I love fishing for redfish. They are tough fighters and quite often willing participants in our fishing adventures. However, summertime can be very frustrating when targeting them here on the Suncoast. They seem to vanish at the drop of a hat and when you do have a good bead on their location they often seem disinterested in our offerings. So, many times during the summer we’ll go “catching” instead of “fishing” on my charters; as long as my clients are so inclined. We’ll go after mackerel, trout, snapper, grouper and the like first and then after we’ve caught tons of those we’ll go try to get some redfish. Many times the redfish thing doesn’t work out because not only are they tough to get in the heat of summer but we’ll have spent the best part of the tide chasing after other fish.

Today was different. I could feel a light nip in the air as if Fall was giving us a preview of the weather to come soon. So I decided we’d go after reds first and only try to go “catching” if the redfish didn’t pan out. So, we left the dock at about 6:45 A.M. to go get bait. I had a couple of my regular clients on the boat, Ben and Phil and they were excited when I told them it was time to start going after reds again. Bait wasn’t as easy as it has been but it wasn’t to hard to get either and by 7:30am we headed off on our hunt for reds in September.

The tide was an hour into ripping out already and you could practically watch the water level dropping as the 15knt NE wind helped it leave. The first spot we tried is pretty shallow at high tide so when I got there and assessed the situation, I opted for leaving after 5 minutes instead of being stuck for 5 hours. So we headed South a few miles and hit a spot that has always produced well for me in the fall. I immediately started feeling good about the spot when I could see hundreds of mullet jumping from 500 yards away. This spot usually rocks when the tide is leaving and the mullet are home.

We slowly trolled towards the mullet schools and it wasn’t long before I started seeing reds mixed in. We anchored up, threw out some chummers and a few minutes later I heard the first sound of a redfish crushing a sardine. Game on! Baits hit the water and shortly after, lines were singing. We didn’t kill the fish today because the leaving tide chased us off the flat but we did get some great redfish and Ben and Phil were ready for them.  They’ve had their fill of snapper, mackerel and tout from their last 3 summer charters and they were all smiles with the 6-9lb reds we got on today.

Fall is coming. You can feel it in the air. All those fish that have been turning their noses up at you during the heat of summer are about to go on the hunt and it’s your time to hammer them. Start looking for them in the shallows now. They are there. Look for mullet schools and work them slowly. Topwater plugs like the Top Dog by Mirr-O-Lure will produce early in the morning and then switch to weightless soft plastic stick baits later in the day. If you’re using natural baits, sardines are still king. They aggressively hit the freebies I threw out today so I know they’ll chase them down on your hook. Good luck and leave some out there for me!

How’s this for variety? This month, so far, we’ve caught redfish, snook, trout, spanish mackerel, blacktip sharks, lemon sharks, bonita, ladyfish, tarpon, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, ladyfish and cobia. Summer time really is the time to see how many species of fish you can get in one day. The waters are alive with hatch-ling baits and the fish know it’s dinner time.

We get into some redfish, snook and trout at times but the real show is in open water where the speed demons of the bay like bonito, mackerel and sharks are crashing baits. Often times acres of whitewater can be seen in the distance as these fish are breaching the surface attacking the small baits in massive schools.

Getting on the water early is key right now. Not just for the fish but for the fishermen as well. It is rather warm out there by midday and afternoon storms are the norm here in teh Tampa Bay area of Florida. If you’re game for it, I’ll take you along with me to catch bait around sunrise and then we’re off to the fishing grounds.

The next couple of months are you best bet of the year for catching many types of fish. If you’re up for tarpon, they’re still around and active. You just need to pick days with good tides.

This story is too long and awesome to be able to even begin to tell it all, but I’ll do my best to give you as many details as possible.

25 years ago the Hill family and my family became fast friends. I grew up spending my summers with Josh, Travis, Mandy and Lindsy Hill (the Hill children). 13 years ago the New York Yankees drafted me and I moved to Tampa to play baseball. Tampa Bay just so happened to be the Hill family’s favorite place to vacation. When baseball didn’t work out, I chased after my second passion, fishing, and became a full time fishing guide. The Hill’s, who love the outdoors and camping, found out I was guiding and have chartered me every year from day one of my fishing career. Over the years we’ve caught redfish, snook, trout, snapper…. and this year we planned on fishing for the same fish. But then yesterday, I had a good day tarpon fishing but a slow day fishing for snook, redfish and trout. So I called the Hills last night and asked them if they would like to chase after BIG fish.

