This week ends up being an extremely busy week for all of us at AFC. Several offshore trips this week with bluewater and plenty of wahoo, quite a few dolphin and a few unusuals and mystery bites. However the marlin have eluded us this week, (although the wahoo and a couple of sailfish have cooperated),and we are crediting a full moon and the Braves bullpen with the loss(es). On the inshore front, the bite continues with several good red snapper limits posted, a number of king mackerel, grouper and the like. We had some truly great clients this week, as seems to be the norm for us and we consider ourselves very fortunate indeed. Thank you all.

One of our families this week were a bit late to the marina and the matriarch lamented that they were a bit delayed due to cyclists on route 30A that were riding two abreast and preventing traffic from flowing as normal. Her question, "why don't they just ride on your bike path?", just has to be answered with all the alacrity of a Rumsfeld press conference.

At the risk of sounding like our wives who seem to have to return to the Pleistocene era in order to describe a stop at the gas station, we really do need to provide some history in order to permit the greatest level of understanding. So please indulge us this bit from the Wayback machine.

First...........there were single cells.....which grew into amoebas........(flash forward)......in the Year of Our Lord, 1998, Walton County commissioners...

Tuesday 5-8:30 PM (CST) Good Captain is prepping for next days' offshore venture: checking weather and bluewater sites, calling known recent denizens of the bluewater hunting reports and weedlines, rigging ballyhoos, re-rigging various and sundry trolling lures and respooling reels.......

Tuesday 8:30 PM (CST) A good client here this week and scheduled to fish with us for wahoo and mahi calls to make apologies for last minute cancellation due to family problems. Trip is off. Capt. gazes around office at myriad of lures, lines, leaders, reels and a cooler full of rigged baits. Backup plan NOT in place.

Wed, 3:30 AM (CST) Captain makes decision to go fishing as there is nothing worse than wasted bait. Decides that an extra FAD can make the trip truly worthwhile and determines float plan

Wed, 5:30 AM (CST) Captain is greeted by one-each Harbor Master at Legendary. The often gleeful and festive Tripp inquires as to plans......and is asked if he would like to join the solo venture. Tripp thinks about the offer........but declines. Boat leaves dock headed for the Elbow, some 60 miles. FAD deployment and fishing if conditions warrant.

Wed, 7:45 AM (CST) Deployment completed, the search for structure and weeds continues with wahoo the objective. Scattered weeds over a bottom edge shows little promise and ground swells are proving bothersome. Debate to deploy Ilanders is made, and won........lures are deployed.

Wed,...

With literally tens of millions of factors at risk; factors that can, and do, go awry during the course of long-range, small boat fishing, it behooves us to invest as much effort as is possible into the strategic planning. This envelops a concoction that is divided between the absolute desire and love of the game and a combination of equal parts: gut factor, hard data, common sense, predictability and dynamic response. While we are responsible for our clients, we are equally responsible for ourselves and our livlihood. We drive very good and capable boats, but experience has taught us that sometimes having "enough ship" given the conditions, is a very, very relative factor.

This week a long-planned, far-offshore run was planned with some considerably calmer conditions predicted and some exceptional reports. With considerable research, planning and almost constant communication invested, it was finally determined that the tangible hard data did not favor the commitment. As it turned out, in this case, the hand's-on element was indeed correct. The predicted weather patterns, from all sources, called for fishable seas but the decision to cancel was made. The hard data being irrefutable. Weather reports can, and often do, lie. Other boats that made the trip and found the conditions dismal, the fishing even worse.

As one of our rather famous clients, trauma surgeon, Dr. Red is often quoted, "I will cut off ANYthing in order to save the...

May 28
(Ben.........I assume you meant March here, but I realize that y'all really don't wish to observe March. We don't blame you. ed.)
Brunswick, ME
Dear Mr. Hinds:

Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day with little wind and the thermometer nibbling
at 50. The angle of the sun swelled the grassy patches around the house.
Better still, the world champion Red Sox returned from their silly opener in
Japan, loaded for a title defense. Deal with it.

We went to bed happy. The baby sounded reveille at dark o'clock and a peak out
the window revealed the cruel hoax of springtime in northern New England: 4
fresh inches of snow tacked onto our winter total of nearly nine feet.
Immediate action was needed if I was to stop my post-partem wife, whom I dragged
here from California four years ago, from stabbing me through the heart with a
pencil. Action was taken. I just rented a house in Seagrove Beach for the
month of January of 2009. I'm killing next winter in its crib.

I surfed around 30A.com and your sensational art work led me to your fishing
site. Your writing is terrific, too. And it looks like you know how to catch
fish. Too bad you don't know squat about baseball. How else could you pull for
that overpaid, ossified band of dullards in pinstripes? What a joyless exercise
their 162 has become.

Anyway, what kind of fishing...

Hurricane Dolly, thus far, has brought us all the water elements that everyone comes here to escape. Namely, all the brown and brown/green currents normally found residing off Pt. Arthur, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobile Bay. The blue that was here, is somewhere over near Tampa temporarily and while the giant Kings made the trip inshore, the offshore fishing is in a dire state of attempting reparations. We are reminded, again, that little of value to fishing comes from the west.

Nice work, Dolly. You suck.

On a solid note, the Bombers have signed Pudge Rodriguez to catch through the end of the season, and yes, well into the post-season.....HA. We got rid of Farnsworth and got another hall of fame catcher whom we have always loved even though he helped defeat the Jankees in the World Series when he was with the Marlins. Posada out for the season is bad. Pudge is good although Molina had been getting better, he ain't no Pudge. Now, all we need is some middle relief and it's on. Now you all can find out why we have utilized the Jankees handle so often..........listen to Pudge's interviews and you be completely clued in.

The Braves made a questionable trade, although the need to obviate Tex's contract was inevitable. So, the Los Angeles AngelsWho Live In Los Angeles But Are Named Anaheim seem to have gotten the better of the deal. Rumors have Manny Being A Punk being traded to Atlanta. Somehow we doubt that, but would love to hear...