For the most part, we’ve had a tremendously warm winter and the bite has been just as hot. The weather has stayed in the mid 70’s up to the mid 80’s all throughout this winter and it has made for some really pleasant days on the water as well as provided us some great fishing.

There have been a couple of cold fronts that shut the bite down for a few days at a time but for the most part, this has been a really great winter as far as the fishing and the weather has gone.

The speckled sea trout fishing has been phenomenal. It’s absolutely amazing at how big our average fish has gotten since the red tide 7 years ago put a damper on things. The numbers are better than ever and the size is more impressive than I can remember. The best bite for trout has been on the really low tides around the new and full moons. They drop off into low troughs and cuts around Anclote key and make it easy for us to find them.

The redfish bite has has stayed strong, especially on the high tide from the Anclote river all the way up to Hudson. The areas just north of the Cotee river has really been productive. Most of the creeks and coves in these areas have held good keeper sized fish. Keep in mind that we need to hit these area on high water as the whole area is very shallow.

Snook are generally taking their normal break this time of year but we’ve had a few surprise catches of tarpon and cobia in the last week or so. The one tarpon we caught was caught on a live, free-lined shrimp and looked to weigh about 20lbs. It was a really cool surprise as we rarely ever catch tarpon this time of year.

Sheephead have invaded the flats and though we don’t target them much, we’ve had some great by-catches of 3-5lb fish. They taste great and are great fighters in shallow water.

Many people don’t realize what a great fishery we have here in the winter time. The trout fishing on our coast is some of the best in the whole country. I’m often asked, “I know it’s winter, but, is there anything to catch this time of year?” I answer with an emphatic, “Yes!” This is the only time if year where we have days of catching 75-100 trout; all keeper size or better. The redfish are still cooperating and you never no what other surprise might be awaiting at the next fishing spot! This is an awesome time of year to fish here. Don’t mis your chance to get out on the flats during this mild winter! Be sure to give me a ring to discuss your next fishing adventure.

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The fishing in the Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey areas on recent charters has been nothing short of awesome. This is the time of year where we get into all sorts of species of fish. In fact, here’s a list of the different types of fish we’ve caught this week… redfish, trout, snook, mangrove snapper, gag grouper, black sea bass, spanish mackerel, ladyfish, jack crevelle, cobia… The list goes on.

The bait situation in this area has gotten really good as well. The stilt houses just outside the Cotee River in the New Port Richey area has been consistent for over 3 weeks now and bait on the edge of the inside flat around Anclote Key has really gotten easy in the 3-4 foot depth over the past week. All you have to do is chum with a little bit of canned jack mackerel to get it balled up behind the boat to cast net a livewell full of scaled sardines in less than 20 minutes.

I took several repeat clients this week. One of which was Ty and his father from Orlando. The last time I took them, it was in the dead of winter and all we could do was try to stay warm during their first trip. This time around however, we caught redfish, snook, trout and grouper. The weather was beautiful and the fish were biting. Although the numbers of fish weren’t as high as previous trips this week, we got into several really nice sized reds and a trout about 22″ long. Ty got a slam (technically… dad hooked Ty’s red but Ty reeled it in). Ty caught hos own snook and his own trout that day so I’m saying he got an inshore slam at 7 years old. Great work Ty!

Earlier in the week, we got in to large numbers of trout. The keepers came less frequently as the week progressed but earlier in the week, we had days where we could have limited the boat out 4 times over.

The redfish are up on the flats. Look for the mullet. One day we caught all our reds within 10′ of shore and that’s where the mullet were also. Later in the week, the mullet seemed to be 30-75 yards off the shore and that’s where we found the redfish then. If you’re not fishing around the mullet schools, you may be missing the redfish right now.

The trout mostly came on the edge of flats near the passes between the barrier islands. Look on the grass flats inside the passes near Honeymoon Island, Anclote Key, and Three Rooker Bar. You should find enough keepers to fill your limit as well as get into a few monster spanish mackerel.

