryAnn, and her mother Josephine, from the Atlanta area. We left the dock at 8 AM, and headed straight to Chino for bait. Three throws and we were ready to go fishing.

We had a good winter low tide of -0.4 ft. Perfect pothole fishing. I headed to a large pothole I hadn't fished since last spring. Man, was it full of fish. Every bait Dave, MaryAnn, and Jo casted was eaten by either a nice trout, a jack crevalle or a ladyfish. The action was too fast to try to keep accurate count, but by the time we decided to turn our attention to snook, the trio had caught a good 30 trout, several ladyfish, and bunches of jacks.

The first snook hole only yielded us one snook. We didn't stay long. The second hole was the charm, along with the third hole. We got into the snook well, and boated easily a couple dozen snook to 29 inches and 9 pounds, including 3 keepers, along with 6 redfish. Dave caught the biggest snook while we had a couple of others on the line, with a Yozuri Banana Boat lure. Icing on the cake, as it were. Everyone agreed it was an awesome day.

The next two days were blown out by wind from another passing cold front. I was back on the water Friday with first time customers Dave and Kristen Twigg, of Kansas City, Kansas. We left the dock at 10 AM to fish the incoming tide. I wasn't sure if the front had moved the bait, but headed straight to Chino Island. I was delighted to see tons of bait come to my chum, and we loaded the boat in two throws.

The tide was still on the last part of the falling side when we got to the first stop, but we managed to catch a couple of snook, a grouper, a jack, and a couple of catfish. Things didn't turn on once the tide started in as I expected they would, so we were soon off to hit some potholes on this lowest tide of the season. The first hole was full of speckled trout. After catching 30 or so, we moved to another hole looking for snook. It wasn't long before Dave had two or three to the boat, one a keeper. As soon as the water was right I moved to a third hole, and it proved to be the charm. We caught snook after snook, and by the time it was over we'd boated a good 30 snook and a big flounder. There were 4 keeper snook in the 30 inch range, along with many other nice sized fish. We stopped at one other spot for a few minutes on the way home, and caught a beautiful 4 pound trout.

At the Bait Shack cleaning fish, Dave gave me a wonderful compliment. He told me he had been on many guided fishing trips in many places, and that this had been one of the very best trips he'd been on. Sure made my day.

I think the fishing will continue to be great at least for the next several weeks. The weather will have a lot to do with that. Stay tuned, and get out there when you can.

To say the fishing this week was great would be an understatement. It was awesome, and got better as the week progressed. Read on.

First up on Tuesday was my buddy Bryan Thomas back for his second trip. With a front knocking on our doorstep we had a 20 knot southeast wind. We headed straight to Chino to catch bait, and before I could get the Power Pole down, Bryan and I both heard the unmistakable sound of a big jack attack. They were trashing bait on top like crazy not far from us. I told Bryan bait would wait, and we headed toward the jacks with the trolling on full throttle. We had a ball catching speckled trout, several jacks, and several ladyfish on topwater plugs. Finally, we decided we'd better go catch bait and get after the snook and redfish, and we had the well full in two throws. We had a falling tide all morning long, and I wanted to get onto the flats and try to catch some fish before the water and fish disappeared.

The first stop was the best one, where Bryan caught several redfish and probably 10 snook. We crossed the Sound and hit several other holes, but only managed a couple more snook. All in all it wasn't a bad day considering the tide and conditions. We had a good time and Bryan got another Slam.

Thursday was the first of two trips with my old friend Dr. Ron Kolata, of Cleveland, Ohio, who I fish with several times a year. Ron is an avid, rabid angler, and loves to fish. I love to fish with him. We had a slow moving tide that would crest about the middle of the morning. I knew we'd have water on the flats for most of our trip, and hoped I could hit the fish on the head with enough bait to make them eat.

Oddly, the wind was calm, and the front seemed to have stalled. It was a beautiful morning. I talked with a fellow guide at the dock while waiting on Ron, and he told me that the bait had disappeared from Chino. I was reluctant to believe that for a second time in as many weeks. We headed straight to Chino for bait. Why go anywhere else when bait is so good here, right? We were loaded in a couple of throws!

We headed to one of my favorite snook areas, knowing we had a good tide, and expecting good action. We weren't disappointed. We had steady action, and Ron boated at least a dozen snook and a dozen redfish over the next several hours. Once the action subsided there we headed back to Chino Island for trout. Ron boated several trout, a gag grouper, a couple of ladyfish and a couple of jacks, there. It had been a good day of fishing, and we capped it off with our usual lunch at the Waterfront Restaurant. But, as good as the fishing had been on this day, Ron couldn't have possibly imagined what was to come on Friday.

Friday. A perfect tide. A nice breeze from the southwest. Moderate temperatures. Seemed like a perfect setup to me. Ron and I wasted no time getting bait at Chino and heading to our first fishing hole. Right from the first cast the action was crazy! I don't think we threw more than a half dozen baits that didn't get eaten either by a snook or a redfish for the entire morning. It was as close to fishing mayhem as you can get. Ron was obviously in his glory. I was, too. What a day. By the time the smoke cleared and we decided it was time for lunch, Ron had boated 22 redfish, 1 nice trout, and as closely as we could count about 50 snook! It just can't get any better than that.

I don't know how long this great fishing with last, but the tides are good into the first part of next week. I look for good things to happen, again.

 

 

 

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REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 10/26/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

There are three trips to report on this week. The fishing was great for most of it.

First up on Monday was Bryan Thomas and his friend, of Clinton, Pennsylvania. Bryan and I had a great trip four years ago, and really hit it off and had a great time. I was excited about seeing him again.

I had heard from customers over the weekend that bait had virtually disappeared from Chino Island. There had been so much bait there, that I found it hard to believe. I decided to find out for myself, but started early in case bait was indeed, tough. Well, when I arrived at Chino there was bait flicking everywhere, and I couldn't imagine why folks had problems catching it the day before. We loaded up in two throws, while Bryan pitched a Yosuri Banana Boat and caught a few trout. After catching bait we stopped on a big feed near Regla Island and caught more trout, lots of ladyfish, and a couple of jacks.

