To me, there's no greater game fish. There's nothing like hooking a 150lb+ fish that jumps and screams drag off your reel. There's no other adrenaline rush like it.
Spotted Sea Trout Bonanza
Our best trout moths are December - March. The only problem is finding fish SMALL enough to fit the slot and keep during these months.
Snook…. “Bass on steroids!”
If you like bass fishing, you'll LOVE snook fishing. Snook are like bass on steroids!
Want to catch some redfish?
Arguably the best charter fish in the Gulf of Mexico. Redfish are hard fighters and quite often willing participants on our charters here in the Tampa Bay area.
My name is Capt. Clay Eavenson and I am aFULL-TIMEinshore fishing guide in the Tampa Bay Area. I specialize in Light Tackle, Inshore, Fishing Charters for Snook, Redfish, Trout, Tarpon, and More! I guide on the inshore waters of Tampa Bay, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg, and everywhere in between.
Tampa Bay, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg are some of the most fertile, inshore fishing grounds in all of Florida. Beaches, mangrove shorelines, brackish creeks and rivers, and expansive grass flats are the settings for our inshore fishing charters. Snook, redfish, trout, and tarpon are our main targets but seasonally we also target grouper, sheephead, cobia, and more.
This past week was a lot of fun. I had a new baby girl! Well, my wife actually delivered her but was there to hold my wife’s hand Plus, we jumped over 15 tarpon, landed some cobia, hooked some sharks, put several sea trout in the cooler and caught more mackerel than myself or any of my clients could count! What and awesome week! [click to continue…]
I must confess that I have been slacking when it comes to posting fishing reports. I hope you guys will forgive me. It’s just been that I’ve been so busy fishing that I haven’t really had the time or the energy. But, the fishing has been so good that it deserves a report so here ya go!
Tarpon: What can I say? It’s tarpon time! They’re on the beaches, in the passes and at the bridges. And we’ll be catching them all the way through September. The hot bait at the bridges has been pass crabs and on the beaches they’ve been doing back flips over scaled sardines. The beach as been really fun because you can see the fish, cast to them and then watch them crush your bait.
Check out this video of some of this weeks tarpon catches!
Spanish Mackerel: The spanish mackerel bite has been really good and we’ve been getting some real bruisers. Good moving water and live sardines have been the ticket. They’re pretty good table fair and you can keep a whole bunch of them so if you are looking to fill a cooler this is your best bet.
Speckled Trout: Surprisingly, we’ve been catching a ton of 20″+ fish. Usually in the summer time the fish tend to be a bit smaller than they are during the rest of the year but this year, we’ve been whacking some really nice sized fish. Fishing low tide in pot holes and deep cuts has been the ticket.
Redfish: The redfish bite in the summer time is typically slow here and this year is par for the course. It’s no problem finding tons of them but getting them to eat is a challenge. We can still target them if you’d like but you’ll be passing up the fish that are biting the best for fish that will test your patience. Trust me, it’s not that I don’t want to target them, they’re my favorite fish to target, it’ll just take a lot of patience if redfish is what you want right now.
Snook: We caught a good deal of snook in the spring but have not been targeting them this summer very much. There are too many other fun fish to catch that have been more willing to cooperate to spend much time on them. We can target them but see the redfish report for what you can expect.
Sharks: We’ve got sharks coming out of our ears. If you want to catch a monster, toothy critter, then just let me know. We can get anything from 3′ blacktips to 200lb+ bulls without much trouble.
Grouper: We’re not targeting them per say, but we’ve put 3 grouper over 27″ in the boat in the past week while fishing for other fish. Plus untold numbers of smaller grouper. If targeted, we should do pretty well with them.
Again, to reiterate…. WE HAVE NO OIL HERE! Come fishing! Our beaches are clean and the fishing is great!
So you have catching a tarpon on your bucket list huh? Well, a Tampa Bay tarpon fishing charter is your best bet and in this post I’ll tell you the best dates for you to get your chance at catching a Tampa Bay tarpon and I will also tell you why these dates are so special. [click to continue…]
All winter long I dreamed of these days. It seemed as if they would never come again! But they are finally here!!! It’s tarpon season and sore arms, worn out backs, buckets of sweat and the biggest smiles you have ever seen are plastered on worn out faces as we are now in the midst [...]
The bite is on! The fish have finally woke up and they are hungry. We put snook in the boat for the first time last week and several snook from 24-33″ have been brought to the boat. That’s a good thing because we were all kind of worried about this years snook bite after this [...]
What an awesome last couple of weeks it’s been! The weather has been wonderful and the fish have been cooperating. I’ve run charters out of Tampa Bay, Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg over the last couple of weeks and the fishing has been great.
