Too many to count.
We caught more redfish than I could count this month.
We caught more redfish than I could count this month.
5-24-2008 - "Red-Iculous"
B.J. and his two sons scheduled a charter with me early in the week and they really wanted to do some tarpon fishing in St. Petersburg. We met at the dock at 7am and headed out to pick up some bait and then swing by the Skyway Bridge for some tarpon fishing. Things didn't turn out as we planned but the result of our changed plans was what I have decided to call, "red-iculous".
The original plan, as mentioned earlier, was for tarpon. The torrential down pours, high winds and threat of lightning shut us down on our first attempt of the week. We tried, through one quagmire, to fish for the "poons" by the bridge on the first day but the threat of a much larger storm forced us off of the water by 10am. Not wanting to give up, B.J. said they could come back later in the week, and I did have one other day open, so we reconvened two days later for another shot.
On the second go around I asked if they would be game for going after redfish for the first part of the day and tarpon the second. The redfish bite the day before had been awesome and I figured we could get some catching in before we tried for a silver king. They said , "let's do it".
So after catching bait, we headed for a spot where the bronze bombers had cooperated all week. When we first got there I told them they we may not hit real pay dirt for a couple of hours because the tide wouldn't really be right until about 11am. The bite did turn out to be slow for the first part of the morning but we did manage about 6 redfish before all heck broke loose. Just when I was about to give up I made one more toss of chum into the water and that's when the water erupted with all too familiar sounds of redfish crushing wounded sardines on the surface of the still water.
The frenzy was so intense that the natural bottom feeders were actually coming completely out of the water to annihilate the intentionally wounded baitfish that I had thrown out in large quantities. Once we sent out the same baitfish armed with hooks the bite was on; and oh was it on. We had at least one fish on for every minute of almost an hour and a half and we had more double hook ups than I could count and several triple hookups to boot.
The bite finally slowed to slightly under a break neck pace and we decided to try for tarpon. The boys had their fill of bronze and wanted to upgrade to silver. We headed over to the bridge to get some threadfins for bait and while catching them we saw a few tarpon crushing baits so we stayed right there and tried for an hour. Unfortunately, even though we saw several more tarpon, we just couldn't get a bite. Then we headed out to Egmont and once again the tarpon showed themselves to us but they just wouldn't take a bait with a hook in it.
The full moon may have had something to do with out lack of silver but thankfully we locked up a solid bronze finish for a charter that looked to be doomed by weather. It turned out that their perseverance and patience was what it took to have a "red-iculous" day.
5-20-2008 - If a Picture is Worth 1000 Words...
May is just one of those months. Whether we're running fishing charters in Tarpon Springs, Clearwater or St. Petersburg, you really can just about catch anything this time of year. This past week we caught redfish, snook, trout, sharks, tarpon, grouper, snapper... and the list goes on.
The way I see it, I can tell you what we did this week or I can let you see what we did this past week. I'm going to go with the latter option for the most part.
Bait has been abundant on the flats and around the bridges and we've been loading up on it to insure we have plenty of bait to make it through the day. We use a lot of it to chum with to get the bite going well and then the rest of it gets eaten when we throw it out there on a hook. The snook, trout and redfish bite has been really good in Tarpon Springs. The grouper bite has been good in Tampa Bay, and the Tarpon are all over St. Pete right now. So as for what type of fishing we'll be doing next, well, you can just about pick your poison.
5-8-2008 - Silver in thne Shade
I've got some upcoming tarpon fishing charters in St. Petersburg and I've been so busy catching redfish, snook and trout in Tarpon Springs that I haven't had a chance to try for tarpon yet. So, yesterday I had a rare day off and I called my good friend Jody to see if he wanted to go tarpon fishing. He said he was game.
I haven't been tarpon fishing since last year and I needed a good day or two under my belt before I was going to be running tarpon charters. So Jody and I met at Maximo park and headed out to catch bait. It wasn't long before we saw birds working the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and we pulled over to take a look. There was bait everywhere and it was just the type of bait we were looking for. The pelicans were gorging themselves on large threadfin herring. Jody grabbed the net and said that he'd make the first throw. That 1st throw would be all we needed as he hauled in 25lbs of bait. So after a total of five minutes of bait hunting we were headed off to chase after bigger game. Tampa Bay's very own precious "silver". Tarpon.
We set up on the South side of the main span of the Skyway on the last of the incoming tide but we weren't seeing any tarpon rolling. We kept ourselves busy catching grouper and mangrove snapper and we decided to headed to the North end of the main span for the tide change.
When we set up shop on the North end of the bridge the tide began to turn. It looked like a the water came to life. I've never seen so much bait flipping on the surface in my life and we both noticed that it was staying in the shadow of the bridge. Shortly after the bait showed up we saw the first tarpon crash the surface eating the bait. 10 second after that my drag started to scream. Tarpon on! All heck broke loose as Jody tried to throw off the anchor and start the motor. All the while 200 yards of line was leaving my reel at a break neck pace. We finally freed ourselves of the anchor and the chase was on. Luckily the beast headed towards Tampa and left the sharp barnacles of the bridge behind. After a 15 minute fight the fish was brought boat side and and the first tarpon of the year was photographed on my boat.
We managed a few more hookups but these fish were smarter and ran us off on pilings. We followed the fish by staying in the shadow of the bridge. That's where the bait stayed and with it the tarpon. It wasn't a banner tarpon day but they are there and it was great to break the seal on another tarpon season.
5-4-2008 - Almost Perfect
I'll tell you what... It was almost a perfect week. We absolutely hammered fish here in Tarpon Springs this week. We had inshore slams on 3 fishing charters and we even had a 100+ fish day on another. With the exception of one day, when dolphins and other boats ruined the party for us, it was down right laughable how many fish we caught.
Early in the week we managed 20-30 reds and trout a day on live greenbacks fished under bobbers. Those charters also managed to get a few bonnet head sharks even though their "all knowing captain" told them that they wouldn't eat live bait. Snook took a little bit of a break this week due to a mild cold front that dropped water temps by 7 degrees.
Then after the first two charters, the flood gates opened. It doesn't always come together like it did this week but when it does it really is fun. Mark from Ohio was in town for a business convention and he needed some time on the water to just relax and get away from work. So he hired me for two days of fishing to take a vacation from the phone and email. I don't know if he got to relax much but on the first day he only caught about 20 redfish so I guess he had a little time to collect his thoughts between bites and to chill out a little. On day two with Mark, David A. Brown, a well known outdoor/photographer asked to catch a ride with us to get some pictures for a few articles he has coming up. Mark was very kind to allow David to ride along. We must have found some really vain fish because they were jumping at the chance to have their photo taken. We must have boated 75 fish with a good mix of them being redfish and trout.
Then yesterday we had the best trip of the year (as far as numbers go). Kevin and his son Mark wanted to try their hand at inshore fishing and we hit things just right. They were happy participants of my first 100 fish day of the year. It was pretty much an equal mixture of redfish and trout. The reds were lower to mid slot sized but the Trout were all jumbos. 20-24" were the average sizes of these snaglge toothed beasts.
Then today was the slow day of the week. Thomas and Thomas caught 5 redfish, 1 trrout, 2 ladyfish, and one mackerel. The spot that had been so productive the day before had been bombarded by boats and dolphins and the fish just wouldn't cooperate after such disturbances.
Overall it was probably the best week of the year. Bait is on the beach, fish are chewing, and the weather is nothing short of awesome. If you've been thinking about a fishing charter do it now before the weather gets to hot. The fish are biting and the tides are good. See you soon!
Phone: 813.300.2147
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com
Email: GoFishing@CaptainClay.com