Wednesday December 30th Fishing Trip

Fish ON!

Nice Over Slot Red Fish

Capt Jim with a nice Red Fish

Beautiful Speckled Sea Trout

White Pelicans

White Pelicans

White Pelicans

Capt Dave Dant - Premier Guide

I have not been fishing in Florida other than from my dock since my return to Florida from Alaska in October, so in an effort to help a good friend and one of the best fishing guides in the Tampa Bay area with some marketing and photography, we took a little trip out to the Boca Ciega Bay and Fort Desoto area of Tampa Bay yesterday and as expected (??) had a great day of fishing and some nice pictures of just a couple of the fish we caught.

Honestly, I was a little surprised at our success although I should not have been, because as I mentioned Dave is one of the premier guides in the Tampa Bay area and he picked the time and place based on tides and previous experience, although I am not too sure he considered the weather.

Yesterday was the coldest day we have experienced thus far this winter. When I arrived at the dock in Gulfport the temperature was a brisk 43 degrees with light winds, cold and clear. We departed right on time at 7:00 am and headed to our first spot less than a 15 minute run away and I managed 3 real nice trout on my first 4 casts. We were looking for redfish, but spotted some nice trout, so why not! In another 30 minutes of searching we spotted some tailing redfish and brought a real nice one to the boat and hooked several more which we didn’t photograph. We tried to avoid taking the stressed fish out of the water, so we only took pictures of a couple of the bigger fish.

After working that area for a while, we decided the tide had come in enough to try the Fort Desoto area and off we went for about a 20 minute run and in no time Dave had us on some more big redfish. As the day progressed the temperature rose an unbelievable 30 degrees and by the afternoon we were fishing in a warm bright sunny Florida winter day at about 73 degrees. It was fantastic.

We made sure to stop by and see the beautiful white pelicans which are winter residents and managed a couple nice photos although they spooked a little too quick for any real close shots, but we managed a couple anyway.

Fishing with Dave is a very unique experience. Dave specializes in what is becoming a lost art, Sight Fishing. Which means stalking the fish and casting to a visible fish, sometimes not always clearly visible by the angler, but Dave’s keen vision tells you 6 boat lengths at 2 o’clock and off you go! Too many guides these days rely on trolling motors and best guess practices to catch fish. Dave works hard up on the poling platform hand poling the boat into the ideal position, very quietly, for the best opportunity to make a great cast to the feeding fish.

His specialty is sight fishing for Tarpon in the summer months and tackling them on fly! There are not many guides left in Florida that can say they specialize in this form of Tarpon fishing.

Visit his website and if you are looking for a unique fishing experience book him for a charter to remember.

I think a true professional guide should have at least the following four qualities.

1. Great equipment

2. Work hard for their customers

3. Be a great conversationalist

4. Catch fish based on his customers abilities.

I can honestly say that Dave exceeds all of these characteristics. I had a great day and we had some great conversation about his tarpon season and his plans for the upcoming season. I just wish I could talk him into coming up to Yes Bay for a season. But he doesn’t feel his girlfriend would appreciate his absence and right now wants to focus on building his business in the Tampa Bay market.

I asked Dave to put together a summary report of this past summer’s fishing and you will see it shortly on his blog, which I created last February, but did not bother to give him detailed instruction on working with uploading pictures and keeping it current, which we will be doing very shortly. So stay tuned for more details on his fishing adventures.

Dave’s website: http://www.sightfishtarpon.com/

Dave’s Fishing Report Blog: http://sightfishtarpon.blogspot.com/

Capt Jim Lucas

My web site: http://www.captainjimlucas.com/

My Fishing Report and Travel Blog: http://captjimtravelblog.blogspot.com/

From St Petersburg, FL

Oh and by the way…I leave tomorrow for another adventure of sorts. I am heading up to Crystal River Florida to visit some old Alaska friends…Lady and Trap from the 2007 season at Yes Bay. They were guides there for the 2007 season. And from what I hear, Tramp has finally caught a fish in Florida!! We’ll see!

Crew 2009 Videos

Here are 4 different really great videos that were prepared by some of the crew this past year.


