I'm back and the fish are waiting for you. 2-23-05 Snook fishing is improving. I hit to road and took in some sights. We went up to the Great Smoky Mountains. Saw some snow in the National Park plus deer and even elk. We cruised thru some of the Tennessee and North Carolina mountains. It’s beautiful country even in winter. We had some red tide outbreaks so I took advantage of the mess to travel. I have been out a couple of times and things are improving rapidly. We do still have a few old dead fish around but caught our first white bait of the year today. Brought some home and did not lose any. Charlotte Harbor is looking good with no dead fish and some baitfish showing up. We saw several huge snook, some of the largest I’ve ever seen in fact, and some nice reds but they would not bite for us. It was a short half-day trip so we went into Turtle Bay and caught a mess of nice fat trout for dinner. Lots of shorts but we had five keepers to 20 inches once we located the fish. Lots of areas with little activity or life, but others spots with good fishing. There are other boats fishing but not a t all crowded. The reports of dead fish are slowing things down. It was challenging to locate the productive areas but well worth the effort when we found fish. I’ll see what tomorrow brings but we were very happy with the fish we found today. It’s impossible to know what the red tide will do but we did not see any dieing fish or lose any of our minnows while riding around. It was great to see schools of glass minnows and birds working them. Fish are moving and the weather was perfect. Let’s Go Fishin’ Soon! Captain Van Hubbard.