WEEK ENDING 5/15/04 by Capt. Butch Rickey The week began with my bi-annual trip to my dermatologist, Dr. Jay Herbst, in North Port Charlotte. I'm happy to say there were no suspicious things growing on me this trip. First day on the water was Thursday, but it was the first of ten days in a row, yes, including the weekend. It was my first trip with Dick and Judy Gutowski, of Pewauki, Wisconcin, whom I met while having dinner at Windjammers a couple of weeks earlier. They were just completing a move to the mainland from their vacation home on Sanibel Island, and were ready for some R and R. It was a slow bite, on an early tide, and there was plenty of wind blowing. But, the slow bite didn't matter, as Dick and Judy were bunches of fun. We fished hard, and had a good time, and at the end of the tide we had boated only 6 snook, a big jack, and a 14# redfish. Of course, Judy caught the big red, and was just thrilled. She said, "Well, I caught my big fish!" Ironically, it was the only redfish we could get to eat all morning. It was just one of those days when the fish didn't want to play. But Dick and Judy played, and we had fun. I look forward to their return later in the year. Friday was another first with Jeff Stubbe and his fishing buddy Brad Bartell. We headed straight to Picnic Island for bait, and I was treated to an easy day of throwing the net. Bait was great! Seems bait is often a harbenger of how the day will go. Jeff and Brad were great company and lots of laughs. They fished hard, and we put together a pretty good day, in spite of the seemingly perpetually blowing wind. They also put together the Slam with 12 snook, 5 redfish to 13 pounds, and 6 nice trout. They also caught one blacktip shark to top things off. It was a great day with a couple of great guys. They vowed to return. Saturday morning I met my old friend Dr. John Hitt at his dock at 6:30. John had been on a very busy schedule handling the affairs of UCF, and was more than ready for a break and some fishing. He quickly had the Coastal headed to Picnic Island, where we filled her big livewell with great bait without too much ado. John loves to both catch and eat trout, so I decided to head to the hole where Jeff and Brad had caught some nice trout. Well, don't you know, we didn't catch but 3 nice trout there, but we also caught a very nice flounder, a fat mangrove snapper of about 16 inches, and a big jack. Sort of a Trashcan Slam! We moved on, hitting several other spots, and put together 3 redfish, including a couple of small keepers, and one big keeper, and 8 snook, including 3 slot fish. It wasn't a stellar day of fishing, but certainly a good one, and John was happy. Once the tide was done we headed in with smiles on our faces and fish in the livewell. Back at John's condo at Harbor Isle, John showed me 5 rods and reels he had brought for me to see if I could sell them for him. John is a tackle junkie like myself, and now uses Stellas and Sustains. He takes great care of his equipment, and when you look at these rigs that's obvious, because the look and feel brand new! What are they? There are three Shimano Stradic 2000 FE and one Shimano Stradic 4000 FE along with 4 Falcon rods, three 7 ft. and one 7.5 ft., as well as a Penn 1500 mounted on a Daiwa ProcasterX IM7 rod. The Shimano/Falcon combos retailed for over $200 originally, and the Penn around a hundred. John is asking $125 a piece for the Shimano setups, and $60 for the Penn. If you're interested in rods only or reels only, we can probably work that out, as I know these very nice reels will go quickly. If you're interested, I can provide you with more details and/or pictures. That's how it went. An abbreviated week. I apologize to my regular readers for being late with this report, but working both days of the weekend denied me of my web day, which is usually Saturday. Next week's report will be a long one, with six days to report to you. We'll have some nice high tides, but they will be weak ones, so it's anyone's guess how the fishing will go. Until then. Tight Lines!