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Well, what do you say to a client when they are disappointed that the fish are too big to keep? I guess you just keep patting them on the back and telling them that you’re sorry that the fish are too big. You see, here in Florida, we have a slot size limit on speckled [...]
Finally! Some warm weather today for fishing charters in the Tarpon Springs area! And, the best news is that the weather is forecasted to be warm for the foreseeable future. Not to say that we won’t see any more cold fronts at all but the prospects of 70+ degree days for the next week or [...]
Well, it’s been a wild winter… weather wise. It’s been tough to get out on the water due to the economy and record breaking cold weather but I finally had the chance to get out the last few days and the prognosis is good. Really good.
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Looking to plan your fishing trip around catching a certain species of fish? Need to know where to stay? Want to know when the best time of year to catch just about everything is? Check out my 2010 Tampa Bay area Fishing Charter Planning Guide. Just about everything you need to know is here!
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The weather man says that fall weather is coming tomorrow. He said the same thing two weeks ago. I want to believe him this time but it’s hard to do considering the excessive heat we’ve had to deal with this past week. However, this time it looks like his prediction is for real. So, I’m [...]
Well, today is the first day of Fall. It may not mean much to you but I’m excited about it. Fall is my favorite time of year to catch my favorite type of fish. Redfish. These strong fighters are starting to school up and that means that we’ll have plenty of opportunities to have double [...]
I love fishing for redfish. They are tough fighters and quite often willing participants in our fishing adventures. However, summertime can be very frustrating when targeting them here on the Suncoast. They seem to vanish at the drop of a hat and when you do have a good bead on their location they often seem [...]
How’s this for variety? This month, so far, we’ve caught redfish, snook, trout, spanish mackerel, blacktip sharks, lemon sharks, bonita, ladyfish, tarpon, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, ladyfish and cobia. Summer time really is the time to see how many species of fish you can get in one day. The waters are alive with hatch-ling baits [...]
25 years ago the Hill family and my family became fast friends. I grew up spending my summers with Josh, Travis, Mandy and Lindsy Hill (the Hill children). 13 years ago the New York Yankees drafted me and I moved to Tampa to play baseball. Tampa Bay just so happened to be the Hill family’s [...]
It took a good bit of work to get our first tarpon of the year this year but we did it this past weekend. We put some long hours in and after seeing everyone around us hook up all afternoon, we decided that there was just some kind of funk on the boat. We hadn’t [...]
There’s no denying it now. Spring weather is here and Spring fishing has followed suit. Redfish have been the main targets as they are huge schools in the St. Petersburg area. Hitting them on high water with live sardines has been the key. We’ve had to show patience when looking for them when the tide [...]
It’s been a really windy spring thus far. It seems as though the wind just won’t quit. Windy days are usually bad fishing days and we’ve had to adapt to make sure that we succeed. Luckily for us, the fish haven’t been phased. We’ve been able to find fish in protected areas from the wind [...]
What a wild last few weeks I’ve had. I’ve been to Cleveland Ohio for an outdoor show, averaged more than 1 charter per day when I was in town and watched Spring arrive down here while the fish started chewing the bottom out of the boat. I’ve got lots of pictures from the last few [...]
Thanks again! Bridgette had a blast and hasn't stopped bragging on how good she did. Having a fun day like that with my daughter is beyond words. You have no idea what that trip meant to me.
Jim Conners
Tampa, FL
We keep telling everyone about what a great time we had! We have decided that we need to do it again in the future.
Tammy D.
Webster, NY
Thanks again for the guide trip on Monday. We had a great time. You were patient with the boys, passed along good content expertise, and GOT US TO THE FISH.
Jeff McCreary
Zionsville, IN
Thanks for the great day of fishing. Two individual inshore grand slams, despite less than ideal conditions. Awesome! We look forward to another trip soon.
Hank Goddard
Burlington, MA
You did great! Our client had a blast and it really helped us build that relationship. Who knows, you might even get some business from him down road as well. Thanks again and I will be calling on you again.
Ben Perelmuter
General Manager
Embassy Suites Tampa - Airport/Westshore
My name is Capt. Clay Eavenson and I am a FULL-TIME inshore fishing guide in the Tampa Bay Area. I specialize in Light Tackle, Inshore, Fishing Charters for Snook, Redfish, Trout, Tarpon, and More! I guide on the inshore waters of Tampa Bay, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg, and everywhere in between. 
Plus, we jumped over 15 tarpon, landed some cobia, hooked some sharks, put several sea trout in the cooler and caught more mackerel than myself or any of my clients could count! What and awesome week! 