They said they were game. So… the full moon this week is producing a “hill tide” in the afternoons. A hill tide is when we have only one leaving tide in a day and it is a big one. I told them that there was no reason to go fishing until after 2pm because the tide wouldn’t start moving real well until late afternoon. The game plan was set.

I picked up Bobby (Lindsey’s husband), Travis (the youngest Hill son), Jeff (the dad) and a new guy named Landis (Mandy’s fiance… not sure of how to spell his name) a little after 2pm and stopped at a small bridge to pick up some threadfin herring to use as bait until the crabs would start showing up (due to the huge tide later in the afternoon). Once we had a 5 dozen (or so) threadfins, we headed off to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in search of tarpon.

We fished for an hour with nothing really going on and I kept telling them to be patient because when we start seeing the crabs floating by, the bite would turn on. A buddy of mine came by in his boat and he gave us some crabs he had caught the day before and we tied a few on. The first drift, with our precious gifts on the line, produced the first heart racing scream of the drag on Landis’s reel. Fish on! Landis didn’t know what he was getting himself into when he signed up for this trip and as the 115lb+ fish jumped and made long runs he was grinning from ear to ear. At least for a little while. He didn’t know the fight was going to last 30 minutes. 10 minutes into th efight he realized that this was going to take some work on his part to land the fish. Finally and about of gallon of sweat and a lot of muscle fatigue we had the first fish boatside for pics (coming soon from the Hill’s camera).

As we idled back to the bridge, we started seeing the crabs passing by. So we grabbed the net and scooped up 8 or so and threw them in the well. On teh very next drift through the bridge, I hear Jeff say, “Uh oh!” When I turn around I see his rod bowed over and I hear the drag screaming. The fish began jumping and making it’s way through and around a few pilings. Jeff fought the fish as it jumped around pilings and made a few long runs but he soon wore out due to recovering from sergery a few months earlier. So, he handed the rod off to his son travis who whipped the fish in about 20 minutes. Pics coming soon.

We hooked thre more fish over the next couple of hours and each time the rod was handed off to Bobby because he had yet to feel the power of a tarpon pulling on the line. Each time he took the rod the fish jumped and spit the hook. Eevrybody began ragging on his that he doing something wrong or that it just wasn’t meant to be for him to get one.

Bobby made up for it at the end of the day. Travis hooked a fish and handed it off to Bobby and this fish took him for a ride. 1 hour, 3 bridge pilings, 2 cargo ships and 2 miles later, bobby boated the biggest fish of the day. A solid 125lb+ silver king. We took a couple of pics, revived the fish and headed for the dock.

I’ve known Jeff and his family since I was 8 years old. Each and every time I take them fishing I urge them to not pay me but they always insist. The money is always appreciated and it truly is a blessing to me and my family but it isn’t worth anything compared to the words he shared with me at the end of the day as we idled the boat back up to the dock. He said,  “Clay, I think this just might be the most exciting and fun day of my entire life. I’ll remember this day as long as I live.”

It took a good bit of work to get our first tarpon of the year this year but we did it this past weekend. We put some long hours in and after seeing everyone around us hook up all afternoon, we decided that there was just some kind of funk on the boat. We hadn’t had a bite for four hours. We decided to stick it out until we got one and the decision paid off. Just as everyone else was leaving, we hooked up with out first fish. It was a large fish that we got one jump out of and she spit the hook. 10 minutes later we got our second hookup and this fish went nuts jumping all over the place. It took us around the boat before we could even unhook from the anchor and broke us off. The third fish came 10 minutes after the 2nd and it tail walked for about 50 yards before spitting the hook. The fourth bite came a few minutes later and jumped on the initial bite and spit the hook. It was getting a little frustrating that nothing was working out for us. I mean earlier in the day we couldn’t buy a bite and now we were getting bit every 10 minutes and we couldn’t keep a fish buttoned on. Just as we were talking about our luck that day, the line started screaming off of a reel. The rod was picked up and the fish jumped… and it stayed hooked up! We threw the anchor rope over the side of the boat and I went to crank the motor and the motor wouldn’t start!!! Dead battery! So now I’m thinking, “Wow, we just can’t catch a break”. So I dropped the trolling motor and we chased the fish with that instead of the outboard. We licked out and the fish stayed away from structure and after 3 more jumps and 25 minutes, we had our first tarpon of the season boat side.

