Spring bite is on! 3-24-07 web Spring has officially arrived and the fish seam to know it. We have enjoyed some great fishing this past week. We got a few snook to bite and half were slot fish. The baitfish schools are moving in and fish are excited to see minnows again. We also are catching some nice king and Spanish Mackerel plus two whoppers on Friday. It’s time to enjoy the mild weather and clear waters. Monday Bob Curtis and Gary spent the day fly fishing Lemon Bay wqith me. I picked them up at their dock on Manasota Key on a beautiful but breezy morning. We caught a few speckled trout and some ladyfish on the grass flats. No hot bites but catching improved as the day warmed up. We stumbled into two nice Spanish and then some pompano. The pompano seamed abundant and we observed several jumping around us. We hooked several prior to landing one. The guys ended up with a nice mess of trout, macks, and pompano for dinner. The girls were pleased the men caught dinner. Tuesday I caught up on errands and went for my skin check up. Working in the sun for thirty years dictates go skin care or problems. The Dr. pronounced me in great shape and is looking forward to fishing as soon as he can. Thursday I rode south to see if any of the schools of pompano were migrating into range. The waters were beautiful but few fish. There were more baitfish schools but not much chasing em. Friday’s trip was a Valentines fishing trip gift from Kim to her husband of 23 years Mark McGuffee. It was such a great day. Fishing started off slow but we saw eagles, manatees, and dolphin to hold their interest. It really helps having patient quests. We looked for those elusive pompano but they eluded us. We found some nice trout but no hot action. We decided to look at another spot and saw a nice school of big minnows on the way. I had been seeing some big snook for almost three weeks. Their lips had been sealed with super glue. This time they had found an appetite. We enjoyed awesome catching; we ended up with a couple of perfect slot fish and released several others. We enjoyed our lunch at the Stump Pass Tike Bar then decided to look outside afterwards for mackerel. We headed out into the near shore Gulf waters looking birds and baitfish. We found a nice shoal of minnows and trolled around a few minutes. We only had my Quantum 40s we use for snook fishing. They are rigged with about 3oo yards of 14 pound FireLine. I had put some kingfish leaders in the boat Wednesday, because the water temp is into king range. We were talking about the art show Kim is doing in Englewood this weekend when a sky rocket pounced on Marks rod and blasted off towards Mexico screaming the drag. As we started the turn to follow Marks smoker the downrigger rod started to scream demanding attention. Kim sprang into action. Fortunately both fish screamed off shore in about the same direction. It’s nice to have some string on your rigs when big fish take off. We saw the spool on Marks fish before it slowed down. It took about a half hour to capture Mark’s king. I strained to lift it aboard and but it in my big fish box; a handy custom feature on my Dorado. With the deck cleared off we concentrated on Kim’s big one. It took several more minutes to get it boat side. And a few more times the whale came close before I could reach it with the gaff. Kim had taken and even bigger smoker. Mark put a 27 pounder in and Kim’s was 33 pounds. Two fish on flats gear that weighted 50 pounds. This was icing on the cake and we headed back to Stump pass marina to clean fish and get my guests off to set up their art show. Kim has promised to help me add a link to her site when she gets home. I’m sure they slept good last night. Saturday we looked all the way up to Venice to get some nice twenty pound kings and a bunch of Spanish and school kings. It was fun but a let down after Fridays dream trip. Let’s Go Fishin’ soon. Captain Van Hubbard.