With a favorable forecast from our weatherman it looked as if this weeks charters were in for some good fishing. We started on Saturday morning, the 26th of January with ice on the boat. The sun was out but it did not stay out long, the forecast was for temperatures to reach the mid 70’s, that was a joke, as a cloud deck moved in about 11am the temperature fell and so did the fishing, we were able to catch about 10 or so Trout before mother nature shut us down. Monday and Tuesday were much better days as the sun shined brightly and started to warm the water we had been fishing from the low 50’s to around 57. A long time client Kevin met me at the ramp and we were off, we started at Anclote Island off of Tarpon Springs, here we caught several Trout to about 23 inches. When they were done with those we went and tried to get the Reds to eat, we saw several good schools but could not get very many to cooperate. Tuesdays charter was a new client and we decided to use artificals and try to get the Reds from the day before to feed. We fished out of the Ranger Banshee so we could be as quiet as possible. Most of the fish have been of the New Port Richey coast so we did not have to go far to find them. As soon as we arrived we saw the first school moving on some shallow rocks, we were throwing Exude darts rigged weed less and like the day before the fish did not seem very interested in our offerings. However this day was a little different as the tide came in the water started to warm up and the fish began to feed a little. We were able to boat around 12 nice slot Reds before the tide and the bite ended. I have a couple days off to get ready for a full week of charters next week in Charlotte Harbor out of the Airboat, hopefully we are closing in on spring and some of the best fishing of the year.
