Sunday morning Steve Ladd beat me to the ramp, as usual. This man loves to fish. I love to fish with him. We decided to go for more of the same; snook on the beach. Basically, this time of year if you want to catch snook you have to fish where they are, and that's on the beaches and in the passes. We didn't find the fast and furious action of the day before, but all of the fish Steve caught were nice, quality fish. We finished up the morning with 8 nice snook to 9 pounds, and 2 trout. Steve and I both lost lots of fish. After the 9 pounder Steve said he didn't care if he caught anything else. That fish made his day.
Monday we decided to do the tarpon thing. It was a tough day. Apparently a current of cool water moved into the gulf quickly dropping our water temp from around 82 to 72 degrees. It was probably responsible for the slower snook bite the day before, and for the virtual disappearance of the snook off the beach for most of the week. This was my first tarpon trip of this season, as I've been hitting the snook real hard. My good friend Capt. Rey Rodriguez, who has been doing quite a few tarpon flyfishing trips already this season, was off, so I invited him along to fish and contribute his expertise. We headed north where Rey had been raising most of his fish, but they were nowhere to be seen. So, we headed back south to the waters where we'd seen a fleet of boats working tarpon earlier. Most were fly fishermen, who run hard on the school on triple trolling motors and cast their flies. That's a scenario that doesn't mix well with live baiting. I don't like fighting all the other boats for a school of fish, anyway. We decided to go and find our own school. It was now later in the morning and we'd made another trek north without spotting a single fish. On the way back south, Rey spotted a large school that were down. That boy's got osprey eyes. I don't know if I would have spotted them or not. We worked that school of tarpon for at least a couple of hours. Not fifteen minutes after we found the school, some inconsiderate jackass in a center-console boat with no trolling motors and two anglers aboard came running into our school. After a verbal exchange they dropped off our school, but the damage had already been done. We had fish all under and around the boat countless times. We threw jigs, threadfin herring, and flies at them and jumped two fish, and missed four other pickups. Steve was happy. He'd had two days of great snook fishing, and thrown baits at lots of tarpon. Back at the dock I tried to get Steve to knock a hundred off for booking three days, but he refused. What's more, he threw me an extra hundred on top of what he'd already given me. But, the best part was that we gave each other a hug like a couple of old war buddies. What a great guy!
Tuesday was another great day to be a fishing guide. I had a wonderful couple from St. Joseph, Missouri, Joe "Bo" Russel, and his gorgeous wife Linda. I knew that would be great to spend the day with as soon as I met them. They fell in love with the area a couple of years ago, and this was their first guide trip. They not only love to fish, but love to explore and see the wildlife and just enjoy all the outdoors our area has to offer. We quickly got our bait off North Captiva Island and headed to snookville. There Linda proceeded to put some beautiful fish in the boat. Linda landed a 27 inch red right out of the box and was beside herself with excitement. Next came a 7 pound snook. They finished off the morning with the redfish, 11 snook, and one trout to make the West Coast Slam. There were lots of missed fish, but I think they batted around 500 for the morning. That's pretty good for snooking in the woods. Next we were off to the Cabbage Key restaurant, the place Jimmy Buffett sang about in the song Cheeseburger In Paradise. We had a wonderful lunch, some cold drinks, and a welcome reprieve from the heat of the day. We finished off the day by sightseeing our way back down the east side of the Sound. What a great day! By the end of the day the Russells felt like old friends. I sure hope I'll see them again.
Wednesday, I had another great customer, Bill Farkas, from Muir Beach, California. We were faced with a terrible tide, which can be the most difficult of the elements to overcome. Although we only bagged 5 snook to 24 inches, and 4 trout to 19 inches, I think Bill was quite impressed by the fight of the snook. Actually, I think we did pretty well for such a lousy tide, and I really enjoyed spending the day with Bill.
