11/23 - #1 Fishing day of the Year.

The day after Thanksgiving maybe the big deal for shoppers, but for me it's a big deal for fishing.

Let me set the scene.......for the #1 day of the year for fishing charters.

- I re-scheduled my Friday with a regular customer because of the winds at 7am.

- I got another call to take a guy that didn't care about the weather at 9am.

-Then my Saturday people called, and said "No way", I agreed. It supposed to be 20+ knots NE Saturday, it was 9:15am
.
-I got another last minute call for Saturday again!! I informed him of the weather in which he had no clue of, and put him on my list, it was 9:30am.

- I ended up going out at 11:30am on Friday with just one experienced guy, we caught maybe 15-20 Trout, and one Bonnethead shark (???) in the wind and came back at dark.

-No Saturday trips..........its "small craft advisory" 20+ knot NE winds! It's whippin out there!
But still a bunch of weekenders were out today.

I felt like a Taxi. Not a fishing guide service. Does ANYONE know what the "Weather Channel" is? How about the weather on the Internet? Or local TV channels??

-Myself and a guy also named Dave from S. Florida who fishes offshore mostly went out and caught 15 or so Trout, kept 7 and one Bonnethead shark, in the wind. The tide was full moon all the way, thats why we left so late...and we stayed out till dark. I even cleaned fish in the dark. It was really cold when the sun went down, too. At times it was tough fishing/

That was my 2007 "day after" Thanksgiving fishing, not much unlike other Holidays with bad weather. It's really too bad that no one wanted to PLAN and come and fish on Monday, Weds. or even Thursday morning, beacuse the weather was BEAUTIFUL then.

This time of year, "the Holidays", really are a distraction from the regular "normal-ness" of the fishing business. Between the weather, and all the last minute callers. I actually did get to make some kind of day out of this whole mess. I guess I'll still be here for the last minute Christmas and New Years calls, too.


PLEASE PLAN AHEAD.