Storms lining up deeper than Hilliary protesters in Denver

click to enlarge

Above: Gustav, Hanna, L26, L27 and L28.

Working in Sarasota (getting tires)

Partly cloudy, chance of afternoon showers

Gustav has been bounced between hurricane status and tropical storm status, depending on his current position. All expectations are that after clearning Haiti and Jamaica, he will hit the open warm waters of the Gulf and strengthen to a Category 3 or higher. It is believed Gustav will make landfall somewhere between Texas and the Florida

panhandle, with New Orleans being the best odds.

As of 5AM eastern time today, Gustav is not alone. The system formerly known as L25 is now called Tropical Storm Hanna. The photo above shows her current position. She is expected to gain hurricane status by this weekend and head north up the Atlantic coastline. If both of these scenarios play out as scripted, we will be unaffected in Port Charlotte. Expand the above photograph and you will see new low pressure tropical waves, as well. We have L26, L27 and over near the Mexico Gulf coast, L28.

My neighbor, Rolando, and I are planning on spending Monday fishing for snook on Charlotte Harbor. Snook is one of the most popular sportfish on the Gulf coast. They are protected by having limited harvesting seasons (opens 9/1) and slot limits. You can't keep a snook that is less than 28" or more than 33". That's a pretty narrow slot. Anglers are also limited to keeping one snook per person, per day. It is illegal to buy or sell snook. This must be SOME fish! Rolando says they are great eating. We will try to land them using live pin fish as bait, although I'm told they will also hit live or dead shrimp and select plastics. They also chase and eat mullet. Snook are rumored to be all over the canal behind my house but I haven't caught anything back there in the few times I've fished it. I know the fish are there, because we see and hear them jumping day and night. Snook feed on mullet fish and there are tons of mullet fish jumping in my canal.

Check back often for weather updates and of couse, I will update the fishing results next week.