After that we were ready to tackle redfish and snook, and hit a number of spots with limited success. Finally, we found snook, and later redfish in good numbers, and had a good time catching them. We ended the day with a couple of dozen or more snook, and around a dozen redfish. We'd caught a lot of fish all totaled, and had gotten the West Coast Slam many times over. I was really quite surprised at the action, considering that we were on the full moon.

Tuesday I was back at it with my old friends Mike and Joanne McMahon, of St. Leonard, Maryland. Mike, who's about 6 ft. 5 in. had lost about 40 pounds, and I barely recognized him. He's still a big boy, and looking good.

We headed straight to Chino for bait of course, and after a little chumming, Mike had to help me pull the net into the boat, it was so heavy with bait. I'm guessing we had 600 shiners, plus pinfish, and I couldn't see the bottom of the huge well in the Talon. One throw, and we were ready to go fishing. I wondered if the moon would be a factor as it usually is.

Well, it may have been a factor, but it didn't keep us from having a good day. It wasn't as good as the day before, but still good. Before it was over, Mike and Joanne had boated 2 big mackerel, several trout, 7 or 8 redfish, and 12 to 15 snook. The Slam was in the bag, and we finished the day with lunch at the Waterfront where I had my first delicious stone crabs of the season.

Wednesday, for whatever reason, was a different story for the redfish and snook. My good friend Russ Hubbard was over with his friend Mike Bernath, who was down from Canada. It was Mike's first BarHopp'R trip, and some of the first fishing he'd done, I believe. The guys had come in the night before, and spent the night at the fishcamp. We'd done a little partying, but didn't have to be up real early because of the tide.

Bait was easy at Chino once again, and we loaded the boat in two throws. We had Mike throwing a Yozuri trying to get him used to the equipment, but he didn't have long. So, we stopped at another big topwater feed and caught lots of ladyfish and jacks, and some speckled trout. After catching lots of fish, and getting Mike comfy with the gear, we were off to find bigger fish. Man, were they tough. The fish just didn't want to eat. For the rest of the trip we only managed 3 redfish, 2 snook, and lost 4 snook. The highlight for Mike was at our first stop, where he caught a nigh bonnethead shark around 4 feet long.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Mike Bernath and Russ Hubbard with a nice bonnethead shark caught on a shiner!
We'd caught a lot of fish, had a lot of fun, and even Slammed. But, the bright nights finally seemed to have taken their toll on the glamour fish. We finished the day with a great lunch at the Waterfront once again.

The tides for next week are really tough, and we're coming into our slow time of year. Also, our next front is due to arrive Wednesday or Thursday. So, it's hard to say what there will be to report on next week.

It was a short workweek for me, but man, what great fishing. The first big winter front of the fall season seems to have pushed the big snook inside, and has the redfish on the move, too. Not only did they eat like crazy as the front approached, but after it passed, as well, when they should have been shut down!

After a four day weekend for my family reunion, I was back to work on Wednesday, on my first outing with Lenny and Carol Hall, of Boscawen, New Hampshire. Lenny is an experienced fisherman, but Carol was pretty much new to the sport.

We left the dock at first light, and headed right to Chino for bait. It was a pretty nasty ride with a strong 25 knot wind blowing out of the WNW. I don't think Lenny and Carol, not having experience with other flats boats, realized just how well the Talon chewed up the churning waters. With the wind blowing so hard, and the water chopping so bad, I was afraid bait would be a problem, but it came to us almost immediately, and we were loaded in two throws.

I decided the Sound was way too nasty to entertain crossing, and to try to get the job done on the east side. Our first stop was a nearby spot, and from the first cast, we had great action. The redfish and snook seemed to be everywhere. We only hit five spots that whole morning, and had great action at each. Carol had the fish of the day with a snook that would have to have been 38 to 40 inches, and got it to the boat ready to land when it managed to find the trolling motor. Lenny got the next best snook at just under 34 inches, and about 12 pounds. There were snook of 29, 26, 26, etc., and countless redfish. We also got the odd gag grouper, jack crevalle, and ladyfish, and finished up with a couple of speckled trout just to complete the Slam. We didn't manage to keep a fish by fish count, but I'm sure we caught around three dozen snook and redfish. It was a great day, with lots of quality fish.

I was pretty sure things would be very tough on Thursday for my friend Eric DJ-X Muniz and his friend Dr. Fred Keiber. The front had pushed on through during the night. The wind was now straight out of the north, and the temperatures much lower. The classic winter front. I was afraid DJ might cancel when I told him things would be tough, but to his credit, he hung in there with me, saying that he had never had a bad day with me, even when I'd told him to expect it.

Well, the fishing Gods were with us again, as things went well right from the start. We had so much bait in the net on the first throw, that I couldn't lift it without risking hurting my back or knee, and Fred helped me get it into the boat. We had whitebait and pinfish all over the boat. I dumped the bulk of it straight into the well, and by the time we got the rest in there was so much bait in there that I was concerned about loosing it all. But, the Talon well is very efficient and large and the fish soon stabilized, and we were off.

Much to my surprise, we had a great bite, especially considering that a big front had just passed. We began our day at a snook hole, but the hole was full of those pesky old redfish!! Nice redfish. What a nice surprise. We caught some snook, too, and trout, and Slammed at the first stop. We didn't leave until we were sure it was over.

It was the same thing at the second stop, and we slammed again. We caught great snook, redfish, and trout. I was amazed the fish were eating so well. I knew they were there. I just didn't think they'd eat. At the last stop we got into some bigger redfish, and DJ got the biggest at 11 pounds. We headed back to the Waterfront, where I'd picked them up that morning, and had a great lunch to complete a great day.