We have a cold front passing through tonight. The bite could change… in fact, I expect it to. Wind speed and wind direction plays a huge part in both bait catching as well as catching fish. Pay attention to the weather forecasts. West winds will dirty up the water in exposed areas in the NPR/Tarpon Springs areas. Look for the fish in areas of clean water. Especially trout. Trout don’t seam to like the dirty water near the passes during and shortly after these fronts dirty up the water there. Look for places nearby that are protected from the wind and still has clean water.

Redfish are beginning to group up the the New Port Richey and tarpon springs areas. Fish around mullet school and your should get plenty of shots on reds.

Lay off the snook if you can but you shouldn’t be surprised if you get into some good ones around the Gulf Harbor areas. Edges of channels and docks are producing the best snook bites. Also be sure to check creek mouths and just inside the creeks on a leaving tide.

Check out some pictures from recent trips and be sure to hit me up is you have any questions you’d like to have answered on the air during this week’s radio show.

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I had a day off and decided to take my two oldest children fishing with me to scout around for upcoming charters. They’ve never been fishing with me on a “serious” fishing trip and I wasn’t sure how things would go. I didn’t know if they would get bored, tired, hungry, fussy… etc. But, they did great. In part because the fishing is so good right now.

Claire loves to be on the water and today was her lucky day. She got her first “Inshore Slam”. I don’t think she knows what a big deal that is but she loved doing it none the less. I tried to tell her that there are adults who live and fish here and have never caught a redfish, snook, and trout all in the same day. But all she could think about was how “big” her fish were. She later told mommy that “today was the best day she ever had”. Made me grin REAL big.

Cade loves fishing. He’s been on “family fun” fishing trips and one other fishing trip with just dad before. And, we have spent countless hours bass fishing in the neighborhood lakes. But, it’s looking like he’s getting so into fishing that I could take him on most of my scouting trips, no problem.

Anyway, on to the fishing. Bait was extremely easy to get. It’s has started to show up every where in the central Pasco area and I threw the net 3 times and had between 800 and 1000 sardines. We decide to sit right there in the bait spot for a few minutes and the kids wore out the ladyfish and a few trout.

But, the reason for the trip was to check on some red, snook and trout spots so after bending a pole on ladyfish, we headed south. The first spot didn’t take long to produce. Both kids got hooked up on some medium sized snook pretty quickly. Shortly after that, they each got a few redfish. Then they really enjoyed catching the 5lb jacks that came through. Cade said he thought they fought like tarpon. I didn’t argue with him.

So after catching several snook and redfish and putting our limit of redfish in the boat, I told them we should head home. To my surprise (after 4 hours of fishing) they weren’t real happy about quitting fishing but we headed that direction anyway. When we got near the Cotee river, I asked them if they wanted to try to get some keeper trout before we actually head in? They both gave me an emphatic headshake and “yes”.

So we headed over to a spot that had a lot of milling mullet around and we pitched our sardines out towards the mullet school. It wasn’t long before Claire got another red. then cade got another redfish. Then Claire got the Trout of the day, measuring 22″ long.

By then, it was 3:30pm and dad was getting tired so we headed back to the dock. The fishing is really getting good. The water is cooling off (feels cool to the touch) and the weather is really gorgeous. If you’re looking to get into some redfish, snook, and trout. Right now, and the next couple of months, will all be a great time to get out there. Be sure to give me a call for your next fishing charter. 813-300-2147

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We are in full swing with this year’s Tampa Bay tarpon season. For the most part the bite has been awesome! We’ve been averaging 5-7 tarpon a day in the 80-150lb range but we’ve had days of up to 16 hookups! Some days have been slower but over all, the tarpon fishing has been nothing short of awesome.

