Capt. William Toney displays an average-sized Homosassa redfish that inhaled a topwater offering. Photo by Polly Dean.

At first light, Capt. William Toney stopped the 23-foot Tremblay in the shallow water where I could see the rocky bottom, and the dotted islands of the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge to the south.

My fishing partner Ray Markham jumped up and flipped a Top Dog MirrOlure to the calm surface. Before a handful of casts had fanned across the surface, and before I really got up and started fishing, SMACK!

A redfish hit at his lure and missed. Markham remained calm, continued to work the lure and -- BAM! The fish was back and this time, hooked!

As Markham worked the fish, we got a few good looks at it. It was a redfish, a 24-incher at least. But not far behind was a large bull shark.

The angler couldn't get the redfish to the boat quick enough, and in an instant, the big red was eaten.

Now Markham was fighting a 5-foot bull shark instead! Moments later, the shark had cut the line. But it was already an exciting morning, and the sun was barely off the horizon!

The village of Homosassa, a Creek Indian term for "place where the wild peppers grow," lies at the mouth of the Homosassa River about a third of the way down the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula. The main source of the river is Homosassa Spring, a 75-foot diameter pool where water flows from three limestone openings around a collapsed cavern over 60 feet deep.

The river then flows nine miles to the Gulf of Mexico, fed along the way by additional springs of varying levels of salt concentrations. The expansive limestone flats of Homosassa provide ideal habitat for redfish, seatrout and a variety of sport fish.

Homosassa has long been considered a sports lover's paradise. Since the turn of the century, the area has attracted wealthy and prominent Americans such as President Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison and John Jacob Astor. Babe Ruth was a frequent visitor, as was baseball Hall of Famer "Dazzy" Vance who bought the Homosassa Hotel and resided there. In the winter of 1904, Winslow Homer visited and produced some of his noted paintings there.

Capt. William Toney and his family are also part of the history of Homosassa. Born and raised in Homosassa, Capt. Toney is the fourth generation of his family to guide anglers on the surrounding rivers and bays.

His uncle, Capt. Rick Doyle, guided famed angler Billy Pate to his world-record tarpon, caught on a fly in 1982. He took the 188-pounder at Homosassa on a 16-pound tippet.

Early fall on the "Nature Coast" of the Big Bend is an excellent time to catch reds on topwater.

The fish are schooled up in great numbers, and most are in the slot limit -- 18 to 27 inches long -- with some larger bruisers in the mix. Later, by the end of October, the fish have donned their red/orange fall colors, and the schools tend to break up.

On our day on the water with Capt. Toney, we fished an outgoing tide and we did catch plenty of fish. But despite our success, the captain much prefers an incoming tide when fishing for reds. A normal tide in the area is about a three-foot fluctuation. On the full or new moon, an extreme high tide is about four feet.

An offshore breeze from the south or southwest also can contribute to those peak conditions he likes to see.

Homosassa's vast rock bottom flats and rocky points are areas where redfish tend to gather to feed on baitfish, shrimp and crabs hiding in the rocks.