Florida Outdoor Writer’s Association conference last week was great.

          I got out snook fishing with a wonderful German family last Wednesday; the fish were biting well. While the kids had trouble with our language they had no trouble with our fish. It took a few minutes to get the bite stirred up but snapper helped us stay busy waiting for snook to get hungry. It’s great to see kids smiling faces. Yes, it’s hot but most days have a cooling breeze and we start out early to beat the heat.

          Redfish and trout are available from Venice to Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor. Most recent trips have been family fishing and we concentrate on Lemon Bay with only four hours to play. I’m hearing about pompano but have not had folks that wanted to look for some yet. Mackerel are around and available if the Gulf waters are calm off Manasota Beach up toward Venice.

          Fishing is fine and the big news is that snook opens up Sunday for the first time in years. We have enjoyed excellent snook catching recently so I expect it to continue. October should be even better for everything inside and near shore migrations are due too.

          We held our annual Florida Outdoor Writers Association, FOWA, at River Ranch and I got to fish some fresh water again. It was fun, educational, lots of good industry contacts, and great networking with other outdoor writers. It’s wonderful to get into central Florida and enjoy Lake Kissimmee and some woods. The cow country was fun we even attended a Rodeo; it’s inspirational to see the younger folks singing our national anthem, waving flags, doing family events etc…

          Monte Goodman to a couple of us bass fishing Friday, it was great, I even caught four bass. We had so much fun together that we went back Sunday morning he caught nice 3 and 6 pound bass on top water. Then we caught a nice mess of Speckled Perch for me. It had been a life time since I got to speck fish; it’s still fun. Monte can be contacted at 863-661-7226 if you want to enjoy a day on sweet water; he is easy to share the boat with and very knowledgeable.

          Please enjoy the Labor Day weekend and share time with family and friends; you might even go fishing? Thank you and like Capt. Wilson used to say; “If you’re too busy to go fishing you are just too busy!” Captain Van Hubbard <www.captvan.com>