Big Fish!
Big redfish fight hard. They make the drag scream!
Big redfish fight hard. They make the drag scream!
11-28-2007 - Short Strikes
We had an extremely low tide this morning and I wanted to go fishing but I wanted there to be some water on the flats in the New Port Richey area. So, I waited until around noon to go fishing. When I showed up, a good friend and fellow guide, Capt. Greg DeVault, was just getting off of the water from a charter. We talked a little while a he told me about what a great morning he had had with his client. I was excited. Looked like the fishing was going to be good.
The plan for the day, as it has been quite often lately, was to hit some obscure, out of the way, water that I had never fished before. I've mentioned several times lately that I'm on a mission to hit every square inch of shoreline on my local waters this year no matter how out of the way the spot is, unpromising as it may look, and no matter what reputation the area has. So, I hit such a spot today with less than stellar expectations.
Man were my expectations wrong. I wasn't 5 minutes into working this stretch of shoreline, just North of the Cotee river, before I was pushing fish. It all looked to be redfish and I was feeling the increased heart rate pumping in my chest. The thought of finding fish that I wasn't expecting to find gets my heart racing.
There were wakes everywhere and I was determined to hook up on one with a lure that I hadn't been using much lately. The Gulp Shrimp had been working so well lately that I had been forsaking all others, but today I wanted to hook fish on something else. I tied on a Mirr-O-Lure Mirr-O-Mullet and began "walking the dog". On my third cast I had a fish blow up not once, not twice, but three times on this slick little lure. Every time the fish came up short.
As the big bronze back of the fish broke the surface striking at my lure, all I could think about was that I was surrounded by redfish. I had a few more short strike at my top water plug and quickly became frustrated. So I switched to a mangrove red colored Exude jerkbait rigged on a weightless, weedless, Mustad 5/0 hook. It wasn't 5 casts into trying this setup that I had another huge strike and miss. Again I could see the bronze back of a fish as it struck that I could only assume was a nice redfish chasing after my bait. Not long after that strike I hooked up with a fish that peeled drag on my Daiwa reel just like a mid slot red but to my surprise it was a nice 4 pound trout (picture shown).
I continued to work the area with the same lure and hooked up again with two decent redfish that were buried in the huge school of mullet I had come across. After one photo my camera battery died (poor planning on my part) so I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the 6.5 pound, 28" trout, that came next. As I kept working the area, I soon realized that more than half of the huge wakes that I kept seeing were not redfish but large trout cruising through this shallow flat.
I didn't catch another fish, as the sun was going down quite quickly, but I imagine that had I been live bait fishing that I could have wore out 20"+ trout in this little bay.
Total for the day was 6 short strikes on what I can only assume were large trout, two 24"+ trout and two redfish. Not too bad considering I was fishing new water and only had 4 hours to do it in.
The trout sure seem to have made a great comeback from the bad red tide a couple of years ago. All you have to do is look for some depth changes like pot holes, cuts, or edges of flats on a low tide in Pasco County and your bound to run into them. Just don't be surprised if they short strike your baits. They didn't get that big by being stupid.
11-24-2008 - On the move.
In the last couple of reports, I've mentioned that the bite has been a short but furious one, but, I've failed to mention that the fish haven't been in the same spot twice in the past week. Four charters in the last 8 days and the fish were in 4 different spots. We checked all the spots that had previously produced nice fish but they were gone. We had to keep spot jumping to stay on them. I'm not sure if it's the weather, the moon phases, or the tides, but something has these fish on the move.
I picked up Mark, his son Ryan, and Mark's friend John at 10am this morning. We started late because we had a negative low tide early in the day and I was planning on hitting some high water fish. We tried for some trout near Anclote in Tarpon Springs first thing this morning while we waited on the tide to come in but failed to get a fish to the boat. The big trout have frustrated me over there this week and I quickly tired of trying for them this morning. So after 15 minutes of that effort I told the boys we were headed to redfish country.
We ran about 15 minutes north of Tarpon Springs and began working our way on the trolling motor towards the back of a cove where I did pretty well yesterday. 400 yards before we reached the spot, young Ryan and I both saw fish milling around off of a point. We eased in and set up the boat so that we could cast our baits with the wind. It wasn't 3 minutes before Ryan had put on a professional style display of how to fight a big redfish. He knew when to let the fish take drag, when to horse him, as well as how to turn the fish. Mark must have spent some time teaching his kid how to fish. Nice! Ryan slid the 9.5lb redfish into the net I was holding like he'd been on the redfish tour for years. And with that, we broke the seal on a bite that lasted for about two hours. Everybody got into the game. I lost count in how many fish we boated but it was somewhere between 15 and 20. Every single one was a keeper or better.
The key again today was pinfish. However, John and I had a difference of opinion on whether they should be fished under a cork or freelined. I told him to go with his gut and he proved me wrong. He ended up landing the most fish of the day while freelining live pinfish. So, I would suggest you try both freelined pinfish as well as pinfish under a cork if you're hunting reds this week. John and I did both agree that the key was to keep them out of the grass.
Someone once told me that if the fish aren't where they're "supposed" to be, fish where their not "supposed" to be. They told me that they've got to be somewhere and if they aren't where you think they are then they're somewhere you think they're not. That's proven true this week and I've hit all my "go to" places but we're running into them either on the way there or by just checking places nearby. If you aren't on fish, get on the trolling motor and go check every area within sight. They've got to be there somewhere.
