I-4 is a road I despise driving on and I’m sure many of you feel the same way. Friday evening added to my contempt of that Highway as I returned from Pinellas Park. I had gone over to the west coast to tape a television show for Average Angler Adventures that airs on the Brighthouse Sports Network. Glen Pla, the host of the show, was wrapping up a series of shows he did about fishing the marshes of Florida. Having done one of the shows in that series he asked me to join him and two other fishing guides into the studio to conclude the series.
The taping of the show ended around 4:30 PM. Not wanting to hit rush hour traffic in Tampa and Orlando I hung around the studio until 6:15 PM thinking that I would have a clear shot on my return trip. I sailed through the Tampa area thinking I had a clear path the rest of the way. This was too good to be true I thought to myself and as fate would have it, it was. As I approached the Auburndale area all cars came to a dead stop. Oh no, not again, another accident on I-4. We just sat there moving at a snails pace. I proceeded to talk to someone in the car next to me and he informed me that there was an accident involving a fatality. I turned up the radio and settled in for a long slow drive. Although it was 12:30 AM by the time I arrived home feeling tired and hungry, I felt grateful that I made it home safely. You can bet the next GPS I get for my car will be equipped with a traffic alert feature.
I had a buddy of mine (Doug) come visit last week for a few days and we did two days of fishing. The first day was slow and uneventful except for the 20” flounder Doug caught on a Berkley Gulp. On the second day we headed up toward Matanzas area to see if we could get some flounder but they weren’t cooperating. We then headed to the 206 flats and landed one small red and a small jack on gold spoons. With the water being higher than normal we could hear redfish busting on mullet way back in the grass but we couldn’t get to them.
We then headed south and weren’t able to get to some flounder spots due to the dredging that is going on. We stopped at a flat north of Bings Landing and landed 3 slot size reds and a croaker on gold spoons.

As Labor Day came and went I did some chores then proceeded to a sale at a local store to purchase a new chair for my computer desk. The new chair has a high back and a cushiony seat. The old chair had a low back and a hard seat. As a matter of fact the back was broken off that old chair and every time I sat in it I had to place the backrest just so as not to fall off the chair. I did however write many a fishing article from that broken chair. I placed that retired chair in the corner of my computer room along side a lot of my old fishing rods. I figure if I ever get writers block I’ll pull the old chair back in front of the computer for inspiration to come up with something to write about. The old chair was good to me and hope the new one treats me just as well.
I would just like to take a minute hear and say goodbye to someone, who like my old chair, inspired me my entire life – my mom. She passed away last week at the age of 86. She always taught me to do the best I could at whatever I did. She got a big kick out seeing me write fishing articles; the kid that barely passed high school English. So with her gone now I guess I’ll have to sit in that old chair every now and then, think about mom, and inspire myself to write when the writing gets tough. I would also like to thank all the wonderful people at the Stuart Meyer Hospice House who treated my mom so great in her final days. You are a special people!
I didn’t get to do any fishing last week due to the circumstances but I did get a good report from Capt. Ralph Olivett. He and Joe Ricke were out and landed 6 flounder. The largest was a 5 pounder that Joe caught using a live mullet fishing at Matanzas Inlet. The other five flounder were all caught on Berkley Gulp bait. They also had 5 reds all on Berkley Gulp. Only one of the reds was under the slot size. They also landed a 19” trout on live mullet.
Now that September is upon us look for the fall bait migration to start in the coming weeks. The bait will be moving south along the beaches and the ICW. The fishing usually gets “reel” good when it happens.