Side note: I added a second cranking battery to the boat today so we won’t have anymore battery issues this summer.

There’s no denying it now. Spring weather is here and Spring fishing has followed suit. Redfish have been the main targets as they are huge schools in the St. Petersburg area. Hitting them on high water with live sardines has been the key. We’ve had to show patience when looking for them when the tide wasn’t right. They really have been hard to find or hard to get to eat when the tide has been low. But when the tide came up, it was a whole different ball game. They showed up in hude numbers and they brought their appetites with them.

Trout are still biting in good numbers if table fair is what you’re after. We’re seeing more of the smaller “summer” sized trout but getting some keepers for dinner isn’t hard if that’s what you’re after.

Snook are popping up everywhere right now as they are beggining their migration to the beach. Some fish are already on the beach but we haven’t targeted them there yet. We’re getting most of our shots at them in their transition spots like spoil islands and the flats.

Tarpon are showing up in the St. Petersburg area. We haven’t targeted them yet but we will starting next week.Spanish mackerel are all over the Sunshine Skyway and surrounding areas and they make great fun for kids and adults alike.  There is no shortage of fish right now and the weather can’t be beat. Let’s go fishing!

If you have been on a charter with me and you haven’t received the pictures I’ve taken of you, please let me know. I need your name, date of the charter, and any hint of what you were wearing or what kind of fish you’re holding. Please email me again, I know I’ve missed a few emails and I want to get your pictures to you.

THANKS!

Capt. Clay

It’s been a really windy spring thus far. It seems as though the wind just won’t quit. Windy days are usually bad fishing days and we’ve had to adapt to make sure that we succeed. Luckily for us, the fish haven’t been phased. We’ve been able to find fish in protected areas from the wind and on occasion, we’ve thumbed our nose at the wind and caught fish while battling the chop on the water.

Right now, redfish are schooled up big time in the St. Petersburg area. Finding them has not been hard at all. The hard part is finding fish that are willing to eat. To do that we’ve had to find fish in deeper water. The fish that are in less than two feet of water are skittish and just wont eat. That’s tough for us because they are the most visible fish. Some of these schools hold 500 or more fish in them. But you can waste a lot of time looking at them if you are disciplined enough to go after smaller groups of fish that are more comfortable in deeper water. Which is what we did last week. Clients were treated to days of over 30 over slot redfish by going after fish that we couldn’t see but we could get to eat.

Trout on the other hand have been biting well in really shallow water. The bigger fish have been in the New Port Richey area in less than two feet of water. To get the bite going well you need to chum them up a lot with free sardines. We’ve been getting trout from 18-25″ regularly.

Snook are starting to make a show of themselves but they still aren’t a main target. We did get a few keepers in the Tarpon springs area but look for it to be a few more weeks of warm weather before we can target them successfully.

Tarpon season is right around the corner. If you’ve wanted to catch a tarpon this is your chance. I’ll be running tarpon charters from the St. Pete area all the way down to “World Famous Boca Grande” in Charlotte Harbor. Book your trip today for a chance at the “Silver King”.

I hope you guys like the new fishing report. I’ll be using my blog for reports from here on out for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s easier for me to post reports and the other is that you can subscribe to my blog and you’ll get email notifications when I post a new report.

See you soon! Let’s go fishing!

To see the fishing report archive, click here…

But sometime I just have to. Today I had to call my client at 6:30am to cancel today’s charter. He was noticably upset and I understand. He’d tried to get out on the water several times this month with his son and each time was canceled due to weather. I feel for him. However, sometimes we just have to make that call. As a responsible captain, my first priority is the safety of those on my boat. When the National Weather Service issues a Small Craft Advisory, a Tornado Watch and the radar looks like it did this morning (see image), I have to make a call with safety in mind and today the call was to cancel the trip.

Keep in mind that there is nobody that wants to go fishing more than I do. It’s my livelyhood. Everytime I cancel a charter, a bill doesn’t get paid at my house. So there is nobody with more motivation to go. But safety must prevail.

