Tampa Fishing Charter Reports

I snuck out yesterday by myself to get some fishing in for a few hours. I don't get to actually fish by myself a whole lot these days so it was a welcomed, relaxing, trip. My passion is fishing with artificial lures for redfish so that was the plan for the day. However, after I went through about a half dozen Gulp shrimp (because of the ferocious pinfish), I decided to switch to using pinfish for bait. I did get two redfish on the Gulps but the pinfish were just costing me money with every bait they shredded. So I took a small gold hook, cut up some Gulp shrimp into tiny pieces, and caught a half dozen pinfish. Two of the pinfish I caught were small so I used them live and cut the larger ones up into smaller chunks and used them as dead bait. The two live pinfish didn't last long while fished next to the mangroves while the tide was high. Each one produced a frisky 20-22" redfish. While I prefer a rising tide for redfish, today the tide was falling and as it dropped I fished off of the shoreline near and area that had scattered limestone rocks on the flat. The fish in this area really seem to like hanging around these rocks. I started cutting up the larger pinfish and the redfish really liked the easy meal. I ended up getting 8 reds between 18"-25". Granted they weren't big fish, but for only having a few hours, I was satisfied with the day.

No pictures today because of not having anyone with me to take them. But you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the pictures of the fish half as much as you have enjoyed seeing pictures of me jumping into the water to chase a brand new rod and real that I let jump out of the boat. The real highlight of the day was when I committed a cardinal sin by laying the rod down on the deck while I turned around to grab a drink out of the cooler. I heard noise and turned around just in time to see my rod jump off the deck into the water. I think I could have won America's Funniest Home Videos if someone had caught me on film leaping into the water, snagging my rod, and hopping back in the boat in less than 5 seconds. All I could think about when I got back in the boat was how often I had asked clients not to ever lay their rod down unattended. I guess the moral of the story is, "Do as I say, not as I do."

September 2007

9-30-2007

A friend of mine, and fellow captain, called me last night and asked me if I had a charter today. When I told him that I didn't, he asked if I would be interested in taking my little boat (Ranger 169 Ghost) out on the negative low tide this morning and check out some water in New Port Richey that he and I had never fished before. We've both been fishing here for years and we'd always discussed this area but neither of us had actually taken the time out to fish it and see what was there. It's out of the way, super shallow, and full of boat damaging rocks. But, it was a challenge and I was up for it.

We started the day by getting as shallow as we possibly could, which still left us 1/4 mile off of the shoreline, and worked South with the wind. Oh yeah, did I mention the wind was blowing a solid 20knts with stronger gusts? It didn't make for ideal sight fishing opportunities but being able to fish with another angler that has as much or more experience as me was worth it to me. Sharing ideas, tips, and techniques is always welcome in my book. Capt. James was throwing a Gulp Shrimp on a Mustad weedless hook and I was throwing a gold spoon. On Capt. James' third cast he hooks up with a lower slot redfish. Game on! I thought we were gonna' slay them in an area that neither of us knew much about. Man was I wrong. I finally switched to a Gulp Shrimp as well and did manage a few hookups but lost all the fish that couldn't resist the tasty imitation shrimp. Later in the day and 6 miles of shoreline later, Capt. James hooks up one more time with a decent redfish. That would be the total for the day. Not what we really wanted but it did help us eliminate some water that we will know NOT to check out in the near future with paying clients on board. Believe it or not, that in itself was worth the trip. It's just as important to me to know where not to go as it is to know where to go. That helps make for more successful fishing charters for both you and I.

9-28-2007

I think we caught every kind of fish on the flats today. Well just about. Let me give you the run down on what my fishing charter out of Tarpon Springs caught today. Today’s catch included 7 redfish, 10 trout, 1 shark, 1 bluefish, several baby grouper, 3 jacks, some ladyfish, and we saw a school of redfish (over 100 of them) that all appeared to weigh over 30lbs. They would not eat for some reason however. Add to the mix that we caught pinfish using greenbacks, blue runners, and a catfish. I think we just needed a lizard fish, blowfish, and a tarpon to round out the Complete West Coast Species Slam-O-Rama. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. We fished barrier Islands in Pasco and Pinellas counties in 1-3 feet of water using primarily live greenbacks (pilchards, scaled sardines...ect.) under a cork. We did try some topwater pugs to no avail early in the morning. Only grabbed one picture (after the boat was already loaded on the trailer) as we couldn't find time to break out the camera because all we had time to do today was re-bait hooks, catch fish, rinse, and repeat.