It's pretty early for winter fronts to be pushing this far south. Makes me wonder if we aren't in store for a harsh winter. One thing is for sure; the cooler weather sure is nice.

There are four trips to talk about for this week. The snook and redfish remained tough, and the breezes remained mostly out of the northeast. Here's how it went.

After finishing last week with my buds Mike Schwartz and Russ Hubbard, they brought the new week in, too. We left the dock at 9 AM, and headed to Chino for bait. The bait is thick there, but not necessarily everywhere. Once you're close to it, a little chum brings them in by the thousands. We were once again loaded up in two throws of the net.

We began our day chasing redfish and snook. Russ would have been happy to go straight to the trout, but Mike wanted to catch the glamour fish if at all possible. We worked the redfish and snook hard, but only caught 4 snook for our efforts. With a couple hours left to fish the tide, Mike agreed it was time to turn our attention to trout. We headed back to Chino where we had begun, and were immediately into the trout. We caught them two and three at a time, and easily caught 50 or more before heading in. I noticed some pain in my right knee, but didn't think much of it.

Monday morning, as I got moving for my second trip with my old friend Bob McGuire, I could hardly move my leg, and hardly walk. I had extreme pain in my knee when I tried to lift my leg, or bend it. I couldn't imagine what I'd done to it, but often hurt myself while working, and don't know it until later. I had to work. Bob was counting on this second trip of his vacation, and I could not disappoint.

Getting the boat hooked up, loaded, fueled, and into the water was hell, but I stayed on time. Bob showed at 9 AM, and we were off. Bait was once again easy at Chino. I decided to stay on the east side and look for snook. We hit some great spots, but only came up with one snook and a jack. We found no reds.

So, I decided it was time to head to the west side of the Sound. We were way north, and I headed straight across and began my search. It wasn't long before I found a big school of redfish. There were hundreds of fish in the school, and they were big ones. I saw fish that would probably have gone 4 ft. long. I got the Talon positioned to try to fish the big reds and began chumming with live and cut bait. As I had feared, the fish didn't want to eat. The were very stubborn, but Bob did catch two and miss a third one. The two he caught were 9 and 10 pounds. Bob was very happy with that big redfish.

We worked the school hard, but couldn't get them to turn on, so finally abandoned them in search of trout to complete our West Coast Slam. I of course ran right straight to Chino, since the trout have been so plentiful and hungry there, and of course, they were right there waiting on us. Bob and I caught them two at a time until we'd had enough, and put at least 40 in the boat.

Although the reds never went crazy for me, we did get a couple of beauties, a snook, and lots of trout, and had a great time. My knee pain had made it seem like a very long day, but we'd had fun. That's what it's all about.

Tuesday morning, the knee seemed even worse for my third trip with Bruce Miller, and his neighbor Chris, of Cape Coral. I seriously considered canceling, but Bruce said he'd help with things if needed. We met at 9 AM, and headed straight to Chino for bait. I had to move twice before getting into it, but once we did, we loaded up with beautiful shiners and pinfish.

We began on the low tide with pothole fishing for snook and trout. I decided to try a pothole I hadn't fished since last spring, and we caught several big trout and a Bruce got a beautiful 29 inch snook out of it. From there we went to a similar spot and caught 7 or 8 more snook. I told Bruce about the school of big reds I'd found the day before. I knew that eventually they would eat, and I really wanted to be there when it happened. Bruce loves to catch reds as much as I do, and was all for going to find them again.

I virtually drove right to them. What a beautiful school of fish! I chummed them hard, and even moved around some as I spotted fish. At one point, we had a bunch of big reds ease to within 10 feet of the boat. I told Bruce and Chris to be very still and look down to the right. They were shocked to see the fish right there. I slowly grabbed a net full of bait and pitched it right into the middle of them. They totally ignored the bait, and slowly swam away. Talk about frustrating. Well, at least the boys now knew that the fish were there, as they hadn't seen all the other fish that I had seen.

We worked them hard, and never got the first bite. Bruce wanted to do some catching, so it was trout time. We of course headed right back to Chino, where we found several other boats on the flat that didn't appear to have much going on. I eased into the area I wanted with the trolling motor, put the Power Pole down, and we immediately began catching. We boated a good 40 plus trout, and had caught some nice snook, but the redfish denied us our Slam.

Thursday was the last trip of the week, and the only one with new customers, John Zedde, of St. Claire, Michigan, and his brother Jerry Zedde, from Chicago. The knee was still killing me, and seemed to be getting worse, but I knew that if I could just get through the day, I could be off of it for several days. I knew as soon as I met the Zedde brothers it would be a fun day.

We headed straight to Chino for bait. Why do anywhere else when there is so much there? While John and I caught bait, I had Jerry pitching a lure to see if he could catch some trout. I think he caught two or three while we were at it.

I headed straight to the pothole where I'd found the snook for Bruce the day before, and was surprised to find another guide in it. I'd never seen him there before. In fact, I've rarely ever seen anyone in that particular spot. I'm guessing he saw me fishing it. I headed to the hole that had given up the snook the day before, but the boys only managed 1 snook. In fairness to the hole, they did miss a number of hits.

As the tide flooded the flats, we headed out in search of the big school of reds, again, but the water was now so dirty I couldn't see to find them. I opted to move on to another flat and try our luck. I found redfish there, but they weren't in an eating mood, either. We only managed to catch two, but at least we did catch a couple. We worked them hard, and finally decided to get our numbers and complete our Slam with trout fishing.

We finished with lots of big trout at Chino, and it was fun to watch John and Jerry heckle each other as they caught them two at a time for the most part. Jerry finally had to concede that John was the better fisherman, at least on this day, as he'd caught the biggest redfish, and had really figured out how to catch the trout on every cast. They were a lot of fun, and surely helped my day pass much more easily.

That's how it went. Great trout fishing, but tough snook and red fishing. I think we'll have to see a front come in here before things bust loose. Hopefully, by the time I get back from a family reunion next week, my knee will be back to normal.