This is trophy fishing at it’s best! The average fish we’ve brought boat side is 100-120lbs with some reaching the 175lb mark. You better eat your Wheaties before you go tarpon fishing in Tampa Bay.  You’re not always going to hook 10 monsters because you might spend the best part of the bite fighting a giant tarpon for over an hour! If you just wanted to hook a ton of fish, then you’d want to hook a fish and fight him for 5 minutes, break him off and go back and hook another while the bite is on. That’s how you get double digit days.

Tarpon fight so hard that I had two clients this week call the charter off early after fighting a few as they said they “couldn’t take any more”! This truly is a fight of a lifetime and one that you’ll tell your grandkids about.

Some of this week’s highlights were 11 year old Wyatt hooking 3 tarpon and landing one all by himself and New York Jet’s tight end, Dustin Keller getting his first 100lb tarpon to the boat. We also had one day where we hooked 16 tarpon and landed 5 of them in less than 6 hours.

The great bite has been early in the morning. We’re getting on the fish just as the sun is rising and that’s equated to at least two bites a day before 7:45am. The we have to work a little more to get the rest of the bites but the hard work has paid off. The early bite has been on crabs and the bites later in the day have come on cut threadfins.

June is pretty well booked up but July offers some of the best tarpon fishing of the year here and there are several dates still open. So, if you want to land a fish of a lifetime, July offers plenty of opportunities. Just give me a call to get hooked up!

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In short… the bite is on! The past 10 days or so have been nothing short of spectacular. Tarpon are here in great numbers and they are chewing. Fish up to 140lbs have been brought boat-side and most tarpon we’re hooking are 100lbs or better. The last few days have been a real early morning bite. We’ve left the dock at 6am and each of the last three days we’ve hooked at least 3 tarpon by 7:30am. The bite in the morning has been best when using crabs for bait. The first drift through the fish has produced at least one bite every day this week when using crabs. Mid morning the bite has died and then early afternoon has produced another good bite using both crabs and threadfin herring. Tides will start getting real good again this weekend and look for the tarpon bite on crabs to get better and last longer during the day.

There have also been some really cool by-catches this week including this nice cobia we picked up while running the beaches looking for more tarpon. We’ve also caught some keeper grouper, snapper, sharks and spanish mackerel.

June still has a few good dates open for tarpon fishing and July is surprisingly pretty open. If you’re looking to get in on the action, give me a call or email me as soon as you get a chance.

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It’s tarpon season boys and girls and our first full week of tarpon charters has been a great success. To be completely honest, the first tarpon trip 2 weeks ago was a dud but since then, we’ve whacked ‘em. Yesterday was the latest installment of the “Silver King Air Show” as we put 8 fish in the air and landed 4 nice sized tarpon. Zenon Konopka (former Tampa Bay Lightning star and current New York Islander) and his buddy Pat Smith did a great job yesterday. After a few hookups and lost fish, the quickly figured out how to land them and boated 4 out of the last 6 fish they hooked.

Will Parker (pictured), who had fished with me a week ago with his dad and brother, brought Jen Baker with him on a tarpon trip earlier this week. Jen went redfish fishing with Will and I 2 years ago and we wore the redfish out. This time though, she hooked in to a couple of tarpon upwards of 100lbs.  Will hooked into 4 fish and landed 1 nice one.

Other trips this week have produced 4-6 tarpon each and the fish have ranged from 60lbs all the way up to the 140lb range. We’ve put a few fish in the air that were well over the 150lb range but have yet to coax one of those all the way to the boat.

(***Technical note: To put a tarpon “in the air” means hooking a tarpon and fighting it. Tarpon almost always leap into the air once hooked and many time they leap several times during the fight).

The tarpon bite should be good from now through the end of July. So if you’ve ever wanted to catch a big “Silver King” (a.k.a tarpon) you’d better hurry to get one this year.

Best of the rest:

There are some really nice sized redfish around. They’ve been anywhere from 6-15lbs. There aren’t huge numbers of them but we’re getting big ones in the St. Petersburg area. Speckled sea trout remain strong on the grass flats and spanish mackerel are just about everywhere. While tarpon fishing we’re also getting some really fun by-catch. We’ve caught grouper, snapper, spanish mackerel, sharks and cobia.