The infamous group of Kenny Browning who did most of the creation of these wonderful memories and Joel Swanson and PJ Mack - collected from all the crew a bunch of photos and merged it all into a wonderful DVD complete with sound and everything.

I received mine today and decided that is was certainly Blog Worthy and converted them to AVI files and uploaded them to the blog, they were downsampled to reduce the size, but still came out great, so take a few minutes and enjoy some of the highlights from our 2009 season for the crew.

Video number 1 is a great compilation of our 2009 summer!




Video Number 2 highlights some of the crews fishing exploits!




Video Number 3 highlights a little of the scenery and wildlife from 2009!



And finally Video Number 4 is just some great Crew Fun Shots!





Thanks Kendog and Joel for taking the time to collect all the pictures and make them into a wonderful DVD for us all to share with our friends and family!

Now we are looking forward to 2010...make plans to join us.

Capt Jim
(Professor)

BTW - Don't mind some of the misspelled words in the titles...Kendog is only a sophomore in college and the other two morons are college graduates?? Must be a midwest thing! Don't they teach spelling in like elementary school??

The Professor just has to Bust their A%% one more time!

Merry Christmas 2009

I got a wonderful Christmas card from my Niece with the attached photo of my two favorite girls in the world, lovely Nicole and her new baby sister Rachael. Hard to believe 2009 is almost over! Christmas is generally a quiet day around my house in St Petersburg, however, it is a wonderful day and a time to reflect on the year past and the year upcoming.


2010 promises to be a challenge and a time for us all to work hard to contemplate the short comings of our government and work hard to make sure that we elect some new government officials, it just might be nice to find a few that actually follow what their constituents want to have happen and not bow to the graft and corruption which seems to prevail in Washington these days.


Just when I start to worry about what my next project to work on will be, something comes along that directs me in my future endeavors and I can easily see that my focus will be on ending the terms of at least 60 people in the Senate and as many in congress as I can find as well. Thank goodness voting records don’t lie, so it should be easy to decide who goes and who stays. Although, quite frankly finding any worthy of staying will be a challenge.


Well enough of the political crap, I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season and a joyous and happy New Year with at least several days planned for Yes Bay in 2010.


Merry Christmas,


Capt Jim

Fishing With Captain Jim

Got a really nice Christmas card from one of my Yes Bay Customers today and it had a USBMemory stick with these two really nice videos, as well as a whole bunch of pictures.

I Figured I would share these so everyone can see what the fishing is like at Yes Bay Lodge.

This was taken in September and we were fishing primarily for Silver Salmon. We had a really great time and caught some very nice fish.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year with a trip scheduled to Yes Bay Lodge included!

Capt Jim
Professor

Blog Worthy Barbara!

The wonderful view from the 14th floor - looking West!

The Life Guard stand across the street - Looking East!

The redone kitchen from my last visit - getting ready to change the ceiling light to track lighting!

Damn - What a mess - lots to do!

Gutted bathroom

More work on getting the new sink ready to hook up!

Almost finished - just a towel bar left to go!

Master Bath - new vanity

I have been very busy lately – Made a trip to Miami (I hate Miami), but went down to see an old friend, YES, I do have some friends! She lives in a beautiful condo on Miami Beach and needed some items repaired, so I went down to work for a week and ATTEMPT to empty her job jar! Jesus, the list was long.

Gutted the second bathroom (1/2 bath), total rebuild. New vanity, toilet, ceiling, light, mirror and all the fixtures. Came out very nice, beautiful update. Damn I do good work! Did some tile work on the balcony, put up a new ceiling in the entrance hallway and solved an air conditioning leak. Put up three new track lights, one in the kitchen, which I redid a couple years ago, one in the dining area and one in the master bedroom.

The bathroom came out so good, she decided a new vanity was needed in the master bath as well…of course! So another trip to Home Depot and some more destruction and construction and another days work.

Plus she had a bunch of that furniture that you have to put together and a “closet system” for the master bedroom walk in closet. More destruction and construction and then of course trying to decipher instructions for putting the computer hutch together and two sets of drawers. Trying to find “part A” and determining which screw or fastener they want you to use…what a pain in the ass! All completed and a great time was had by all. Good company, good pay and some fantastic meals!