Seems I picked a good week to be off the water with back to back tropical storms affecting our weather. Isodore foiled most of my plans for the week, but that's better than loosing a bunch of trips. I went back to work on Thursday and managed to run three trips. They were good ones.

My long time fishing buddy Bob McGuire, of Line Lexington, PA, was up on Thursday. I sheepishly explained to Bob that he was the first trip after over a week off, and that he was pretty much a guinea pig. I had heard stories of no bait and tough fishing, and was expecting a tough time on the first day back out on the water.

We headed to Chino Island with the new Yamaha singing. There was bait everywhere, and we were loaded to the gills in two throws. Actually, in one throw, but we guides are bait hogs of the first order. I decided to fish north and stay on the east side of the Sound, at least to start. I headed to a spot where the reds had been pretty plentiful before I went on vacation. It didn't take but a minute or so before we had our first redfish in the boat, and before it was over Bob had boated 8 to 10 big reds, most pushing 29 inches.

Once the redfish action slowed we headed to a nearby island for snook. I figured it was about time for the snook to be showing up there as they move back inside from the beaches. They were there in spades, and we caught a dozen or so, up to 28 inches. Bob also caught his first barracuda at that spot. We also caught a dozen or so nice trout, and 3 jack crevalle to give us the Slam and round out the day. Bob and I were happy campers. It had been a great day, and Bob suggested I go on vacation every time before he comes to fish.

Friday's trip was with another old friend, Rod Heflin, of Miami, and his two friends Todd Schmidt and Tim. Rod has a place in Cherry Estates on Pine Island, so I picked them up at the Waterfront Restaurant. We headed straight to Chino for bait, and once again were overloaded in two throws. While Rod and I caught bait, I had Todd and Tim throwing plugs for the early morning trout, and they caught a dozen or so. We headed right back to where I had gotten on the reds so well with Bob, and of course, there was not a redfish to be seen, nor a snook. Hmmm. I was sure they were there, and worked them hard, but if they were there, they weren't buying what we were selling. A move was in order.

I headed to a flat a few miles away that often has redfish on the right tide. There was another guide boat nearby, not catching. I anchored and began chumming, and put out four long range shiner rigs using Cajun floats. They are hard plastic floats that have rattles in them, clip easily onto the line, and cast like cannonballs! They're great. They give me extra casting range away from the boat. A real advantage on a shallow, clear flat. Within ten minutes, I had the fish going. The bite was on, and we were having a blast. I guess the nearby guide got tired of having his customers watch, and cranked up his big motor and left. I will never understand why some of these guys refuse to invest in a trolling motor. Any flat will hold more fish, more often, more predictably, if you're not making a bunch of noise when you're coming and going. Da! Well, anyway! By the time it was over, Rod, Todd, and Tim had tangled with around 30 redfish, and managed to land the majority of them. We had a blast, and by the time the bite ended with the tide, everyone was ready for lunch.

It's Saturday! God, I hate fishing weekends! But, it was the only time my good friend Mike Schwartz could get away from Gourmet-to-Go, his business in Denver, for some fishing. I had introduced him to another of my best fishing buds, Russ Hubbard, on his previous trip, and the hit it off, and it helps them both defray the cost of a trip, allowing them to both fish twice as much for the same dollars. So, Russ was once again coming to fish with Mike, and they both stayed here at the fish camp with me. That's always a good time. To my chagrin, though, we found that there were several tournaments going that weekend, and it was an absolute zoo on the water. Boats everywhere. I counted several times during the day, and I could look in any given direction from any given spot, and count about 20 boats!! Not good for the fishing prospects.

Well, at least bait was easy. The usual two throws and we were overloaded. The fish had other ideas, though. We fished our hearts out trying to get redfish and snook to eat, and only boated one redfish and two snook the entire morning. Finally, Russ proclaimed it trout time. Russ loves fishing for the "mighty seatrout", as he calls them, and could do it all day. I fish trout mostly as a backup on tough days, mostly because the mortality is usually so high. They are bad about taking the hooks deep, and they are quite fragile fish, as well. But, one does what one has to do to get fish into the boat.

We stopped at a flat near Regla Island expecting to find a lot of trout there, but didn't. We did get a nice bonus there, though. We spotted what looked from our angle like a boat wake coming at us. It was long and narrow, and fooled me. But, as we watched the suspicious looking water, we began seeing bait blasted out of the water by some really big fish. I cranked up and ran around and up from the school and got into position. They sounded! We put our baits out, and boom, we instantly had a triple hookup of monster jack crevalle. They are the hardest fighting fish for their size in our waters, and these guys were all running 15 to 20 pounds. Russ landed the biggest one, which we estimated at around 23 pounds, as it easily tilted the scale on my Boga-Grip. That fish kicked Russ's butt, and got him fish of the week.

From there we headed to the flats at Chino for trout. I was sure there were plenty there, and there were. We caught nice trout two and three at a time for the better part of a couple of hours, and although it was impossible to count, we easily caught 50 or more fish. It was the fun we were looking for, and a great way to end what had began as a tough day.

Well, that's how it went the first three days back in the Captain's chair on the F-16. The weather for next week is supposed to be very dry, as high pressure kills our chances for rain. I hope it doesn't kill the fishing.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 9/21/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

It was a short work week with three trips scheduled, made shorter by a cancellation due to family problems. The two trips I ran were very good ones, both with old friends.

The first trip was on Tuesday with my friend Bruce Miller, and his neighbor Chris, of Cape Coral. Bruce and I have been out several times together, and always have fun. This was the first time out for Chris.

We headed straight to Chino to catch bait, but unlike previous weeks, bait was tough to find. I had to make a few moves, but we finally got enough bait to fish with. Once bait was collected we headed to the flats near Regla for some trout, jack, and ladyfish action. The fish were still there, and hungry. I had Bruce and Chris tossing jigs, and I threw the new Yozuri topwater popper. Conditions were less than desirable for topwater plugging, but the trout were eager to eat the Yozuri. Dittos for the jigs. In the space of a couple of hours we caught over 50 trout, a snapper, a gag grouper, several jack crevalle, and 2 ladyfish.

