Well I guess it is about time I did a Year 2000 fishing report before the year is over. The truth is this year has been so awesome I really have not had time to sit and work up a report. We started early in the year with the Redfish fishing getting better and better as we came into the spring. Every School of Redfish that I was ever aware of seemed to show up at all the normal places throughout the Indian River Lagoon and especially in Mosquito Lagoon.

I caught my first big Redfish in late January with clients Chris Harris and Brian Brewer at a one of my favorite Mosquito spots. We caught a 30lb. and a 25lb. while following about 200 Redfish around for about three hours. Crystal clear water, at times seeing all 200 Redfish at once, something told me it was going to be one of those years and maybe a sign of things to come.

In mid February I had a trip with two very important clients, Ed Dinkins, Vice President of Bass Pro Shops and Dean Snelson, Divisional Manager of Bass Pro Shops. They brought along Manufacturers Representive Marc Cullerton and we put together a two boat Charter with my good friend and fellow guide Captain Troy Perez on the second boat.

With the winds blowing 25 knots out of the Northeast, we found about 150 giant Redfish on Tiger Shoals early that morning. After visually tracking and staying with that school for over four hours, we landed 18 big Redfish all over 20 lbs., topped off by a 31 lb. by Dean on my boat, the largest that day. A great day anytime, but in those conditions? Awesome.

Again a sign of things to come?

Starting in late March at one of my and Capt. Troy's favorite big Reds spots we began to catch these big Reds every trip. On one extremely awesome day in April when again on a two boat charter with Capt. Troy and myself, our clients boated 41 Redfish between the two boats all from 18lbs. to 34lbs.

A sign of things to come.?

From that April charter to the day of this writing I can honestly say that I have NOT caught a keeper Redfish. My boat and all my great clients have caught over 700 large Redfish all over 18lbs. with seventy five percent between the 20lbs. - 30lbs. range. It has been awesome and memorable. I have taken some 30 rolls of film (24 exposures) of this amazing year so far and have compiled quite a file of Clients grinning and holding Big Redfish.

A sign of things to come?

I keep wondering when this great fishing year is going to suddenly disapear and El-Nino or La-Nina is back.

How long can it last???? Well, the answer at this time is it is still AWESOME.

I have been in this business now for some 11 years and figure there are probably not too many record breaking days left in my guiding career. That is because there have been some amazing days in that time, but today there was a day that after I try to tell you what happened you certainly will think it is a tall tale. I assure you this did happen and will be a memory that I will cherish for a long time.

Starting about a week ago I began to venture away from my money school of Big Redfish after sore lipping them for some 4 months. While the school was in part still there, they had began to get a little fickle about their eating habits. We were only getting 3 to 5 or so fish a trip for several weeks now. While 3 to 5 or so 25lbs. and up is no bad day, it was definitely slower and more and more fishermen were invading this turf.
So I felt it was time to begin to move to a new arena and begin the tedious search for new big Redfish schools that are beginning their annual spawning ritual. This arena as I call it, is much, much bigger than the Mosquito arena and one can spend hours and hours just running around looking for schools and never seeing anything. I was not looking forward to this change in scenery.

But this is the Year 2000 and a sign of things to come.
On my first trip to this new turf I immediatly found a school of 200 Giant Redfish and proceeded to boat 12 Large Redfish to 31lbs. with client John Longmeyer. Five of those on top water plugs. One of the trademarks of this spawning ritual is much more aggresive Redfish. Great visual effects. 30lbs. Redfish crashing plugs. AWESOME!

Five trips later I still have been consistently finding one or two big Redfish schools per trip. Two days ago with my long time client John McClain we got 15 Big Reds to 32lbs., with six on top water plugs.

A sign of things to come?

Well this finally brings me to today. Im not sure if I can with the written word describe what happened but I assure you this did happen.

We started out this great Monday morning with perfect calm conditions and not one boat at the ramp at first light when I and my clients Brian Parker and his wife Katy from Waxahachie, Texas got the boat in the water. We headed out and into the Indian River Lagoon to one of the schools I have been fishing this last week. We found about 50 or 60 Big Reds lazily finning on the surface. Not a big school but these Big Reds were just hardly even moving. Brian's first cast was an instant hookup with a 28lb red. Katy also hooked up shortly after Brian when the school moved by the boat but hers broke off with the other fish bumping the 12lb. line.

We continued to fish that school to about 9:00 am and had boated three big Reds out of six fish on. The school began to bust up and I decided to go and look for this other school I had been fishing all last week. It too was right where I had been seeing it and was about 100 large Redfish. We carefully positioned on the school and Brian again got one on the first cast. 25lbs. on 12lbs. test- nice fish. We got two more out of that school before it too broke up. By now it was about 10:00 am and close to ending our half day charter. By any measure it was a good trip with 9 big Reds on and boating 6 to 28lbs.. I decided to look around this huge arena for another school that is the hardest to find because of its tendency to stay in deep water and rarely show itself.

I began my tedious running of known areas this school has been over the years and was not optimistic about finding it after looking for some 10 days previous with no luck. After about only 15 minutes all of the sudden this school of about 1000 Giant Redfish flared up 100 yards away and began to feverishly crash bait. What a sight, 40 or so Giant Redfish tearing the surface up chasing mullet and anything else that moves. We quickly got out two top water plugs and Brian threw in their general vicinity and within 2 seconds, 10 Giant Redfish were franctically trying to assasinate that plug. BOOM he was hooked up. The other plug was on the way into this 20 yard square war zone and it too was immediately crashed and Katy too was hooked up. Awesome double hook-up.

While hooked up the school continued to move towards the boat and crashed mullet right up to and through the boat and out the other side. What a sight to see 200 or 300 giant Redfish near the surface aggressively feeding 10 feet from the boat. We boated those two fish and without even moving turned to the other side where the fish had just gone and casted again. BOOM-BOOM double hookup again. After 6 or seven fish in a row Katy was exhausted and made it clear to Brian and I that she wanted no more of this assault. Her arms were like rubber and she was crying uncle. NO-MORE Redfish.

Brian too was tiring after over an hour of constant battling with Giant Redfish to 35lbs.. Brian and I began to try and reel the plug as fast as we could and NOT let the Reds get the plug. What a sight to see 10 or so Giant Redfish leap frogging over one another to chase this plug. We began to play a game that if you got hooked up you lose. The one who could reel the fastest and keep the plug away from those crazy busting Reds but slow enough to make them chase it but miss it won. Strange game???? The penalty if you lost was that you now had to fight another Giant Redfish for ten minutes or so with drags heavily tightened and rubber arms or hope he would shake off as a lot of them did. Please dont eat my plug Mr. Redfish. What a game. What a visual memory.

We ended up at best count boating 24 Giant Redfish to 35lbs. with another14 or 15 hooked up that got off because we were not setting the hook on purpose after the first 15 or so. My Rebel Jumping Minnow top water plug had only about ten percent of its paint left on it and the front treble hook had only one of the three hooks left and all the rear hooks had been broken off.

At about 1:00pm with the 20 yard by 10 yard school still in sight we all were totally wore out and grinning from ear to ear at what we just witnessed and participated in. It was my very best Redfish trip ever and was in my top 5 of all fishing trips ever had been on personally. For Brian and Katy it was beyond anything they had ever heard of or had witnessed in the fishing world. We took almost 2 rolls of film to forever remember this day and at the time of this writing I am still tingling thinking about it. If I could just somehow win the Lottery it would be a great memory to retire on.

I wonder if it is a sign of things to come.

LETS GO FISHING,