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 more is great news. Even better is that the fish love the warm weather too!

Today I had Joe and Pearl on the boat. They had scheduled a trip with me last year and ended up having to leave town early before we could get out and fish. This year though, we were able to go and it was a good thing that we were. The day started out slow as the tide didn’t move much until around 10:30am but once it did, we were able to pick up a few nice trout and a couple of really nice sheephead in the Palm Harbor area. Our next move was to the Spoil Island in St. Joseph sound so that we could hammer the trout on the incoming tide.   Fishermen were ready, as there were 5-7 boats on each island, but the fish weren’t. I only saw one trout landed while we were out there.

So, we headed to a spot that the trout seem to hang out at when they aren’t at the islands and sure enough, they were there sunning themselves in shallow water. There must have been at least 150 large trout on the flat and we were excited to see that they were willing to eat. We had about 2 dozen shrimp left at this point and we ended using them all on the nice 18-24″ trout.

Trout in the Clearwater, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs areas really like the incoming tide this time of year. So if trout is your main target, I would plan your trip around being able to hit your spots around the incoming tide. If you visit the spoil islands and the fish aren’t there, head to shallow water. They seem to wait for water temps to hit 60 degrees before they hit the spoil islands and today was no different. The water temp never got above 58 degrees and those big trout were happy to be sunning themselves in less than two feet of water.

Look for water temps to continue to rise this week but not as fast as it did today. The cloud cover we will have for the next 4 days will slow to water temperature rise but the fishing should still get better with each degree that the water temp ticks up. Redfish are around in good numbers but we didn’t have high enough water today to chase them. Tides next week should be favorable for being able to put more redfish in the boat.

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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.

Tampa Bay has thousands of resident tarpon that stay here year round but we also have a huge influx of large migratory tarpon that visit Tampa Bay every year, usually starting in late April or early May. These migratory fish will mingle with our resident fish throughout the Tampa Bay area but a large majority of the tarpon will congregate near the mouth of Tampa Bay including near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Egmont Key.

We can catch tarpon pretty regularly from May through September but the best months are May, June and July. And we can get even more specific than that. In Tampa Bay we have what is called a “Hill Tide” twice a month. These hill tides are tides in which we only have one incoming tide and one outgoing tide each day and they last for about 5 days each time they occur.

What’s so special about a hill tide? Well, the outgoing tide on a hill tide day in the Tampa Bay area is very strong. So strong that the crabs that live in Tampa Bay can’t hold on to the sea floor and they get flushed out of Tampa Bay. You know what a tarpon’s favorite food is? You guessed it, crabs! So when these crabs are getting flushed out of Tampa Bay, the tarpon bite turns on… big time!

So… are you ready to hook a 150lb+ fish that jumps, screams drag off of your reel and leaves you breathless?

Here are the dates that you simple must book if catching a Tampa Bay tarpon is on your 2010 things to do…

April 30th – 31st

May 1st – 3rd

May 12th – 18th

May 27th – 29th

June 10th – 15th

June 23rd – 27th

July 8th – 14th

July 20th – 27th

To reserve your Tampa Bay tarpon fishing charter right now, CLICK HERE!

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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.

I’ve got 5 charters coming up this week and I needed to get out and do some scouting for fish. Two days ago I went out with 20 year professional Tampa Bay area guide veteran and good friend of mine, Capt. Jim Lemke. We never even had to get the boat on plane before he put me on 5 different schools of 100+ redfish. We were out having fun and as such we only brought fly rods with us. The third cast of the day produced a hookup with a nice upper slot redfish but I lost him halfway through the fight. Capt. Jim poled his Maverick HPX boat around for a few more hours showing me some remarkable schools of redfish. We did way more looking than fishing but it was a lot of fun and great to see the redfish schooled up as tight as they were.

Yesterday, I went out with Capt. Greg DeVault of Americana Outdoors TV fame in search of lunker sea trout. We weren’t disappointed. During the low tide we hit cuts and drop-offs in the Tarpon Springs area with great success. Though we did very well on the first of the incoming tide, Capt. Greg and I both knew the bite would be better on the last of the outgoing tide but we’ll have to prove that later this week as the tides become more ideal. Trout in the 17-22″ range all took a liking to the new Mirr-O-Lure offering in soft plastics. The bait is called the Lil’ John. For years, Capt. Greg has been biting the end off of Exude Darts and rigging them with Slayer Inc. jig heads. Now, Mirr-O-Lure has taken his advice and created a bait similar to the Dart but cut one and a half inches off the nose and made the bait flat on that end to fit a jog head more comfortably. One thing I have noticed fishing Mirr-O-Lure new baits is that they are soft but extremely tough. We caught about 20 fish yesterday and Capt. Greg and I only used one bait each all day. That’s awesome if you ask me as most soft plastics seem to only survive one or two fish before having to change baits.

