Kid at heart.
Catching fish can bring the kid out in you! Nice redfish!
Catching fish can bring the kid out in you! Nice redfish!
6-15-2008 - Hooking Kids Up!
Mathew was in town with his parents Steven and Tara and they were patient with me as it took some time to find the redfish I had seen a few days before. Once we found them it was game on. They were hanging out on a grass flat near the beach and these guys were big. We pulled out fish from 24"-35". The bite was great but slowed when dolphins showed up looking for the same game we were there for. But the bite shut off completely when an inconsiderate boater drove right over the fish. Oh well, at least we pulled in a dozen or so big redfish before the party crashers arrived.
Then I met up with Doug and his son Billy. The plan was to get a late start to catch the outgoing tide for big snook on the beach in Tarpon Springs. The tide wasn't going to start leaving until about an hour into the charter so I decided on checking in on a spot that was on fire about 3 weeks ago but had slowed down over the past two weeks. When we arrived Doug made mention of all of the mullet that were there and I knew that was a good sign. But, the last three times I had checked on the spot the fish we were looking for hadn't been there so my optimism was held off by my skepticism.
Either way, I decided to give it a little while because the tides were right for it. We used the PowerPole to stake out and I threw out some chummers and Doug and Billy threw out some baits with hooks in them. 10 minutes went by and no action. We moved down the shoreline about 75 yards and repeated the procedure. This time the water erupted. The "chummers" (baitfish I throw out wounded without hooks) were getting crushed. The first bait that hit the water was jumped on by a nice redfish and for the next 2 hours it was double hookup after double hookup. We managed somewhere between 40 and 50 redfish and 2 nice snook before the water left to the point where we needed to leave. We then headed to the beach to look for some monster snook and we saw a few and hooked two pigs but it just wasn't meant to be. Both fish spit the hook.
Then the "kids at heart" hooked up with me in St. Pete. It was a business trip for them but you couldn't tell. They were just excited to be on the water and away from their cell phones. The bite was slow but we went quality over quantity with redfish to 33" boated.
About a week and a half ago the bite got weird and really slowed down. I'm beginning to think it was do to the lack of rain. But now that we are having these afternoon showers the bite is really starting to pick up. Hopefully we'll stay in this typical summertime pattern of sunny skies through the first half of the day and rain in the afternoon. It keeps the salinity levels right for the fish and the water from getting too hot.
6-7-2008 - 100th Charter of the Year
This past week Capt. Clay Fishing Charters just passed the 100th Charter mark for the year! It's a little late this year, and I attribute that to the economy, but it is still something I mark with gratitude each year. It's an honor to me to take so many of you fishing here in the Tampa Bay area each year. The hundreds of smiles, photos of fish, and stories that come from you guys fishing with me are things that really keep me going. On with the report...
The kids stole the show this week. They out fished "dad" and "mom" at every turn. 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, and one day where we caught 0 redfish. 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. Which, if I must be very honest, is better than the reports that I am getting from my other guide buddies. So God must be smiling on us as we have been doing rather well for the most part.
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. That's a good sign and a good indicator that we MIGHT have an early fall which could lead to ridiculous numbers of redfish catches soon.
One thing is for sure, you can't catch fish sitting on the couch. If you want to do some fishing 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!
Phone: 813.300.2147
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com