June 14, 2009

The weather had been what I call, a little squirrelly but now has smoothed out.  A light east wind in the morning will make it a lot easier to spot the tarpon schools running the beaches.

This has been an excellent year on the bay for gray snapper.  The average size is about 14” and a few have been up to 16 and 18 inches.  They like to hang out around docks, rocks and bridge fenders.  I have found the New Pass Bridge very productive for the larger snappers.  They move around in schools close to the bottom and love live shrimp drifted past them.  If you hook one, you should get more in the same spot however, they will move around.  I like to let my bait drift past the spot with only a quarter ounce split shot attached just above the hook.  I fish my line loose so that it will drop.  Then I watch the line closely for any subtle pickup.  You could get a snag but my motto is, “Treat all snags like fish and you lose nothing.  Treat a fish like snag and you could loose a good fish.”

We are also getting Spanish mackerel, large jacks and occasional tarpon around the bridge.  Snook and redfish can be found around some of the docks this time of year.  Snook are also being caught in the surf and are best at first and last light.

Most of the grass-flats around the bay are producing some nice seatrout and it is not hard to get a mixed bag of fish.  We have also caught pompano, flounder, mackerel, bluefish and many more different kinds of fish on the grass-flats.  I like to use the 3” DOA shrimp with a popping float or on a free line.  Work this lure slow if at all.  Sometime just a few pops of the line is all it takes.  The fish actually eat this lure, so give them time.  They very seldom drop it and run away, maybe when a bigger fish is looking at them.

Enjoy & Protect

May 25, 2009

The tarpon run is on and the fishermen were out in droves.  Before all the rain, most of the action for tarpon had been north of us near Tampa.  Now the water is very cloudy on the bay from all the runoff.  This should pass soon and we will be back to normal and our good spring fishing.

Drifting the grass flats around the bay on Sunday, we found some nice trout but it was hard and the pinfish had no trouble finding us.  The big ten pound jacks accompanied by some Spanish mackerel have taken up residence under the New Pass Bridge.  Drifting along the center pilings with weighted live bait will get you in to some great light tackle action.  A ¼ oz. split shot should do the job.  There was too much boat traffic Sunday for me to take advantage of that.

This is our best time for catching a large variety of fish both offshore and inshore.  Little tunny and Spanish mackerel have been caught just off the beach.  It is also the time you could hook-up with a Sailfish in fifty feet of water off shore or find a school of small dolphin in the same area.  I won’t go down the long list of possible fish you could catch, but it is a good time to go fishing and a mixed bag of good fish is not uncommon during April, May, and June.

Enjoy & Protect

April 14, 2009

The spring run is on and it doesn’t get much better than this!  Yesterday with the wind gusting over twenty it was necessary to anchor the boat so that we could fish the middle ground grass flats. We caught a mixed bag with plenty of nice fish coming in the boat all day long. With Spanish mackerel up to 5 pounds, spotted sea trout to 4 pounds, pompano to almost 4 pounds, most of the fish we caught were keeper size.  As far as I could see, the other boats anchored on the flats were also catching fish.  It is not often that I anchor on the grass flats, but if the wind is howling and the fish are there, you need to.  Look for a dark patch of grass and anchor so that you can cast to it.  We found that a free-line with a large live shrimp worked best for us.

We were fishing the flats close to the south end of Zwicks channel, so when the SW wind started to really hammer us in the afternoon, we moved to the channel to get a break from the wind.  I anchored in the choke of the channel close to the south end.  I added a small split shot to the free-line so that the shrimp would sink to the bottom.  We soon hooked up to a couple of nice redfish, a little over slot size but a lot of fun on light tackle.  We took pictures of the first one but the second one broke the leader.  We also found some trout in Zwicks.

In all, we caught a large variety of fish, just too numerous to mention all of them but they all added to our fun.

Enjoy & Protect

March 1, 2009

Last week the fishing progressed slowly and was dominated by sheepshead.  By Thursday we started to get some nice Spanish mackerel, pompano and seatrout.  The sheepsheads have been best in the passes and up close to the rocks.  They feed mostly on shrimp, shellfish, crabs and sea worms.  They are not considered a sport fish but can get over ten pounds and give a good fight on light tackle.  Some consider them very good to eat, but not everybody likes them.