Thursday was a milestone day for BarHopp'R. I had Chip Limbrick and his good friends Billy and Charles, in from Armuchee, Georgia, to fish. Although they often fish at Steinhatchee up in the Big Bend area of Florida, this was their first experience with southwest Florida fishing. They'd wanted to book a day of tarpon and a day of snook when Chip first called, but I only had one free day. So, I referred them to Capt. Steve Waugh for the tarpon trip, which they did the day before. I saw Steve at the ramp this morning and he said they were crazy, and that they'd had a blast. He guaranteed me I'd have a great time with them. Well, Steve wasn't wrong. Theses fellas were a hoot. From the time we left the dock they kept me laughing. When we got up on the flats catching bait, I apparently made a sudden move to port with the trolling motor and sent Billy on a not so graceful dive into the four feet deep water. You can imagine the bunch of laughing our tails off as we tried and tried to drag a 275 pound man back into the boat without any kind of ladder. Billy was the first guy ever to leave one of my boats involuntarily. We gave him a 9.5 for style points, and a 1.0 for technical difficulty. On the flats the boys continued their antics, but got down to some serious fishin, too. By the end of the trip they had bagged around 20 snook to 28 inches, 3 trout, a ladyfish, and a jack. They'd missed and lost just as many. It was a great day!
Friday turned out to be another milestone. It was the first time I actually used BarHopp'R II as a bona fide backup boat. I had put BarHopp'R I in Smith Marine to have high speed pickups put on the livewells, so that I would be putting fresh water into the wells while I'm underway. This would alleviate the need to run aerators while I'm underway. There was some discussion about where to put the pickups so that they wouldn't interfere or interrupt the water flow to the prop. I favored putting them in the tunnel so that they wouldn't plug with mud when I'm running in mere inches of water during the winter months. I picked the boat up Thursday afternoon after my trip, and left BarHopp'R II there at Smith Marine to be fitted with some tarpon fishing modifications. Friday morning I met John Bond and Alan Kingston, from Altamonte Springs, Florida. John and Alan had a trip scheduled February 5, but were weathered out after driving over the night before. Today we were looking at perfect weather and a good tide, and I had visions of putting them on lots of fish. But, as I left the dock and tried to put the boat up on step, the prop just kept blowing out. It was blowing out so bad that the boat was still not up on step at 4,500 RPM! After traveling a short distance I got an overheat alarm. Damn! That seemed impossible to me. How could two little scoops 1/2 inch high and about 4 inches round totally screw up the water flow through the tunnel? I don't understand it, but it did. There aren't a lot of true tunnel hull boats around, and people like Smith Marine don't get to work on them that much. Obviously, water flow dynamics are very critical in tunnel boats. So, John and Alan went to get some breakfast, and I ran back to town to Smith Marine and waited on them to open. I left BarHopp'R I, and took off with BarHopp'R II to salvage the trip. BarHopp'R I first had to go to the fiberglass shop to have the two large holes in the tunnel filled, and this was Memorial Day weekend coming up, so I knew I wouldn't see the boat again before Tuesday. John, Alan, and I finally got away from the dock at around 9:30, and headed out to catch bait. By the time we caught bait, and got back to the fishing grounds, it must have been 10:30 at least. I was afraid that we might miss the best part of the tide, and the bite. But, we managed to find the fish, and John and Alan boated 3 redfish to 26 inches, 10 snook to 28 inches, a 20 inch trout, a ladyfish, and a jack. Of course, they missed lots of strikes, too. The important thing was that we pulled it off, and saved the day. If I hadn't bought that second boat, I would have wound up missing trips Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The boat wasn't back to ready condition until Wednesday. That's a pretty good argument for having a second boat, I think, and I even got to liking her a lot better after using her for five days in a row.
Saturday was my first trip of five scheduled trips with a delightful British chap named Roger Barry. I just love chartering with people from the UK. They are wonderfully witty and funny, and lots of fun to be around. I couldn't help but think about the disappointment Roger would have suffered if I had been forced to cancel his trips because BarHopp'R I was down. But, that didn't happen, thankfully. Although it wasn't a fabulous day of catching, Roger tangled with two very big snook, both of which cut him off, and caught around 5 nice redfish to 26 inches, and 3 trout to 18 inches. It was probably as good as we could expect for a holiday weekend.
Well, that wraps up the week. It was a great week spent with some
great folks. There were some anxious moments, but everything worked out
all right. Next week I'll tell you how we resolved the high speed pickup
problem, and how professionally Craig and the crew handled the whole
thing.