It's Hot Out There
It may be warm out but the bite has been hot! Redfish!

7-19-2008 - Tarpon Springs Redfish

While fishing in the Tarpon Springs area this pas wee, he kids stole the show. They out fished "dad" and "mom" at every turn. and it didn't matter if the kids were 10 years old or 20 years old. For what ever reason the "kids" had the hot hand.

The bite has been a little inconsistent which is sort of common this time of year. For every 4 charters we have that rank in the really good column we have one that defies the status quo and is really slow. That's just the "straight talk express" as John McCain would say. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that we're going to guarantee that we set records right now. Every day is a little different than the last. I had one day this week where we caught 75 redfish, one where we caught 40 redfish, one day where we caught 10 redfish, and one day where we caught 0. Thankfully, on the slow redfish days, we've had a smattering of snook, trout (although kinda' small, which is normal this time of year), snapper, and grouper thrown in the mix. The good news is that we're having 4 good-great days for every slow day.

Redfish are the hot target right now. I look for the bite to get better as fall approaches. That's when they will begin to school up in large groups. Just recently I've seen my first school of reds numbering in the thousands since March.
 

One thing is for sure, you can't catch fish sitting on the couch. If you want to do some fish catching soon, you're best bet will be to get an early start by going with me to catch bait. If bait is easy to get, we could be fishing by 7am which is well before the sun begins to heat the water to temperatures where the fish get uncomfortable. 

Let's go fishing!

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7-12-2008 - Here and There

 

It's now mid Summer in the Tampa Bay area and the fish and bait are settling down into there normal summertime pattern. Which is, their is no pattern. One day we'll catch 50 redfish at a spot and go back the next and only catch 5. Then we'll go hit another spot and pick up 10 more fish, but they won't be at that spot the next day. Don't get me wrong, we're catching fish. The thing is that everyday is different right now. One day we get reds over here and the next we get snook over there. One day we catch  10 fish and the next we catch 65 fish. This is typical this time of year as rain, cloud cover and tide phases all effect the water temperature and flow from day to day. The fish are constantly moving to get into a place where they are comfortable.

 

Over the past couple of weeks, the best bet has been mackerel and redfish. Snook are ever present on the beaches, but their appetite is inconsistent and finicky. The trout bite is typically slow this time of year, but we're picking up a few here and there. The mangrove snapper are starting to turn on and that bite will only get better between now and the end of September. If you're looking for table fare, as well as a great fighting fish on light tackle, snapper is the way to go. We've been getting snapper to 3 pounds, but my fishing logs say that the 5-7lbers are supposed to be getting hooked up consistently soon. In the last couple of years limiting out on 4-7lb snapper was a breeze from late July to early September in Tampa Bay.

 

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Phone: 813.300.2147
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com