I spent a lot of time fishing the grass-flats and Harts artificial reef.  Using live shrimp and DOA 3” artificial shrimp, we started to find some keeper sea trout but we had to put up with a lot pinfish on the live bait.  The DOA worked much better.

I found the largest variety of fish on Harts reef. There were plenty of short gag and red grouper to bend your rod.  We also caught Spanish mackerel, pompano, snapper, black seabass and sheepshead.

The offshore boats are still catching plenty of snapper on Jigs and shrimp.

The water temperature is rising so the fishing will get better as the temperature rises.

Enjoy & Protect

January 31, 2009

We had to move around a lot to find fish this past week but some nice fish were caught by most anglers.  I have been using live shrimp and DOA artificial shrimp. I had to keep moving until I found a few fish and moved on when they quit.  From the passes, I moved to the grass-flats and then on to the deeper channels, artificial reefs, docks and so-on.

 Mr. & Mrs. Miller from Minnesota caught there first Spanish mackerel and Pompano on Monday.

If you are finding things a little slow and just want to get the rods bending, the one place I have found to have action are the rock piles on Harts reef.  They are loaded with small gag and red grouper.  They are not much more than a pound or two but are a lot more fun than just feeding pinfish.  Although the grouper are very aggressive, we do occasionally catch a nice keeper fish.  Trout, pompano, sheepshead, black seabass, flounder and most of the fish that live in the bay come to the reef.

When fishing the reef and if you anchor, get close or over the rock piles.  If you are using bait on the bottom, don’t cast or you will get snagged in the rocks.  Just let your line drop over the side of the boat and fish just above the bottom.  A split shot works good here.  You can also cast a free-line out or cast artificial.  Just don’t try to drag the bottom with them.

Enjoy & Protect

January 21, 2009

Hold on to them Ladyfish!  That seems to be the only action since the temperature drop, but it will pass.  The fish will acclimate and if the temperature stays low, they will move to deeper water and start to feed.

When the water gets cold, only the snook may leave and go up the rivers.  Most of the other fish stay in the area throughout the winter, regardless of change.  The weather will turn them on and off.

We expect to find trout, pompano, bluefish, redfish, flounder, mackerel, sheepshead, snapper, grouper and many more species throughout the winter months.

One of our favorite fish is the Pompano and they had been cooperative before the bad weather.  Pompano feed on sandy bottom, from the Gulf beaches to the grass flats and channels around the bay. They can also get very hot in the passes.  When we fish the passes, we drift and bounce a pompano jig on the bottom.  I like to tip the jigs with a very small peace of shrimp.  I make a short cast, leaving the bail open and letting the jig free-fall until it hits the bottom and then close the bail.  Without reeling in line, I give the jig a short hard snap up and let it free-fall back to the bottom.  This will send up a small puff of sand, simulating a crab digging in.  If you are doing it right, you will soon see the paint disappear from the jig, but the tail will hold some color.  I like yellow or chartreuse best.

Live shrimp with a large splitshot will also work; just let it drift along the bottom without snapping.

Pompanos favorite bait of all is live sand-fleas.  You seldom find live sand-fleas for sale, so you need to catch them yourself.  They live in the surf and you need a sand flea rake to catch them.  They will drown in a bucket of water but do well in about an inch of wet sand.  You need to catch them just before you go fishing.

Enjoy & Protect

January 6, 2009

Kingfish are being caught offshore!  That is not normal in January but they are scattered around and can be found.  Most of the action offshore has been Grey snapper on jigs tipped with shrimp.  Natural bottom in 40’ to 60’ has been best.  There are too many predator fish on the artificial reefs.  Goliath grouper love to wait until you hook the snapper so that they don’t have to run after them.  Keeper gags and red grouper are also being caught on live pinfish.

It has been spotty on the bay with spotted sea trout on the grass-flats. Pompano, snapper, bluefish, black seabass, sheepshead, ladyfish, and lots of short grouper are scattered all around the bay and passes.  We have found some slack times but most of the time we can keep the rods bent.  This is also the time that keeper size grouper start coming into the bay, so hold your rod tight.

Fresh caught live pinfish and grunts make excellent bait on the bay for the larger fish like grouper.  On the bay, I like to free-line my pinfish.  Pinfish normally dive to the bottom, but if you see him dancing on top, you know you’re on a good spot.

Enjoy & Protect