From the category archives:
Looking to plan your Tampa Bay area fishing charter around catching a certain species of fish? Need to know where to stay? Want to know when the best time of year to catch just about everything is? Check out my 2010 Tampa Bay area Fishing Charter Planning Guide. Just about everything you need to know is here!
UPDATE: The winner of the contest is the person that owns this email address… brendanbottin@gmail.com I’ll be sending you an email to let you know that you won. Thanks guys! Keep looking for more contests!
Capt. Tommy Derringer and one of his sponsors, Fishbites, are giving away an awesome package! 12 packages of Fishbites Xtreme Scent Release baits and a $25 BP gas card! Keep reading to learn how you can enter to win. Deadline to enter is Friday December 11th @ 11:59pm.
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1.) Twitter – Copy and paste the following (in italics) and “tweet” it on your Twitter account.
@ProAnglers – Win $75 Worth of FishBites Lures and a $25 BP Gas Card http://www.proanglersjournal.com
or…..
2.) Sign up for email updates. http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TheProAnglersJournal
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“I’ve been using these baits for over 2 years now and I can tell you that I like them better than the Gulps. They’re stronger and therefore last longer and won’t dry out as fast as some of the other scented baits on the market. I’ve caught a ton of fish just dead sticking these baits as well. Another great thing about the Fishbites is that they don’t stink (smell bad) like the competition. You don’t have to be afraid of these spilling in you car or boat and leaving a God awful smell around. Fish don’t smell like we do anyways and anything that we smell is just there to sell more product in my opinion. I had the chance to use these baits with great success all over the southeast this year while competing on the ESPN Redfish Cup. Redfish from Texas all the way to the Florida Keys don’t stand a chance with the Fishbites Xtreme baits.”
We want to see your best kayak fishing action shots. Our very own field staff member and professional kayak fishing guide, Cory Routh, is offering up a bounty for the best shots you got. Get the details and enter to win here! http://www.proanglersjournal.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=81
Last week, I got an opportunity to get on the water by myself. I started heading north, on the east side of the bay, from 10th st. boat ramp, checking several spots that should be holding redfish this time of year. We had an incoming tide all morning and the fish were holding in breaks in the bar, leading to a shallow flat, where they were anticipating lunch. I saw plenty of fish but no takers.
The next place I decided to check out was Long Bar. After about 5 min. it was obvious this was gonna be a productive afternoon. The redfish were very aggressive and chasing the new ”Spoon Tang” from Slayer inc. all the way to the boat. I had an awesome afternoon, Sarasota is on fire right now! I’ve been hearing reports of 30 fish days, just about anywhere you go. I just hope the front that is coming in this week does not mess up the fishing. We have some good negative tides coming up the first week of Dec. so get on the water and have some fun!
I walked in the door and laid my rods in the corner and my wife asked, “How was the fishing?” “It was terrible” I said. Then she asked, “But why? It was so beautiful today!” “Exactly!” I exclaimed. That was the problem. It was too beautiful. No wind and high and bright “blue bird” skies.
Well lets think about this. Fish are prey for many different predators and many of these predators rely on sight to find their prey. Ospreys, eagles, FISHERMEN… When there’s no cloud cover and no ripple on the water it makes the predator’s job of finding their prey very easy. Fish know what’s up and they feel exposed on these days. They get real skittish and wary. Even the most perfect of presentations have the potential to be shunned by fish on “beautiful” days like these.
That’s not what I’m saying. Any chance you get to fish is a chance you should take. Fishing isn’t all about catching you know. There are several upsides to “beautiful” days. You won’t be getting wet in a chop on the water, it just feels good to be out there and even if you can’t entice a bite, you can learn about where they are hanging out because you’ll be able to spot the fish easily. Then, next time you’re out fishing and the conditions are right, you’ll know where to find the fish.
You might have to make some strategic adjustments. Keeping in mind that once the sun gets high, the fish are going to be on high alert, here are some things you can do to increase your odd of success.
This is a beautiful day for fishing. We caught over 60 redfish this day.
If you had to know what my favorite weather is for fishing it would be this. Overcast skies with a very slight chop on the water. Air temps would be in the upper 70’s to low 80’s and there would be a chance of rain. Combine that weather with a good tide and it just seems like the fish go off.
But we can’t make the weather be a certain way so a “real” beautiful day to fish to me is any day I get up and my wife and kids are healthy, my family still loves me and God still puts the love of fishing in my heart. The weather is what it is. Enjoy every day you get a chance to fish and if you get out there and it’s a “beautiful” day, use some of the tips in this article and you’ll really have a beautiful day.
Well folks it is Trout Time and I love it! With cooler water temps and a little lighter winds fishing has been pretty good this last week and the start of this one. We did gat a lot of rain but, the water is in good shape for the most part. We are really starting to see some very nice Speckled trout around the area. We caught a 7.2, 5.5 and a half dozen over four pounds this week so far. It was nice to see the 7.2 in the net; the biggest trout I’ve seen in my boat this year. Let’s talk about how we have caught some of these nice trout lately in this weeks fishing report.
Grays and Specks are feeding well around in creeks, channels and inlets. The grays are hitting grubs and jigging spoons. Saltwater Assassin grubs in colors Chart-diamond glitter and Salt-pepper with chart-tail have worked well for the grays. The specks are hitting chicken on a chain, 10w-40 with chart tail and Salt & pepper with chart tail. The body shape that has worked for us is the sea shad in four inch size. In the last few trips we have got a few nice specks off Saltwater Assassin Blurp in shrimp pattern. The colors in blurp that are working are molting, good penny and rootbeer. We are using jig heads in colors pink and red; in weights 3/8oz and ½ oz for the grays and 1/8oz and 1/4oz for the specks. Colors for the jigging spoons that have worked well for the grays are Pink, Green/blue, and gold.
My charters have caught specks on a wide range of “hard” lures this season; some new and some good ole’ timer’s. Mirrolures that are working well for us are the Catch 2000 Jr, 52M and the 17MR. The best Mirrolure colors that are catching the trout are; pink, white on white, chartreuse and silver. Rapala’s X-rap in colors glass ghost and pink have all so been a hit this season. And of course don’t forget those live shrimp; they really do catch the trout! I rig all live bait, grubs and hard lures with fourteen to eighteen inch’s of twenty pound fluorocarbon. Trout have good eye sight and with the mostly clear water around this area, this seems to help us get more bites out of the trout. I really like Stren’s new tinted fluorocarbon leaders, we use gunsmoke tint for clear water apps.
We have caught some nice Flounder while Flounder fishing and also caught some while trying to catch trout lately. The Flounder are running about thirteen to twenty inch’s with a few bigger ones as well. The Flounder are hitting grubs in colors morning glory, chicken on a chain and molting in the blurp grub. When we are just targeting Flounder we are using live bait on Carolina rigs. Finger mullet and mud minnows are doing the trick for those flat fish. Most of the Flounder we are catching are in the creeks and around the inlets.
The red and black drum are showing around the area too. We’ve seen reds and blacks in the waterway (ICW) around docks and oyster rocks. There have been a few reds and blacks around the jetties as well lately. These drum are hitting scented grubs and live bait on the bottom. This week we caught a few black drum over seven pounds around the inlets on blurp grubs.
The trout fishing will only get better; we had lots of fish over four pounds last year. It looks like its going to be another great trout season, I believe that some body will catch a Speckled trout over ten pounds in the Wrightsville beach area this season! Let’s go Trout fishing>>>!
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Fire line crystal braid in 10 and 20#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S “Best Trout rod I ever have fished”
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats and
Pure Fishing Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
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