We left the fish biting to go try to find some redfish. I headed across the Sound to one of my favorite areas to see if there might be some reds showing up there, yet. I found another guide in a center console boat sitting on the flat. I quietly trolling motored in and anchored a hundred feet or so off his port side. I'd no more than gotten set when he cranked up his outboard motor and left. I figured he certainly blew any fish that might have been there out, so I left, too.

I headed back across the Sound and north. We stopped at a mangrove island that often has redfish on it. There were two boats there, already, both fishing under the bushes, probably for snook. I anchored some distance off the key in about three feet of water, which is where I've been finding the big bull reds. I steaked the ladyfish the boys had caught earlier and rigged three rods. Bombs away! I didn't take long before we had our first strike, and a big redfish in the boat. We caught a half dozen redfish to 9 pounds, and the guys in front of us on the bushes never knew we were catching them. They picked up and left, but apparently cranking their big motor spooked our fish, and our bite was over.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Bruce Miller with a beautiful Pine Island Sound redfish!

We'd had a good day, and the heat was getting to all of us, so we decided to call it a day and head to the Waterfront for lunch. Our plans were put on hold when we found the restaurant closed for vacation.

Wednesday was my second trip with Mark Anderson and his good friend John, of Ravena, New York, whom I had fished with two years ago. This time they brought along another good friend, Jacob. We had had a great trip a couple of years prior, and Mark's wife Lori told me he was really excited about fishing with me again. I wanted this trip to be a great one.

Since bait had been tough at Chino on my last trip, I decided to begin looking for bait at Picnic Island. We spent a good hour there without seeing the first shiner. We caught pinfish of all sizes, though, and kept some for redfishing later.

I headed on up to Chino, and as I rounded the corner into the bait area I was treated to the sight of a topwater jack attack. I told the boys to grab a rod with a jig on it and get ready. As I ran the trolling motor toward the school, they began casting, and were into fish almost immediately. We caught a good number of nice sized jacks, along with a few trout before we decided to go back to catching bait. I had to move a couple of times before I got bait, but once I found them, I loaded the boat in two throws.

We headed up to Regla to see if the trout were still thick as thieves, there. They were there, but not biting well. We only caught maybe 30 or so before deciding to turn our attention to redfish. I headed north into the Sound to one of my favorite area, and as I approached I could see a boat sitting in my spot. It turned out to be my good friend Capt. George Halper, who said he'd just gotten there and caught a couple of small reds. We joined him, and had one pickup which we missed, and caught a trout or two, but that was it. We all decided to move on.

At the next stop things were different. As I approached one of my favorite flats I could see two boats already fishing there. Gone are the days when I had it all to myself. I made a quiet approach on the trolling motor and anchored between the two boats with about a hundred feet on either side. The boat on our right caught a fish. I began chumming with both live and cut bait, and put out two shiners under popping corks and one sliced and diced pinfish. Way out! We had our first redfish on almost immediately. And another! And another! The other two boats became onlookers. We were all aware of the customers in the other two boats watching us catch those fish. Within twenty minutes, they both pulled anchor and left. Neither one of them use trolling motors, which I'll never understand, and left on their big motors. But our fish kept biting for a while, and we boated some 15 big reds before the tide stopped.

We'd had a pretty good day. Lots of jacks, trout, and redfish, and we had 3 keeper trout, and four nice reds in the well. WE took some pictures, and headed home.

REPORT FOR THE WEEK ENDING 9/14/2002

by

Capt. Butch Rickey

Wow! What a week. I ran four trips, and they were all great. Fish are everywhere!

The first trip, on Monday, was my first outing with Russ and Sammie Burleson, of Atlanta, Georgia. We began with catching bait at Chino Island. Once we had plenty of bait in the well we headed over to Regla Island to see if we could catch some trout, jacks, and ladyfish. The fish were all over, and we caught tons of speckled trout, 1 gag grouper, and one ladyfish.

From there, we headed north to see if we could catch some redfish as the tide improved. We left the fish biting at Regla. We settled on a mangrove island and began chumming shiners. Before long we had some redfish biting, and we managed to catch about half dozen of the bronze beauties to 29 inches. That's around 9 to 10 pounds, depending on how broad shouldered they are.

With trout and redfish under our belts, all we needed was a snook to give us the Slam. We headed back south in the Sound looking for snook. We managed 8 or 9 or the stripped racers before the tide quit on us. Once it did, we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for a fantastic lunch. We'd had a great day, and I really enjoyed my first outing with Russ and Sammie.

Wednesday morning I was on the water by 5:30, trying to catch bait for the Disable Veterans Tournament our guides association conducts every year. The weather was drizzle, and threatening rain. I went straight to Chino flats, and after some chumming, loaded the boat with beautiful bait on one throw of the castnet. I had some time before picking up my guys, Mike and Bill, and tied on a jig and began casting. I caught trout on almost every cast. I headed back to Punta Rassa at 7:45 to pick up my guys.

Obviously, I took them right back to the Chino flat. We only have three hours in which to fish the Vets. So, most of us try to find action like trout, ladyfish, or jacks, and let the old boys have some fun. We were in the action. Mike and Bill caught many nice trout, as well as 4 or 5 big jacks, several ladyfish, and to Bill's delight, 4 big mackeral. Once things slowed there, we headed over to the flats off Regla Island. My good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez was there with his guys catching trout on jigs. He waved us in. Mike and Bill and I caught trout after trout with live bait and jigs until the weather began to deteriorate. Two big cells were approaching quickly. We decided to beat feet, since it was almost time to have the boys back to the docks, anyway.