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I’m so thankful that Spring is in full swing with Summer just around the corner. This is one of my favorite times of year. Mild weather and many different species of fish to chase makes for some really fun days around the Tampa Bay area.

Right now the trout fishing is juts about as good as it gets. Trout are everywhere in the New Port Richey and Tarpon Springs area. Over the last couple of days, we’ve caught trout in the 18-24″ range at just about every spot we’ve stopped at. Trout are a lot of fun to catch as they can make some pretty explosive hits on our baits as they chase them to the surface. They put up a real nice fight when they are over 20″ long and they taste really good on the grill.

We’re not getting into huge numbers of redfish but we are getting huge redfish. We’ve caught fish from 5-22lbs in the last week or so and most are averaging 8-9lbs. We’re getting them pretty consistantly at the mouths of creeks and even in some of the deeper back country areas.

Snook have been a pleasant surprise this spring. We’re getting a few nice snook on just about every trip. Just like the redfish though. We’re not catching a ton of them but they are really big, drag screaming fish.

There’s all types of fishing going on right now. That’s what’s so great about this time of year. We’re catching spanish mackerel, sharks, redfish, trout, snook and more. We’re seeing even more than that each trip. I’ve seen bull sharks, tarpon, cobia, sea turtles, porpoises, eagles, ospreys, sea turtles, manatees…. it’s really is an exciting time to be on the water. You just never know what you might catch and what you might see.

Don’t forget, tarpon are here. Right now! My first tarpon charter is this coming Friday and from then on, it’s game on. If you’re ready to catch a 100lbs+ of fury and adrenaline, the time is now. Give me a ring to schedule your next Tampa Bay Tapon Charter.

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What an awesome week we’ve had here in the New Port Richey area! Beautiful weather, great fishing and really good company on the boat. One of my clients, Eric, was supposed to have a female companion on this trip but plans didn’t work out for her to come so he and I ventured out on our own. Man did she miss out! We didn’t wear the fish out as far as numbers go but Eric did get into some really nice redfish and trout. Including a monster! The fish measured just over 39″ long and weighed just over 22lbs. It was a real “pig”. Eric also got into some 25-30″ reds and some trout in the 18-23″ range. It was a great day and though we didn’t catch 100 fish, he was treated to some real bruisers.

Today I fished with Dan and his son Mikey. The day started late as the the bait catching took way longer than expected. Again, today wasn’t a big “numbers” day but we did get into some really nice sized fish. Dan and Mikey have a good bit of fishing experience and they didn’t want to go “catching”. They wanted to go fishing for really nice sized fish. So we spent some time being patient at a big redifsh spot and we got 4 bites and Mikey got one really nice 30″ red to the boat. Then we headed off to get some dinner and the first few spots didn’t pay off as well as they had in the recent past but the 4th spot helped us get close to our limit of trout. They were avid Yankee fans and with me being a former Yankee, we had a great time talking baseball and pinstripes. The fishing and conversation really made for a great day.

The weather has been great as of late and we’ve had big number days and big fish days. They haven’t always come together but the fishing has been really good for the most part. We’ve seen some really nice cobia on the flats (though we haven’t hooked into any yet this year), trout are still going good, redfish are BIG, snook are BIG, and tarpon are just showing up.

Speaking of tarpon… tarpon season is just 2 weeks away and if you have it in your mind to hook into a 100+lb fish, you need to book your date now as I already have 20 trips booked for June tarpon fishing in St. Petersburg. I have slightly less on the books for May but those dates will fill up fast as well. Tarpon season is always busy for me so don’t hesitate to get in on the action now. Call me for rates and availability.

