The mild weather we've had (up until yesterday) has been great for the fishing. My clients, friends and I have been catching lots of nice fish. Target species has mainly been redfish, trout and flounder, but some snook have snuck into the mix especially on warmer post cold front days. I've been planning most of my trips specifically around the low and negative low tides and I've been launching every where from UTB to Ft. Desoto. Seems the fishing has been hot every where! Enjoy the pics... looking forward to seeing y'all at the next PFTS!
Most of October was spent catching big over slot schooling redfish. The first couple weeks of October was producing big numbers, some days upwards of 20 fish. These fish were caught the day of the ALDS game when the Rays played the Rangers at home. Found a school of fish that day that would not stop biting... we actually left them to leave for the game. I had just bought the hat in the pics the day before, and this was its first fishing trip. Thinking I had scored big with a new lucky hat, I thought the Rays had it in the bag... but it wasn't to be. Thankfully the redfish hung around long enough to quell the pains of witnessing two loses in a row at home.
Over Thanksgiving break my girlfriend was home from school and I had a chance to get her out in the kayaks. The night before we saw John Fogerty live at Ribfest (awesome!) so we got a late start and the tide was already pretty high. Not to be out done we still found the fish and ended up catching about 20 of them. Mostly cookie cutters but she got her first, and largest redfish to date at 23"!
Warmer weather and passing fronts have had the snook fired up... haven't really been targeting them, but the warmer temps have kept them out on the flats and ready to eat!
On this day, Trent and I caught over 50 fish. I caught mine on the Lil John by MirrOlure and he caught his on a dart by Exude. At the end of the day when I had only used one soft plastic (all day!) and he had used an entire pack of darts, I had him converted to the Lil John!
I got out with Brad from GAFF magazine to do an article about low tide kayak fishing. We had a banner day catching some 60+ fish, mostly trout but great quality fish - biggest fish were in the mid 20" range. We also caught redfish with a few over slots and 7 flounder. The article should be in the January edition, check it out!
Got my buddy Jordan out who was back in town to check out some low tide spots. First spot was getting over run by mullet boats so we decided to relocate. As soon as we got to the area I wanted to fish I spotted a group of fish near some pot holes and hooked up instantly. We stuck about a dozen fish before heading in for lunch at Ted Peters!
I'm working at Osprey Bay Outdoors in Clearwater now and am really enjoying it. I was finally able to get Sean who I work with out for a day in UTB. We found fish everywhere and the sight fishing was outstanding. Here's a 30" fish I sight cast to with a CAL shad tail.
Christmas eve I fished with fellow board member MikeT and we had a great day catching trout, flounder and tailing redfish. Had one of my best days in recent memory on tailing fish catching 5 and losing 1 to a broken knot. The fish were very aggressive in the fog!
Mike had to be in so I called up my buddy Sam to come get on 'em with me. I picked him up, we stopped and ate lunch and relaunch a few hours later. I had to do a little searching but I found my school of fish still happy and tailing! We caught a few more each before finally calling it a great day.
The day of New Years eve Trent and I got out and caught some hefty trout with slot reds mixed in. In a few hours we caught 5 trout between 21-24" with several more mixed in and about a dozen reds. Lots of shorts but some nice ones mixed in. The next day, New Years day I took my girlfriend back out to the same area and we really got on 'em. We caught around 10 trout over 20" with the biggest being 26" (my second in three days). She got a few with her biggest being 24"!
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, thanks for reading and sorry for the long post. See y'all in 2012!
PS - Check out this months feature article in Onshore Offshore for an article by me and a cover picture by fellow forum member Jose Chavez!
