All,

One of my fishing buddies (a guy I served with in the Navy) didn't get to go winter airboatfishing because he spent his winter in Afghanistan last year. So I called him and told him to bundle up as it was going to be cold. We put in at Bayport (Weeki Watchee River mouth) and with four dozen live shrimp, took off to the north. We started looking in the outside for activity, but based on the temp (41 degrees) the fish had traveled far back into the creeks and back bays. The tide was half way to low and the wind was out of the north at 15-20. All in all, a real marginal day weather wise. After scouting for about one hour, we stopped at a junction where two smaller creeks dumped into a larger (about 75 foeet across) creek to give it a try. We managed to pull two reds of about 22 and 27 inches out of that spot. The fish then just stopped biting. We then drifted over the spot and in the clear water could see about 8 other nice reds that had been sitting there but would not eat! We then headed further up in the creek system. I knew of a black bottom pond that was out of the wind that would warm up faster than the surrounding waters. As we idled up to the spot, we saw several nice v-wakes signalling redfish on the move. We anchored up and proceeded to catch 10 more redfish (up to 31 inches) and 5 black drum and three little speckled trout before we ran out of shrimp. It was a really nice stop. Ate lunch and made out way back home,

I have the pics on this computer. I'm going to try and up load them this time....Wish me luck

George