We didn't make it. Somewhere behind McKeever Keys, we ran into torrential rain. I couldn't see the front of the boat. There is an exemption to the manatee zones for bad weather, and we were running the flat behind York Island. I felt like I was in a sandblast machine. The rain was coming in sheets, and stung like hell. I couldn't see. I was running on years of instinct. Somehow, we managed to make it back to the ramp unscathed, and we had no more than gotten there and gotten my Talon trailered, that the cells began spitting lightning. My guys were amazed that I managed to find the ramp! All's well that ends well!

Thursday, it was Willie Vandervorst and his friend Joseph, from Austria. Willie had tried to fish with me a couple of years ago, but things had gotten fowled up and we didn't get to fish. I was looking forward to meeting him. I could tell he had a great sense of humor. The first proof of Willie's sense of humor was that he had brought his friend Joseph, who neither spoke a lick of English, and who at age 68, had NEVER been fishing.

We headed to Chino Island for bait, and for the first bit of fishing. We had another drizzly day, as we now had a tropical storm in the Gulf. It didn't take long to catch bait, and we were off to Regla. Well, to make a long story short, we had an awesome day. Willie and Joseph easily caught more than 100 trout, plus tons of ladyfish and jack crevalle. Once the tide seemed right, and I figured they had had enough of the intense trout action, we headed north into the Sound in search of a redfish and a snook to complete the Slam. At the first stop Willie managed an 11 pound redfish. A stop or two later, we got a snook almost to the boat! Close enough to call it a Slam for the boys from Austria. It was a great day, and I hope it was one that Willie and Joseph will not soon forget.

FISH OF THE WEEK!

Willie Vandervorst with a beautiful 11 pound Pine Island Sound redfish!

But, the best was yet to come. My best fishing buddy, Dr. John Hitt of UCF, was in town, and we were fishing Friday. John loves to trout fish, especially with topwater plugs, as do I. Although it was beginning to move away from us, we still had the cloudy conditions associated with the low pressure, and I figured it would be a perfect day for John and I to do topwater fishing. It was mano e mano! I didn't have to ask John twice if we could skip catching bait, and go lure fishing!

We headed straight to the flats off Regla. At first, John fished a Yozuri Walk the Dog and I fished a jig. We caught and caught trout; on every cast. But, John was having too much fun with the topwater action. So, I tied on a topwater Popper, which proved deadly on the trout as well. As an illustration of how intense the fishing was, we both caught 13 fish on 13 consecutive casts on topwater plugs, without so much as one cast without a fish caught!! It was the most awesome topwater fishing I've ever encountered!!

John and I had a blast! By the time we were done fishing, we had caught in the neighborhood of 150 trout, 4 ladyfish, and several jack crevalle! What a morning. What a week!

This kind of action will probably continue into November. It's easy and fun fishing. It's hard to argue with catching a fish on every cast, no matter what it is!! Stay tuned for next week.

I had five trips scheduled for the week, and lost one. The big news this week is redfish, redfish, redfish. The reds are finally prowling the flats, and we really scored on them this week.

First trip was on Sunday! Yes, the holiday weekend. I did a two boat trip with my good friend Capt. George Halper, of Hawkeye Charters, and we had to pick up and deliver back to Barnacle Phil's in Safety Harbor. I didn't know when I left the dock at 5 AM that morning, that it would be the last trip on the old Yamaha from BarHopp'R I. I rode in the dark to Picnic Island, the first bait stop. I've never had any luck catching shiners before the sun comes up, but George had arranged for a 7 AM pickup, and I wanted to try to have bait when I arrived. George said bait had been plentiful and easy in the north end of the Sound, and that he'd have some extra for me, but I didn't want to count on that.

As I expected, there were no shiners to be found on the Picnic flat at 5:30 in the morning. I gave it about an hour before I picked up and headed to Chino Island. Chino wasn't much better, but as the sun began to dawn on the horizon, a few baits began to show up. I didn't want to be too late showing up at Barnacle's, so I took off at 7 with about three dozen baits in the well. Surely not enough to fish with.

George and I both arrived at the fish house at the same time. Bait had been tougher than usual for him, too, but he had scored a couple of good nets on his two last throws. He gave me some extra bait, introduced me to my party, and we were off.

George and I both knew we had a terrible tide to deal with, and knew it would probably be tough fishing. It was high and outgoing when we got out there, and I wanted to try to find some reds or snook on the flats before the tide had a chance to get too low. I headed to one of my favorite areas, and we managed to get a couple of redfish and snook to eat, and put one red in the well.

Once it was over on that flat, I decided to head across the bay for trout. While we were running I found a big feed going on near McKeever Keys, with fish popping on top in every direction. I figured it would be ladyfish, jack crevalle, and speckled trout. I was right, and for the next couple of hours my guys caught fish on nearly every cast with a Cotee jig rigged with a rootbeer body with a silver glitter tail. One of the fellas was a highschool senior who just loves to fish, and he was having the time of his life catching all those fish. I suggested that we go and look for snook or redfish, and he let me know he was quite happy with all the fish he was catching. By the time it was over and we were ready to head back to North Captiva, we had caught at least a hundred fish, and had a red and some nice trout in the well, to add to the catch from George's boat. The boys were looking to feed a bunch of folks that night.

It had been a good trip, but I knew in my heart the trip was mark the end of an era. For the last several times out, I had thought I detected a different sound from my old Yamaha. When I took off on this morning, I could definitely hear a metallic clattering. Not, loud, but there. I knew it was the signal of an impending failure. I just prayed I wouldn't be left 30 miles from nowhere with a blown motor and George's customers. On the way home, it was even louder, and the motor started to miss, and wouldn't run over 4,200 RPM. I prayed to make it home in one piece. I did, but I knew it was probably the last trip. The trip had been further marred by the second failure of the switch that operated my Power Pole! It's a $40 Bendix switch that I had just replaced a couple of months ago. And, if that wasn't enough, my port side trim tab stuck in the down position, and wouldn't retract, making the Talon want to become a submarine from the starboard side. What else?