11-23-2007 - Timing; Take Two
I was fortunate enough to have John and his brother Bob on the boat again today in New Port Richey (they were with me this past Wednesday as well). Except for the cold, windy, weather, this trip almost played out exactly like the last one. The fish, for what ever reason, only wanted to eat for a brief period of time. When they did turn on though, we hit 'em pretty good. John and Bob even had two double hook-ups today on a few nice redfish.
Just like last trip, the reds wanted half dollar sized pinfish fished under a cork. This time however, they were not where they were on Wednesday. These fish were several miles North of Tarpon Springs. I'm not sure but I think this weak cold front we got for Thanksgiving has pushed the fish around a bit.
And, just like last trip, abundant life in the water was important. Look for schools of mullet, schools of pinfish, and birds diving. Greenbacks are thinning out on the flats right now and redfish are going to rely more on eating pinfish. If you aren't seeing pinfish in the area you're fishing, move.
11-21-2007 - Timing is Everything
Have you ever told a joke that would have been funny two minutes ago, but at the moment you chose to blurt the joke out, it was too late to garner a chuckle? Well... I had bad timing at one spot today. Luckily, I hit another spot at just the right time.
I picked up my charter today and I made the bone head decision to not catch bait prior to picking them up. The big trout bite had been on fire and all you needed was a 1/8th oz. jig head with any soft plastic on it to load up. My guys jumped in the boat and I made the fatal flaw of announcing that, "we might catch 100 keeper trout today." They were excited, and so was I, until we showed up at the spot and only got one bite in an hour. Granted it was a very nice 22" trout but I was about 99 fish short of meeting my prediction. Those fish will probably be in those holes again on a lower tide but I had scheduled this trip around high water. Bad timing on my part.
Well, now that I made the great decision to not catch bait before picking up my clients (I almost always catch bait prior to pick up) I had to get some pinfish in the well. Luckily it only took about 10 minutes to load up and off we headed towards the mainland in New Port Richey.
It took a little time on the trolling motor to find a nice sized school of mullet, but when we did, we put the Power Pole down and started slinging baits. It wasn't to long before we were getting slammed by mid-slot redfish. We boated 8 in 30 minutes and then we had to get off of the flat before we were high and dry.
We only got two more bites after that rush today, another redfish and another really nice trout. That's the second trip in a row where the bite lasted less than 30 minutes. Granted, we have done well in those short time periods but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the bite lasted a little longer. All I can say is that if you know where fish are, stay on them. They are going to bite eventually and if you aren't there when that brief window is open, you may miss out. Again, look for milling mullet. Throw live or cut pinfish, 10" under a cork, into the mullet schools, and if your timing is right, you could be in for a fast and furious bite.
11-15-2007 - It was all so cool.
What a cool day. Literally and figuratively. A good friend of mine, Capt. Greg DeVault, was going to be out of town today and referred some of his family friends to me for a day on the water chasing redfish and trout in the Tarpon Springs area. Leonard, Andrew, and Emily own boats of their own that they can use when they are down here visiting from Pittsburgh but they wanted to have someone take them out and show them a few tips and tricks. I was more than happy to oblige.
The time changed this past weekend so I had to get up an hour earlier to head to the ramp to catch bait. There was a brisk chill in the air as I dropped the boat in the water and I wished I had thought to wear pants instead of shorts. I did have a light jacket in the boat so I knew I would survive. Leonard had said that he had tried for greenbacks this past weekend with limited success and he wondered if he had done something wrong. After catching bait, I arrived at the boat ramp to pick up my crew for the day and I was able to confirm that he had done nothing wrong. I too had trouble finding the little snook candies. I did however manage to fill the well with plenty of pinfish and that was fine to me because I know redfish love them.
After the introductions and loading the boat, we hit a dock near the ramp that has been successful for both snook and redfish in the past, merely because the tide was right for it. The fish however didn't get the message. We only gave that spot 5 minutes and headed to the only spot South of the Anclote River that I wanted to hit today. When we arrived we could see a few mullet milling around and that's always a good sign. We had to reposition the boat once before Emily had managed to coax the first redfish of the day to the boat. For a good hour after that we managed several more bites that resulted in a couple of keepers that went in the well. One of which had been hooked before as evidenced by the hook lodged in his throat and the line still hanging out of his mouth. That guy must have been hungry.
After the bite died down here, we headed North of the Anclote River and North of Gulf Harbors to find some productive oyster bars. It wasn't long before Leonard had hooked up with the first fish at this spot and we all thought it was a lower slot redfish. It turned out to be a very nice sized trout. Because we were North of Fred Howard park, the season is still open for trout, so this guy went in the well. We continued to work the edges of the oyster bars for another couple of hours and we boated another nice trout and a few more redfish to round out the day.
The productive bait for the day was both live and cut pinfish all fished 12" under a weighted float. We fished both the last of the incoming tide as well as the first of the leaving tide and the fish bit on both. Cuts around oyster bars and shallow flats near the edge of a channel were the hot spots. And, apparently the best bites are to be had by really cool 12 year old girls. Emily stole the show today landing the most redfish all by herself.
Cool weather, cool people, and hot fishing. What more can you ask for?
Phone: 813.300.2147
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com