The wonderful world of winter fishing is upon us. The cold fronts have come on queue at the end of every week just in time for the weekend. The fish have been plentiful just not as hungry as I would have liked for them to have been over the last two or three days. The cold didn't hurt last weeks bite however. I have three trips to report on and one personal trip in my home waters. I even have pics this time because I just purchased a Kodak DX 6490 digital camera with a 256 MB memory card. I haven't figured out all of the bells and whistles yet but when I do watch for some great photos.

      My first trip was with my once a week client Mike Zacchio his neighbor Dave and Mark a lead banker from Suntrust Bank I believe. We started off the morning headed for Picnic to get bait. The air temp was a cool 50 degrees or so. When you ad in the 35 mph winds it feels mighty cool in a boat. We caught plenty of pinfish after 7 or 8 throws of the cast net. Then we headed for one of my favorite inshore grouper spots. I always tell all of my clients when grouper fishing to completely tighten down their drag and always keep a tight line. Well Mike, Dave, and Mark took a beating from those grouper for about 30 minutes. Mark managed to land a tough 20 incher but all of the rest managed to get off one way or another. We continued to hit grouper hole after grouper hole but they just weren't eating like I am used to. I decided to switch gears over to Reds and man did we find them. We were on a school of 100 plus big Reds easily. Not even one of them would eat though. You can't imagine how frustrating it is to see that many fish around and not one of them even pay attention to your bait. Eventually Mike managed to get this big Trout.

Then we were on two or three nice 6 or 7 fish pods of all keeper sized Snook. Unfortunately for us only one wanted to play and we missed the hook set. When the Snook decide they are not going to eat, well they just are not going to do it. No matter what you try it just isn't going to happen. We finished off the day with a wonderful meal at the Waterfront Restaurant.

          My next trip was with TJ and two of his business acquaintances. One of our local top quality guides Mark Knowles referred TJ to me a week earlier because he was having motor troubles and wouldn't be able to take them out. TJ let me know he wanted his buddies to get on a nice Snook or two because they haven't been able to get one before. Once again we started off the early cold morning grouper fishing. The bite wasn't fantastic but it was pretty good and they ended up getting one nice one in the boat with several break offs. At one point I had to tell them we were on a 15 hook limit and after that we had to hit a new spot. Once the bite slowed there we tried Cobia, Grouper, Redfish, and all we managed to do was have a 200 fish school of Reds park between us and the middle of the bar. We could see fish waking up all over but they would never get over our way. Next we tried the Snook from a few days before. They were there and there in big numbers but they just wouldn't eat. I chummed and tried everything I knew to but they wouldn't cooperate. Eventually we left the snobby Snook and tried for the Reds once again.

Finally TJ stepped up and put a nice big Red in the boat. I was sure it would be keeper sized but no matter how I tried it, the fish still measured 27 and 1/4 inches. Once TJ put that big Red in the Shearwater, it was time for him to start a little bragging to the others. It was all in good fun though. At least I thought it was funny.

Mark was next to put another fish in the boat. This Trout was a beauty and she was also a welcomed site because we were in need of some more action at that point.

The next hole we hit had one big Snook and 50 or so big Black Drum in it. Wouldn't you have known, they didn't want to eat either. I don't know for sure why all of these fish had lock jaw that day but they did. I believe the fellas had a good time and hopefully when they come back next time it will be when the big boys are hungry instead of Lock Jawed.

The final trip was with Bob D'Nicola and his Dad and Uncle from New York. I usually get along well with my New York customers. They like to have a good time. They usually all bring lot's of beers and lots of smokes for themselves. I caught bait the day before so I was able to pick them up at the Cape Coral Yacht Club and head right for some of my favorite river spots. We idles into one of my favorite winter Tarpon spots to see what was going on. I chummed with white bait and threads to see what might happen. We saw a little action from the Tarpon but what we really saw a lot of action from was the Manatees. I bet there were 6 or 7 of them in there. I really can't believe how many endangered Manatees I see day in and day out. They are all over the place. We soon left that first spot with only a catfish to show for our work. The next spot we hit turned out to be the best spot of the day. I chummed and got  a bite going. It consisted of Ladyfish and Trout and the fellas were getting hits nearly every cast.

Bob had a first. He was able to catch his first Spotted Sea Trout ever. Even though it was not a huge one we still felt it necessary to get a photo of his first one ever. You should have heard Bob and his uncle talk smack to each other when either one of them would miss a fish. Eventually we had to make a move due to the changing tide.    

I took the guys to spot after spot trying to show them a good time. For whatever reason the fish did not want to cooperate from that point on for the most part. Finally I was able to put them on a pretty good Grouper bite. All three of them lost nice fish at the Grouper hole and Bob was the only one to land one. Bob told me after he caught that first Grouper that it hit harder than any 30 pound Salmon he had ever caught up North. He said he would have sworn it was a 30 pound plus fish he had just hooked into. I had a great time with the guys and can't wait for their return trip in April.