Went out to my favorite rib place – Tony Romas…and Barbara even bought some wonderful Florida Lobster for one meal and some great gulf shrimp for another meal.

I arrived back in St Pete on Tuesday and unloaded all my tools and got back to getting some work done for the Lodge – still trying to hire a few guides and working on some promotional material for the upcoming Sportsman Shows which begin in early January.

Anyways, just a little update on my activities…

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season

Merry Christmas to all!

Enjoy,

Jim

OH - One other thing - I was finally convinced to open a "Facebook" page - not too sure I really needed something else to keep up with...

But here it is:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=wall&id=100000156373287#/home.php?ref=home

The Pirate Flies in 2010

Work is moving right along on the new airplane and the marketing effort for Pirate Airworks is in full swing! The above photos are of the newspaper ad which will be published in the coming weeks in Ketchikan and the poster is the poster prepared for the various trade shows where we attend to promote Yes Bay Lodge as well as now Pirate Airworks. You can click on them and they will open up to read the fine print!

If you are planning on returning to Yes Bay Lodge this next season, you would be wise to make your reservations soon as many of the prime times are already filling up.

Call Kris right away at 800-999-0784 or 907-617-0804 and ask about our latest specials and get your reservations booked now!!

As for me, I have been very busy getting all this artwork completed and working on the Christmas mailing and some more flyers for the show specials. Also continuing to update the web sites for 2010 and interviewing guides for the upcoming season. Looks like we will have a very solid professional crew again for the coming year! All full time fishing guides!

2010 promises to be another great year at Yes Bay – Make plans to join us!

Capt Jim

(Professor)

Pirate Flies Again!!!

Latest News from around the Lodge – October 24^th, 2009

There is a bunch happening at the Lodge during the winter months! Several big projects are underway and Kevin just arrived back in Ketchikan after attending a show in San Diego. Bookings are strong for next year, looks like we will have a strong year, so if you are considering heading back up to Yes Bay Lodge next summer, you better contact Kris and get your reservations in. So far we have over 500 bed nights booked for next season.

Pirate Air Works will be flying again and that is Kevins largest project right now. He has a DeHavilland Beaver completely rebuilt, only thing lacking is a paint job and the interior. It is a total rebuild, with a rebuilt air frame, all new skin, brand new motor and all new or rebuilt electronics. It will be another first class job, paint will be very similar to 87 Charlie (See Picture). Full intercom system with noise reducing head phones and 2 way communication and stereo for the pilot and passengers. Pirate will base the plane at the Lodge and it will be used to fly tours not only from the Lodge for our guests, but will be available for tours originating in town for cruise ship passengers and tourists. I am working on the web site as we speak, look for another email shortly with the new information.

At the Lodge there are several construction projects underway keeping Dewey and Art busy. All new bathroom floors are being installed in the river wing of the Lodge and a new float plane dock is being built on the waterfront. Including a ramp and shed for the airplane since we will be keeping the plane at the Lodge next year.

For those past guests there is a new Customer Testimonial blog where you can leave comments about your experience at Yes Bay Lodge.

Click here: http://ybltestimonials.blogspot.com/

Feel free to leave a comment, we know you had a great time, so let everyone know about it!!

As for me, I am finally back in Florida after an extended trip home, I had a great trip and was able to take some wonderful pictures of the scenery in the Canadian Rockies, Montana, Salt lake City and Ohio.

Check my blog for more details of my trip.

http://captjimtravelblog.blogspot.com/

Enjoy,

Capt Jim

Around My Old Hometown

Tuesday October 6^th, 2009 through Saturday October 10,2009

I have been spending time with family the past few days and will be here until Monday, when I fly home to St Petersburg for the winter.

Today the sun finally came out, although it is getting colder tonight, but at least I could take a drive around the town where I grew up and take a few pictures.

Interesting day, everything seems so much smaller than I remember…

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

Jim

Kalispell to Salt lake City and beyond!