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I had two charters today, as I often do in the Springtime, and my first trip was a story of great hopes put off to another day. The first attempt at a great fishing trip was in January and unfortunately, the 32 degree temps and the 20knt winds forced us to push the charter off to another day.

So Terry, and his family came back for some fishing today and they were met with much better conditions which led to some really good fishing. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos (maybe they’ll hook me up) but the trout bite was really good in the New Port Richey area. We go t fish from 16-22″ and they cooperated pretty well for a solid hour. We tried to get into some of the recent good mackerel bite but the tide didn’t cooperate much. However, we got 3 or 4 nice macks and a nice sized atlantic sharpnose shark.

We tried to go out that fateful day in January and after 20 minutes, I looked at them and said, “If you want to get your money’s worth, we should go back to the dock and you guys should come back in the Spring”. They agreed and it paid off today. We got several big trout and a few nice macks… and, we didn’t freeze in the process. It was actually one of the nicest weather days we’ve had all year.

My second charter of the day got a little lost on the way to the ramp and we started about an hour late but it worked to our advantage as it gave the tide some extra time to come in. Good friends Bob and Bill first hit a spot that I had caught trout at earlier in the day but the bite was slow. It wasn’t the right tide for the spot. We got a few keeper trout but it wasn’t long before I felt it was time to move on.

We headed north, to the land of rocks and lost lower units (the New Port Richey area is notorious for rocks that bite your boat motor), and we settled into a spot that has done well in the past for redfish on the same type of tide we had this afternoon.

We first stopped and threw out baits in a trout spot but nothing was happening. So we moved closer to shore where redfish tend to roam. I started throwing out sardines as chum and it wasn’t long before the fish began to blow up on the freebies. We baited hooks and the fun began. We caught several over slot redfish on sardines 2 feet under a cork and the boat was all smiles. That’s when Bob said, “It sure would be great to get a snook as well.” Well, it wasn’t long until his bobber vanished, he reeled up and the drag started screaming. But there was no jump. Snook usually jump when hooked. I thought he had a huge redfish until it started heading for the mangroves. Turned out that Bob’s wish had come true as a really nice 32″ snook came boat side and posed for pictures.

April is a great month for catching just about anything and everything that we have available. The reds start schooling up, the trout are everywhere and the snook are feeding to get ready for their spawn. Mack’s are chasing bait and the cobia are a great surprise catch. If you’re looking for a fun filled fishing adventure, you can choose no better time than now.

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This year I’m going to try to film every tarpon charter. I’ve got all the bases covered to try to get every leap, run and photo op covered on video. This is all at no extra cost to you. So, unless there’s a serious malfunction with my equipment, every trip will be videoed and edited…. gratis.

The first camera I have is a GoPro Hero. It’s a 1080p camera in a waterproof housing. I have a head mount for it and a rail mount for it. I really like the head mount angle you get. You catch everything you’re looking at on video when you’re hooked up. It’s really cool.

The second camera we’ll be using is the Kodak Playsport. Also a 1080p capable camera. It’s about the size of a cell phone and fits in the pocket nicely. It’s easy to pull out and hit one button and get it going. It’s a great one for catching the initial leap of a tarpon.

The third camera will only be used when my good friend Capt. Frank Massaro will be able to ride along. It’s a pro-sumer level Panasonic HMC-150. It’s video quality is unreal. Hopefully he’ll be able to ride along on some trips in July as he’ll be busy in Boca Grande during May and June.

All cameras will be set to 720p and 60 frames per second. This gives us awesome slowmo playback.

I’ll edit the videos and upload them to either YouTube.com or Vimeo.com and send you the link when they are ready so that you can share them with your friends. So, not only can you catch some 100 pound and bigger tarpon with me this year, you can relive it year after year. No cost.

If you have any questions about the video process this year or the equipment I’ll be using, feel free to call or email me any time. In the mean time, start eating your Wheaties… you’re going to need the extra strength this year when we start tearing into the “Silver King”.

Check out this video shot last year using the GoPro and the Playsport.

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