The weather is on a warming trend. That’s good news as we had the coldest January since 1978 here in the Tampa Bay area. The snook have taking a beating because of the frigid temps but the redfish and trout are stronger and hungrier than ever.

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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!

Tarpon:

When:
Best Bet = May – July
Next Best =  August – September

Where:
St. Petersburg

Bag limit:
Capt. Clay Fishing Charters practices “catch and release” only with tarpon.

Snook:

When:
Best = March – June and October – November
Next best = December

Where:
St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs

Open Season:
March 1st – April 30th and September 1st – November 30th (note: We are allowed to target snook year ’round but we can only keep them for dinner during “open season”)

Bag limit:
1 per person per day. Fish must be no less than 28″ long or more than 33″ long.

Redfish:

When:
Best Bet = February – June and October-December
Next Best = The rest of the year.

Where:
St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, New Port Richey and Tampa Bay

Open Season:
Year ’round

Bag Limit:
1 per person. No less than 18″ long or more than 27″ long

Spotted Sea Trout:

When:
Best Bet = January – March
Next Best = The rest of the year

Where:
Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, New Port Richey, Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg

Open Season:
South Region (South of Tarpon Springs, including Tampa Bay) Jan-October
North Region (Tarpon Springs North) March – January

Bag Limit:
South Region = 4 per person per day. No less than 15″ long and no more than 20″ long (one per person may be over 20″)
North Region = 5 per person per day. No less than 15″ long and no more than 20″ long (one per person may be over 20″)

Best of the rest.

Mangrove Snapper: Best Bet = May – September

Spanish Mackerel: Best Bet = March – November

Cobia: Best Bet = March – October

Grouper (inshore): Best Bet = November – March (call for current regulations on harvetsing)

Jack Crevelle: Best Bet = All Year

Sharks: Best Bet = April – November

Where to stay.

Tampa Area: Embassy Suites Tampa Airport (Special rates for my customers, call me for details)

St. Petersburg: Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort Marina Cove (within 1 mile of pickup location for all St. Pete charters)

Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey: Hampton Inn

Included in your charter.

• Use of rods, reels, tackle
• Live bait (available 99% of the time)
• Use of cooler with ice
• Cleaned and bagged fish
• Fishing Licenses
• Photos of your catch (emailed to you after charter)

You should consider bringing.

• Sunglasses
• Check the weather and wear warmer cloths that you think you’ll need. You can always peel off a layer or two if you get warm.
• Sunscreen
• Hat
• Cooler (for the car, not the boat) to take you catch home with you.

When you should book you trip.

As soon as you know the date(s) you would like to book, don’t hesitate, book them. Many of my repeat clients use my online reservation system and they book dates  months in advance. Don’t procrastinate and miss out on the only date you could go.

How you should book a trip.

Call me for current rates and specials and then place you reservation by phone or by using my online reservation system. Click Here

Other Useful Links (Updated Periodically)

Florida Saltwater Fishing Regulations (.pdf)

Tampa Bay Area Tide Predictions

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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 excited. Luckily, although the typical fall fishing hasn’t arrived yet, typical summer fishing has been great. Spanish mackerel, bluefish, bonita, sharks, trout and a few nice snook have been willing participants every day. I just can’t wait for cooler weather so that the redfish will begin schooling up in great numbers again.

This past week we had catch numbers in the 50+ range of mackerel, trout and even some awesome upper slot snook. Even though the water temps haven’t dropped yet from the summer heat, the snook’s internal clocks are telling them to start heading for the creeks. And that’s exactly where we’ve found them. Trout on are the grass flats in 4-8 feet of water and though they are typically smaller while water temps are still warm, we’re getting plenty of keepers for dinner. The mackerel have been veracious and all have been keeper size near the area passes.

This weekend’s cooler weather, should the weather man be right, could be just what the doctor ordered to kick off another great fall redfish bite. Every Fall, with the cooler weather, redfish group up in hordes. It is tremendous fun finding groups of fish in the hundreds that are turned on by the higher oxygen levels that cooler water temps bring. Prowling the grass flats, they seek and destroy any editable nugget they can find and when they run into us, we wreck ‘em. The Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey areas really come alive in the fall with redfish. Areas with shallow turtle grass flats with patchy bottom, oyster bars and submerged limestone rubble mixed in are places where these newly schooling fish will gather. The crystal clear water that the cooler water temps bring help us find the fish as we can often see them rolling on their sides, flashing their signature copper sides, from a distance. We’ll approach the fish slowly and quietly so not to disturb them and present them with scaled sardines which they have a hard time refusing.