Sep. 16th 2007

Wow. That's all I can say about the last 7-10 days. The fishing has had so many ups and downs right now it's been hard to know what to expect on any given day. Recent trips with live pilchards have produced mid to lower slot redfish (with a few over slot fish thrown in) around oyster bars located near creak mouths in Pasco county. But just when you think you've got them figured out, you take an excited charter group to the hot spot and the fish don't cooperate. That's when we've had to switch to plan "b". Using both love bait and artificials we've been able to stay pretty consistent fishing 6-8' flats near the barrier islands. Both Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Exude RT Slugs fished on 1/8th oz. Mission Fishin' jog heads have been quite successful for trout in the lower to mid slot range. Snook have made appearances on the beach but not consistently. If you spend enough time hunting both the outside and inside of the barrier islands in Pasco and Pinellas counties you should be able to find them. patience will pay off with this game. Use live pinfish, live pigfish, pilchards, and D.O.A. Baitbusters in a pearl color for best chances at these linesiders.

August 2007

Summary:

August saw, dare I say, a plethora of fish caught. Everything from Tarpon to Mangrove snapper. Everything from redfish to snook. We even caught some keeper gags, lane snapper, and spanish mackerel this past August. However, once the sun came up and the heat started beating down on us, Tarpon and Snapper stole the show. Mid day saw rising temperatures on the flats and although redfish and snook were easy to find getting them to eat was a different story. That's where targeting snapper and tarpon came in. Multiple tarpon hookups combined with limits of mangrove snapper made for some great fishing charters in Tampa Bay. It was even better if the cooler mornings, combined with good tides, produced good numbers of reds and snook. Most redfish, snook, and snapper were taken on live greenbacks while the tarpon favored small pinfish.

July 2007

Summary:

Beaches, beaches, beaches... that's all you need to know. Big breeder snook, sandy white redfish, and straggler cobia made for great fishing. Throw in a spare tarpon and you've got a great month. Snook were the main focus though as sight fishing opportunities were plentiful on some of Florida's most beautiful beaches. Although I would consider this July one of the worst months I can remember for catching greenbacks for bait, pinfish, pigfish, and key west grunts filled the live well just fine. Snook took pigfish readily over any bait we presented and we had catches of over 20 fish per day and the largest of which measured 37" this past July.

June 2007

Summary:

For some reason the white bait (pilchards, greenbacks...ect.) never showed up consistently. Luckily, we have no shortage of pinfish and I heavily relied on them for some great redfish bites. Live or cut pinfish produced some 20+ redfish days. Most were caught focusing around oyster bars or rock piles on expansive flats that had deep water nearby. The snook were starting to move out on the beaches and sight fishing opportunities were successful as long as the wind laid down. We started to see a comeback of some 20"+ trout this month and this was the first time we'd been catching many since the bad red tide a few years ago.

This Could be YOU!

Bobby from Georgia with a nice redfish caught on a recent Tarpon Springs fishing charter with Capt. Clay.

Jody from Lakeland, Fl with a nice snook he caught on a recent Clearwater fishing charter with Capt. Clay.

Nick from Texas with a nice beach snook that he caught on a Tampa

fishing charter with Capt. Clay recently.

Travis from Georgia with a healthy redfish caught on a recent Tarpon Springs fishing charter with Capt. Clay.

Sam with a nice snook he caught on a recent Clearwater fishing charter with Capt. Clay.

Scouting for Tomorrow's V.I.P. Client

It was all so cool.

Fish are harder to keep on the hook when it's windy.

The Glass Half Full