Saturday September 3^rd, 2009 – Hound to Salt Lake!!

I have come to the conclusion that whenever anyone gets released from either a mental institution or a prison, the first thing they give them is a bus ticket to somewhere and for some reason they were all on the bus that I was on.

It was destined to be a long trip with a scheduled 16 hour bus ride between Kalispell Montana and Salt Lake City Utah – the “Salt Lake Express”!! Not too sure about the Express, but it actually was fairly pleasant…just way too long.

Sunday September 4^th, 2009 – Arrival Salt Lake City

Arrived Salt Lake at 4:30 in the morning and was met by an old friend who worked with me way back in the late 80’s.

My plan was to stay one night in Salt Lake and had flights scheduled to leave on Monday the 5^th at 2:00 pm.

Took a drive to Park City to see my old house and just see how much things had changed, which was significant.

Great Evening – Got together with another old friend from my work days in Salt Lake, had a wonderful barbecue and some great conversation. It was determined (Quite easily) that the three of us were the only ones which were normal and correct in our business assumptions from back in those days! So agreement was declared at least on one front. What a great time it was to see my old friends. These two are one of those small group of “friends for life!”

Good night’s sleep after a few cocktails and conversation!

Monday September 5^th – Salt Lake City to Akron Canton – Ohio.

Flight left on time had an easy flight and connection on Denver, then non-stop to Ohio, which was nice!

Was met by my sister and her husband at nearly midnight, then headed to the house. Late night and good to be home!

Tuesday September 6^th

Went to see Mom at the “home”, picked her up and brought her back to the house for s nice dinner. I spent the day processing some pictures and catching up on emails.

Enjoy the pictures. Several from various points of the trip…look for a summary with descriptions and details when I get to Florida!

Jim

Jasper to Kalispell, MT

Wednesday September 30^th, 2009 – Drive from Jasper Alberta to Kalispell Montana.

Up early coffee then breakfast then start the long drive from Jasper down to my buddies house in Kalispell. First stop was at a pull off to view a beautiful waterfall. Raining and misty so several pictures will need some work, plus it was very cold and windy, so not much time outside the car for picture taking.

Later in the day we stopped again and I managed a nice shot of the view of the mountains, later in the day we found a couple moose beside the road and they were very cooperative, so got some good pictures.

Made the rest of the run which was pretty uneventful other than the view out the car was fantastic the whole way.

Stopped for dinner in Kalispell then to the house to unload and hit the sack.

Thursday October 1^st, 2009 – Around Kalispell.

Ran some errands, bank ect., then went for a drive and found a couple nice places for pictures. More to come on that later.

Friday October 2^nd, 2009 – Bison National Range.

Found some cowboys and some antelope, lots of decent pictures of the antelope, but the bison were off in never never land, so we missed them. Couple nice deer.

More pictures to follow, once they are processed and sized etc.

Leaving for Salt Lake City by bus tomorrow mid-day.

Enjoy,

Jim

Day 1 - Jasper

Tuesday – September 29^th, 2009 - Jasper, Alberta Canada

Checked in to Becker's Cabins last evening with my buddy Jim Flinchbaugh from Montana, we had a quick dinner at AW and unloaded the car at the cabin and made plans for a driving adventure around Jasper in the morning.

Early breakfast after coffee in the room then off along a drive towards a town called Hinton and lo and behold we ran across some sheep right beside the road and also a couple mountain goats. What a beautiful sight…it was fantastic.

Then we chose a loop route which would bring us back around to our cabin, little did we know the road we picked, to get off the beaten path, was a gravel road for nearly a hundred miles. Ended up near a beautiful lake then the main highway back to Beckers.

Great day, not good weather, it rained and snowed all along our route and it was cold and windy, so not too many pictures were taken, but we plan to leave and head south tomorrow towards Kalispell, it will be a long drive with plenty of scenery, hopefully the weather will cooperate.

BTW – Eye is almost back to normal, both of them. So that is good news. Feel much better, infection is gone. Love to know how that came about!!

Anyway, more pictures after I get time to process them, but it will be awhile and of course a book is in the making, so stay tuned…

Enjoy,

Jim