High temps in the upper 70’s are predicted for next week! It should be a blast. Bring a light jacket for the morning run out and then enjoy Florida at it’s best in shorts and t-shirts by 10am. Nothing beats Fall fishing in the Tampa Bay area.

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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 digit days of over slot redfish.

This week the reds are already starting to show signs of getting into their fall patterns. They’re grouping up by the hundreds along St. Pete’s shallow grass flats and near river mouths in New Port Richey and Tarpon Springs. If you approach these fish stealthily enough, you’ll see that they are “happy” fish. “Happy” redfish are fish that are rolling and giving off a distinctive bronze flash as their scales reflect the sun. They do this because they are feeding. Redfish are designed to be natural bottom feeders an as such their mouths are close to the bottom of their head. So when they attack fleeing baitfish, crabs or shrimp, they often have to roll on their sides to position themselves to feed.

Such was the case this week when my clients and I were looking for a school of redfish. We looked around for a while and worried that he school had moved off but it wasn’t long before I could see the bronze mirrors flashing as us. The first bait that we tossed into the water was hit immediately and a healthy over slot 10lb redfish was soon posing for a picture.

As this Fall season progresses, the redfishing should just get better and better. Look for clean water on turtle grass flats in 2 feet of water or less and look for them flashing happily as they feed. As always, the wind will be a regular factor this fall so try to use it to your advantage. Approach the fish from up wind and make as little noise as you can. If you can keep the school “happy” by staying quiet and feeding them a steady stream of chummers (wounded live bait that you can throw out to get the fish turned on) you should be able to keep the school in one spot for 2 or more hours of a good bite.

Tight lines and leave some fish out there for me!

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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 disinterested in our offerings. So, many times during the summer we’ll go “catching” instead of “fishing” on my charters; as long as my clients are so inclined. We’ll go after mackerel, trout, snapper, grouper and the like first and then after we’ve caught tons of those we’ll go try to get some redfish. Many times the redfish thing doesn’t work out because not only are they tough to get in the heat of summer but we’ll have spent the best part of the tide chasing after other fish.

Today was different. I could feel a light nip in the air as if Fall was giving us a preview of the weather to come soon. So I decided we’d go after reds first and only try to go “catching” if the redfish didn’t pan out. So, we left the dock at about 6:45 A.M. to go get bait. I had a couple of my regular clients on the boat, Ben and Phil and they were excited when I told them it was time to start going after reds again. Bait wasn’t as easy as it has been but it wasn’t to hard to get either and by 7:30am we headed off on our hunt for reds in September.

The tide was an hour into ripping out already and you could practically watch the water level dropping as the 15knt NE wind helped it leave. The first spot we tried is pretty shallow at high tide so when I got there and assessed the situation, I opted for leaving after 5 minutes instead of being stuck for 5 hours. So we headed South a few miles and hit a spot that has always produced well for me in the fall. I immediately started feeling good about the spot when I could see hundreds of mullet jumping from 500 yards away. This spot usually rocks when the tide is leaving and the mullet are home.

We slowly trolled towards the mullet schools and it wasn’t long before I started seeing reds mixed in. We anchored up, threw out some chummers and a few minutes later I heard the first sound of a redfish crushing a sardine. Game on! Baits hit the water and shortly after, lines were singing. We didn’t kill the fish today because the leaving tide chased us off the flat but we did get some great redfish and Ben and Phil were ready for them. They’ve had their fill of snapper, mackerel and tout from their last 3 summer charters and they were all smiles with the 6-9lb reds we got on today.

Fall is coming. You can feel it in the air. All those fish that have been turning their noses up at you during the heat of summer are about to go on the hunt and it’s your time to hammer them. Start looking for them in the shallows now. They are there. Look for mullet schools and work them slowly. Topwater plugs like the Top Dog by Mirr-O-Lure will produce early in the morning and then switch to weightless soft plastic stick baits later in the day. If you’re using natural baits, sardines are still king. They aggressively hit the freebies I threw out today so I know they’ll chase them down on your hook. Good luck and leave some out there for me!

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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.

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.

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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 and the fish know it’s dinner time.

We get into some redfish, snook and trout at times but the real show is in open water where the speed demons of the bay like bonito, mackerel and sharks are crashing baits. Often times acres of whitewater can be seen in the distance as these fish are breaching the surface attacking the small baits in massive schools.

Getting on the water early is key right now. Not just for the fish but for the fishermen as well. It is rather warm out there by midday and afternoon storms are the norm here in teh Tampa Bay area of Florida. If you’re game for it, I’ll take you along with me to catch bait around sunrise and then we’re off to the fishing grounds.

The next couple of months are you best bet of the year for catching many types of fish. If you’re up for tarpon, they’re still around and active. You just need to pick days with good tides.

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