The past 2 weeks have been absolutely off the hook as far as fishing goes. The Snook have been absolutely chewing the bottom out of the boat along with everything else. Redfish from 20 to 35 inches are just about everywhere from Hudson to Tampa Bay and the Speckled trout fishing has been the best it has been in 10 years. We are averaging around 50 trout per trip and only fishing for them while we wait on the tide to get right for the Snook and Redfish.
Fishing New Port Richey
I have fished out of the Cottee river the past 4 days and with the bait getting easier and easier so has the fishing. The predator fish are starting to move out of the back-country and are looking for food. When ever you put the silver crickets in front of them they do not hesitate to devour them. I was fortunate enough to find a couple good holding areas for trout this past week and we absolutely wore them out, I had four young women on the boat on Saturday that could not catch them fast enough. We actually surrendered the spot to a buddy of mine so we could go on in quest of Redfish and Snook, we had caught over 45 when we quit counting, that was just a half hour into the trip. The Snook and redfish have been doing very well on the high incoming tide and the start on the outgoing, just about any shoreline that has a little depth and some kind of hard bottom is holding fish right now! Alot of the areas to the south of the Anclote river have been loaded with fish more so than to the north, these areas are pretty well know for fish and when it gets good it is really good.
Fishing Tampa Bay
I was also able to fish Tampa Bay a few time the past few weeks also, the redfish bite in the bay has been very good. I had the honor to fish 3 retired servicemen that had serverd there time overseas. We were able to track down a large shcool of redfish and get them to eat our offerings . The fish are running in large schools and when you find there “happy” place you can just burn them down. We had a couple days where we sat in one spot for almost 3 hours pulling on redfish the whole time, out of the 30 or 40 we caught I think we had 2 fish that were inside the slot. The one thing that you have to make sure of if your going to do this is to pack your live-well with bait, the redfish have required alot of stimulation to make them want to eat. The Trout bite has been very good in the bay also, several days we caught more trout than we could count and Spanish Mackerel right in with them. The only down side to the bay is the Snook fishing has not yet taken off like it has to the north, I think they just haven’t made to the outer part of the bay yet. This should change with a little more warm weather and the constant influx of bait that is showing up.
As I said in my last report if you have not gotten out there and done some fishing lately now is the time. It is almost like fishing in a barrle some days and the sprintime weather is making everyday on the water more beautiful that the last.
Capt. Greg
