....Oct.99....

I was planning a long weekend of fishing in southwest Florida and almost didn't go due to the direction and ferocity of Hurricane Irene. The storm was forecasted to hit the Ft. Meyers area at approximately the same time I was to fly in from Chicago. Fortunately, Irene changed course around Key West and veered north. I was a lot luckier than the southeastern coast who was still recovering from the previous tropical disturbance. But I did make it down and stayed on Pine Island where my brother, Bob, lives and crabs (commercial fisherman . . . not a full-time complainer!). We worked and fished for a couple of days on the crab boat before my guided charter out of Gaspirilla was scheduled so when it finally came time for the serious fishing, I was used to the sun and ready to cast accurately into the mangroves. I met up with a friend in Tampa at the Gaspirilla Marina and we found our charter. We fished with Captain Steve Hogan on his custom 21 foot back country shallow water flats boat. After using "Cozy Kitty" catfood to chum up some bait, Steve had the live-well filled with about 300 greenbacks after 3 throws with his 12 foot castnet. The first hole we hit produced several nice Redfish and a few Snook. After about 3 hours we had the maximum legal amount (1 per angler) of the maximum legal size (27") in the boat and simply released another 40 or so similar sized Redfish. We never caught any Snook or Trout in the legal size range but also released dozens of these 2 species. I rank this charter right up there with my all-time favorite fishing trips. What I didn't know when I left Chicago was that my luck with the weather was a sign of the better luck yet to come once I had a live bait in the right place at the right time. There aren't many better places on the planet to enjoy this type of fishing. Redfish, Snook and Trout are abundant and October is the time to get them in southwest Florida. And then later next summer, around July, this same area will be teeming with another of my favorite targets . . . The Silver King . . . TARPON!!! Look for photo evidence of that trip later. But before then, I am planning another "excellent adventure" in the Florida Keys this coming May. Stories and pictures will be posted!

....On To Pics....