I had a trip for Tuesday that I was sweating being able to run. I tried to reach my party with no luck, to let them know that I had arranged for another guide to take them fishing. I had to get the Talon into the shop to get the switches replaced, and have my number one motor man Craig Wildasin, at Outboard Motor Connection, in Venice, Florida, take a listen to the old Yamaha. Craig had build that motor for me many years ago, and it had run almost flawlessly for all these years, and probably had well over 4,000 hours on it. If that's not a testimonial to the quality of the work his shop does, then I don't know what is! Ironically, after making arrangements for my Tuesday party Harry Evans to fish with another guide, he called and left me a message that he was canceling because he had experienced motor problems with his boat, which he needed for the rest of the week to entertain his friends.

So, I was up and on the road early Tuesday morning. At Talon, Gary, Rob, Mike and the rest of the crew were just great as usual. Mike did the repairs, and quickly replaced the Power Pole switch, and found that the Lenco ram on the port side was bad, and replaced that. They didn't charge me a penny, which I think is just wonderful. The people at Talon are as great as the boats they build!

From Talon I headed straight to OMC to see Craig, and get a diagnosis on my motor. I knew what it would be, but had to hear it from him. Sure enough, he said it was about worn out, and time for a new one. He had a 99 Yamaha 150 Salt Water Series on consignment from someone, and said that it had come off a boat that looked brand new and had very few hours. He had replaced the lower unit for the owner, and sold him a larger motor. Craig had checked it out, and was sure it was a good motor. He arranged for me to buy it for $4,600 and did the installation for me. I left the boat with him.

I made arrangements to split my Wednesday trip with John Cook and Jim Swalby with my best bud Capt. Butch Boteler. We met Butch at the ramp at 7 AM, and headed to Picnic island for bait. The bait had been great there before I took my week off, but something was different, as we didn't see the first shiner that morning. We headed to Chino, feeling confident bait was be plentiful there. It was, and it was much nicer than it had been the last time I gathered bait there. We had spent more time getting bait than we would have liked, but we would make up for that on the backside.

We headed north looking for another big feed to get John and Jim started with. We found bait schools and birds working off McKeever, again, but the fish weren't there eating, yet. So, I suggested we go to one of my favorite spots in the north end of the sound where redfish have been hanging, and Butch agreed.

Butch and I were at odds about where to begin looking for the redfish. He had been catching them in close to the mangroves in the shallows, and I had been catching them off in the deeper water, but the point was that we had both been catching them. We sort of compromised and got the boat set near the island. Butch threw a couple of handfuls of shiners, and we immediately had fish boiling on them. We knew they were reds. That was the beginning of the melee! By the time it was over, John and Jim had boated some 30 big redfish by our best count, and were worn out. All those fish had run from 7 to 10 pounds! What a time we had!

Butch and I had the time of our lives, too. He and I have dreamed of doing trips together like my other best friend Capt. Mark Bess and I used to do. Mark and I used to double up on those redfish and just whip them, and have the time of our lives with our customers. Now, it's time for Capt. Butch and Capt. Butch. Butch cleaned the fish, which allowed me to get myself on the way to Craig's shop in Venice to pick up my boat. Craig had promised to have her ready, barring any unforeseen difficulties.

At OMC, Craig was like a kind with a new toy. He had taken my F-16 for a test ride after all the installation work was done, and couldn't believe what a boat it is. He said it was the sweetest, coolest, flatboat he'd ever been in. And, he warned me that it really flew with the new 150 Yamaha. I couldn't wait to get it on the water and hear it run and feel her jump on plane for the first time. I knew everything would be fine, though, as it always is when Craig has worked on things.

Thursday morning came quickly, as I didn't sleep much for thinking about the Talon with the new Yamaha all night long. I met Jeff Kaulbars and his best friend John and took off for Chino Island for bait. Man, the new motor was quiet and powerful compared to the old ones. It seemed to jump on plane absolutely effortlessly. I was amazed. it seemed to have power to spare.

At Chino, before we could even get started with bait, we found fish popping everywhere. We got out the jig rigs and began to cast. We caught speckled trout, jacks, and ladyfish on every cast for a long time. Jeff and John kept remarking that it was the best fishing they'd ever done. They are both new to fishing and boating, and Jeff just purchased a Hewes Redfisher a month ago. He want's to learn, and that was a big reason for his booking this trip. They hadn't been doing well on their own. But, I knew that the best was yet to come.

I headed to the same flat that where we had caught the reds the day before, knowing that in all likelihood the fish would be right back there on the same stage of the tide. I pulled in and set the boat up. I threw some chum. Nothing. I was puzzled. I knew the fish were there somewhere. They had to be. After a few minutes with nothing happening, I decided to pitch a bait off the right side of the boat out into the deeper open water, where I have often caught tons of reds. The bait was immediately eaten by a big red, and I knew what was going on. For the rest of the morning, we absolutely pounded the redfish. Jeff and John were in a state of total disbelief as we had double and triple hookup after double and triple hookup. We kept count as best we could, and at shortly after 11 AM, the boys decided they were worn out and ready to go find some food. Our count was at 50 redfish, plus or minus a couple. The biggest was 12 pounds. Added to the tons of trout, jacks, and ladyfish they'd caught first thing in the morning, it was an unbelievable day of fishing, and they had plenty of fillets to take home for their families. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant to celebrate the day over some fabulous food.

My Friday trip was with Darin Phillips and his wife Denise and daughter Shannon, of St. Cloud, Florida. Capt. Butch Boteler had made arrangements with him to come over and do some serious plumbing work on the BarHopp'R Fish Camp in return for a guided fishing trip. I picked them up at Butch's place in St. James City at around 7:30.

We headed straight to Chino for bait, and after a couple of small moves, got plenty of beautiful shiners in about 4 throws. We were totally loaded with enough bait for a couple of trips! Although the bait was plentiful, Denise wasn't able to catch any trout while Darin and I were catching bait. There was a tournament going on with a $30,000 purse, and I figured I'd better get out there and claim my spot before it was covered with boats. I headed once again to the flat where we'd caught over 80 redfish in the past two days.

