I'm typing at the confuser this AM so you know the weather must be at least "iffy". A front coming through today, a small craft advisory and thunder storms out in the Gulf off Pensacola already and heading this way. Luckily my folks were very understanding and didn't want to go play in the lightning either. The weather this spring has been great tho- This is only my 4th day off in over a month. We have had a very "easy "spring. The bottom fishing has been easy too. We have limited out with Red Snappers every trip since they opened. Some days of course are easier than others. Lots of 6 and 8 hour trips this time of year with folks wanting a box of snapper and then hit the beach and look for cobia, On several days we have been able to hit the beach after just bottom fishing a couple hours. The cobia are a different story. This year may go down in the history books as the season that didn't happen. The water temp stayed cool late and they never really seem to show 'till it hits 70 degrees and stays there. I think that most of the run may have passed us by way offshore. Not to say that there are no fish- just not the big numbers. I have guided 11 good fish ( and a couple "shorts")to the box so far this year. But that's after looking on 15 different trips. Most days we had a box full of bottom fish allready and just looked for a couple hours. Yesterday we looked for over 4 hours tho and never even saw a cobia. There are still a lot of folks saying the run is just late and the next big Southeast push is going to have fish stacked up like cordwood. I hope they are right !!! One of our problems this year is that the wind has blown from the West almost daily. On those combo trips I'm trying to get the snappers in the box as quick as possible so we can hit the beach. The snappers haven't really piled in to the shallows yet but are still a little thicker out deeper. Day before yesterday I ran 4 local boys from PC who only wanted to bottom fish. I got to run a little farther out and not worry about having to get right back to the beach on our 4 hour- The board showed the difference. We had 17 Red snappers ( a great grade)2 Black snappers with 1 at 9#, 10 triggers, a red grouper and 8 Black grouper. Most of the groupers were right fine ones too! A little bit better than your average 4 hour catch! As I said, these boys have done it before though and probably landed a little over half of the "big" bites- way above average ratio. Congrads to the "G-man". Any one who has visited my web site will know him as the fellow with the big grin satnding next to me as I'm busting a gut holding up his 200# Tarpon. He cobia fished wih me a couple days this year and landed 2 nice ones the 2nd day. 'Course the big 1 the 1st day he used as training and learned that no matter how much cajun trash you talk to your fish you can still lose 'em---- looking forward to a GREAT summer of fishin' hope you are too capt Larry Pentel