Just finished up washing the boat and getting her ready for a full week of fishing. Tues., Wed., Thurs. and Fri. are all booked up (except I think there are some afternoon 1/2 days still available). Surprisingly, this coming weekend is still open. I guess people will a little busy partying for the Superbowl.

Anyway, the weather looks like it’s going to be awesome all the way through Thursday. Friday looks a little iffy but we’ll see. We’ll be targeting redfish and trout all week. Check back for reports.

I don’t get to go fishing “for fun” a whole lot anymore but tomorrow I’m headed offshore with a friend of mine. Matt invited me aboard his 23′ Dorado to go try and catch some grouper and anything else that would taste good. I’m excited about it as it’s been a bit of a stressful week and I need a getaway. I’m Taking my Nikin D90 with me and I’ll have a Tokina 11-16mm lens on it so I hope to come back with some good pics. Check back tomorrow night or Sunday morning to see the pics I’ve taken and to read the report.

Super Bowl Week has almost been booked up. I still have Monday and Super Bowl Sunday open. If you’d like to go fishing this week the weather is supposed to be awesome… just let me know.

I finally see a light at the end of the cold weather tunnel that we’ve had for almost a week. Temperatures are supposed to get into the mid 70’s by Friday. I really miss those temperatures and I’m sure the fish do too. Also, a nice relief will be the light winds that are forecasted for the weekend. Instead of the 20-25mph winds we have today and tomorrow, the weekend is supposed to have 5-10mph winds. That will make the warmer weather feel even nicer. Not to mention the fact that it will make for some nice calm water out there.

The nicer weather forecast is probably due to Barack Obama being the new president. See, he can fix everything (tongue in cheek).

I just can’t help but think that the economy can’t be as bad as the media has made us think it is. I was at the SHOT show (HUGE outdoor show) in Orlando on Friday and I just can’t believe that thousands of vendors could afford THOUSANDS of dollars for their booths if we were in any kind of deep recession. Then yesterday, Circuit City started their going out of business liquidation sale and there were hundreds of people lined up before the doors opened. If people were really struggling all that bad, would there be that many people lined up to buy a new flat screen TV????

I don’t know. Either we are in as bad a recession as they say and people are just dumb enough to keep spending money anyway or people are not as bad off as the media says.

I know it’s tough. That’s not the point. But is it a deep depression though like the media is hyping? I mean really… do you think our grandparents were lining up to by radios during the great depression? I don’t think so. I think most of them were trying to figure out how to split a pea 6 ways for dinner. But… that’s just my thoughts. Don’t let the media push us into self fulfilling prophecies.

In other news…. I’ve added my Boca Grande Tarpon Charters to the online reservation system on my website. If you’ve ever wanted to catch a tarpon, this is your year. Go to the online reservation page to book your trip now. Dates will fill up pretty quick by the beginning of April.

Also… everyone that is on my email list (past clients) that sends me a referral during 2009 will get a trophy frame from www.wildlifepins.com ($99 value) using an image that I took during their charter. Check your email box for details.  If you take a charter with me this year and would like a trophy frame of your catch we’ll hook you up with one at my cost ($50).

See you soon!

Man! It’s too dang cold! For everybody up north reading this, for me “too dang cold” temps start at around 58 degrees.  It’s supposed to get into the low 30’s tonight. The 30-40 degree range is where I break out a GPS to reassure myself that I am still in fact in FL.

The only good news about this cold front is that the fish should eat real good once we have a few warm days under our belt because they sure aren’t going to eat much over the next few days.

I guess it’s time to do some tackle maintenance.

I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to tag along with my good friend Capt. Greg DeVault to the SHOT show in Orlando on Friday. It’s the biggest trade show for hunting and firearm companies in the country. I love hunting as well as guns so I’m excited about going. I’ll let you know how it was when I get back.

This should be a fine experiment. Now you guys who’ve been fishing with me will be able to keep tabs on what I’m up to and those looking to go fishing will get an idea of who they’ll be spending time with on the boat.

Hope you find some of it interesting. I’ll be posting about daily stuff, family stuff, photos I take, fishing stuff… Pretty much anything I find interesting.

Thanks for stopping by! Let’s go fishing!

We’re in the middle of the best trout bite we’ve had in 4 years and the weather has turned cold and nasty. It really puts a damper on a steller start to the year for me. I called all my clients for this weekend and had them reschedule. I need the money but I would rather have a good reputation. I’m not going to take people fishing when I know the fishing will be bad. I believe the Good Book when it says that “it is better to have a good name than great riches”. I’m sorry for those of you that have to postpone your charter but trust me, you will enjoy fishing when the bite is on much better than freezing to death and wondering where the fish are.