As I approached the area, I could see a boat that appeared to be parked right where I wanted to fish. Once there, I could see he was close, but not in my spot. They were pitching to the mangroves, but not catching. They were soon gone. Knowing that the fish had been deeper the day before, I started my hunt in the deeper water, far from the bushes. I didn't take long before we had the first redfish to the boat. We were catching, but I wasn't able to get a good bite going and keep it going. We'd catch a few, and then it would subside. I kept moving closer to shore. Finally, we got the fish going pretty good, and had double hookups. Capt. George Halper pulled in a hundred yards or so away from me on the mangroves and fished for some time. I didn't see them catch anything, and wondered if he had seen that we were catching. Eventually, he took off.

We continued to catch redfish and have a blast. There were some trout mixed in. It took 14 reds to the boat before we caught one small enough to keep!! Some time later, George pulled back in nearby to where he had fished before. I had tried to call him earlier on the cellphone, but couldn't get his pager to work. Now, when I saw him facing my direction, I haled him in. I shouted to him that we were on the redfish, bigtime! I directed him to pull in on my port side. He had a party of four and said he had only found one red. They immediately began catching the redfish. We were at 21 reds when George joined us. We left George and his gang catching reds when we had 28 to the boat, along with half dozen trout, and a couple of catfish. Our biggest was 11 pounds. I hope George and his party continued to catch them for the rest of the tide.

Well, there you have it. In three days, my parties put about 110 redfish, and tons of trout, jacks, ladyfish, etc. in the boat, as well. I think it's safe to say the reds are on the flats, and the fishing in general has turned on. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that it should be good through November on the good tide days.

There are three trips to report on this week. Here's how it went.

My old friend David Bernot and his son Chris were first up on Tuesday. We had a good looking tide, and a breeze from the southeast at about 10. It took a while, but we got good bait at Picnic Island, chumming just inside the edge of the flat in about 4 feet of water.

Since Dave wanted some fillets for dinner, we began with trout. That's usually the best way to insure there will be fish for dinner since snook season is still closed, and you can only keep one redfish per angler. We fished a flat near Regla Island and caught a number of trout, and put several nice keepers in the well.

From there we headed north into the Sound in search of redfish. We found some nice fish in a deep hole near a mangrove key, and caught about 5. Chris caught the fish of the week on my St. Croix Legend Elite, fitted with a new Stella 2500. What a sweet combo that is!

Once the action slowed on the reds we headed across the Sound in search of snook. The boys caught 4 or 5 before the tide quit running. Chris foul-hooked one that took off like a shot. We thought it was a really big fish at first. It's amazing how hard a fish can pull when it is hooked in the middle of the body instead of the mouth.

We never got a big bite going anywhere, but had a pretty good day for mid-August. It is always great to see Dave and Chris. It's amazing to see how much Chris has grown each year. He's now twelve, and we've been fishing together since he was just a little kid.

On Friday I had my second trip with Malcolm Chatham and his lovely lady, Carolyn, of Houston, Texas. Malcolm's first BarHopp'R trip was on one of the coldest, windiest weather days of last January, and he managed a beautiful snook on a TerrorEyez up in the river. I had to tease him about picking the two worse times of the year to visit; the dead of winter and the dog days of August.

We began with catching bait at Picnic Island, and it took a while. We then went for ladyfish and jacks on a flat near Regla. The fish were there, and we had fun with them. We also caught a trout. We saved several ladyfish for redfish bait.

We went to fish some holes in the north end of the Sound where there are almost always redfish. They were there. We could see them. But, we couldn't get the first one to eat. All we caught were catfish, along with several nice sized trout that made dinner. We moved to a nearby island and fished a hole there, and Malcolm caught a nice red, a snapper or two, and a huge stingray.

We took off to do some looking for snook. We crossed the Sound, but didn't find a snook that would eat before the tide quit. The breeze had completely laid down in mid-morning, and we were all stewing in our own sweat! We decided it was time to go to the Waterfront Restaurant for liquid and food. It was so bloody hot it was just unbearable.

Saturday morning I met my old fishing buddy Dr. John Hitt, over from UCF in Orlando for the weekend. John just loves to fish, and is happy catching just about anything. I knew we would find lots of action on the flats at Regla, so we headed straight there, and bypassed the bait catching, altogether. We caught a bunch of ladyfish, jack crevalle, and some nice trout on topwater plugs and jigs. Fun! We moved inside and caught a few more trout before heading up in the Sound for another attempt at the full moon redfish with ladyfish bait. Unfortunately, we had the same result as the previous day, and caught only catfish. The reds were lockjawed.

We headed across the Sound and found birds working just inside Redfish Pass. We stopped to see what was going on, and John was immediately into the ladyfish with his topwater plug. I tied on a TerrorEyez and caught a gag grouper, a blue runner, and some ladys. And, that was how we ended our day. Once again, the heat had become unbearable, and the action had stopped.

I have the week of August 25 scheduled off, so there won't be a fishing report for next week. I have a full week the first week of September, so I'll be back, then.

I have posted the final thumbnailed pictures on the Talon Page of this website, for those interested in seeing how one of these jewels goes together.

There were three trips to talk about this week. The fishing in the August heat has remained slow for me. Here's how it went.

Tuesday was my first trip with Ron Levy of Inter-tel, in Ft. Lauderdale, and his boss, president of Inter-tel, Craig Rochell. We had a really tough falling tide, and I expected it would be a tough day. It was, right from the start.

On advice from a guide buddy of mine, I went to Tarpon Bay expecting to find nice sized shiners very plentiful. Instead, after an hour, we had nothing but pinfish. I never saw a shiner. I headed to Chino Island, where bait had been plentiful last week, and again had problems finding bait. I had to move a couple of times before finally finding bait, and what we did catch was very small.

Wanting to try to optimize what fishing time we had I wen