This past month has been one of the most awesome times of my life. Good and bad. I lost a new friend to the sea, I traveled across the country and I’ve been busier than ever running charters.

Earlier this month, one of my clients and new friend, lost his life doing what he loved. He took his boat out and the weather turned bad and flipped his boat 38+ miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. He and two others of his crew were never found. It is a very very sad story. I keep praying for his wife, family and child. I pray that they find peace and comfort through their having to deal with their loss.

Two weeks ago, a friend and I traveled to Cleveland OH to start our new business. Cleveland has a large outdoor show each year and Capt. Greg DeVault and I launched our outfitter business there. We started www.FloridaInshoreAdventures.com We’ve hand picked the finest full time guides across the state and we’ll be traveling a couple of time per year promoting them. No matter where you want to fish in Florida, we’ve got the best guide for you.

While at home this month, despite the economy, I’ve been busier than ever. I’ve averaged 5 trips per week while at home this month and luckily the fish have cooperated (for the most part). There have been a few slow days but for the most part we have torn the fish up. Much of the month we were thick into redfish with 30+ fish days being the norm and when they didn’t cooperate, the trout did. In fact, 2 days ago we caught so many big trout that my group quit early and headed to Hooters to throw back a few cold ones.

The year is shaping up nicely and the fish are biting. I love this time of year. It’s great to be putting the boat in the water before daylight in shorts and t-shirts again. To smell the salt air and see the water alive with fish really makes my day and makes me thankful for the path in life that God has chosen for me.

Marquis Cooper with a nice redfish caught on 2-26-2009

Rebekah Cooper called me last December to schedule a fishing charter for herself and her husband Marquis as a Christmas present for him. We set a date in December but had to reschedule due to bad weather. A couple of weeks ago we finally were able to get out on the charter. We left Seminole boat ramp in search of speckled sea trout. The day started out kind of tough because somehow all my live shrimp made it out the drain of my live well. Luckily, I just happened to have a bag of frozen shrimp so we made do with the frozen shrimp on jigheads with popping corks. The trout ate it up. It didn’t take too long to get our limit.

I thoroughly enjoyed that trip with Rebekah and Marquis. Marquis and I really hit it off talking about sports, fishing and video games and such. I had such a great time that I asked Marquis if he would like to go on scouting trips with me when I need a buddy to tag along to find some fish. He said he’d love to. So we exchanged cell phone numbers and Rebekah said, “Do you text message much?” I said, “Yeah, I do text a good bit”. She said, “You’ve done it now, he’s gonna be texting you about fishing all the time. You’ve made a friend”.

A week goes by and I get a text from Marquis asking how the fishing was going. I told him that he wouldn’t believe it but that the day after I took he and his wife, I found a school of over 500 redfish and that they chewed the bottom out of the boat. He thought that was really cool.

Last Thursday I had a charter in the morning and the water was going to be low during the whole trip. I knew I couldn’t fish the redfish school that I had mentioned to Marquis a few days earlier. But, I figured that after the charter the water would be high enough to get on those redfish. So at 10:30am I called Marquis to see if he wanted to go fishing with me after my charter to check on that school of redfish I had told him about. He said that he’d love to.

So after dropping off my clients, I picked up Marquis and I could tell he was excited to go. We hauled off to the north of the ramp and I told him to hold on because I was going to “burn some gas” as I was in a hurry to catch up to those fish before the tide began to fall.

When we showed up, I searched for 15 minutes and couldn’t find the fish. I even called a buddy and told him that the fish we knew about from a week before were gone. Right before I hung up I spotted the school. 500 strong. I cast my jig out with one hand while the other hand held my phone to my ear. Two twitches and the fish was on.

Marquis loved fishing. LOVED it! Just like me. I really enjoyed his company because he was so unassuming, laid back, and passionate about fishing. He was in heaven that day. The fish were all around and they were eating. When he stuck his first fish he said that it was his biggest redfish ever. He smiled so big as he admired it and then let it go. He shook my hand and said, “Thank you.”  I patted him on the back and said, “Your welcome. Now go get another one.” He did too. He schooled me that day. He caught three fish for every one I hooked. And he smiled and laughed the whole time.

After several fish, I told him that I needed to get out of that spot before it got burned. What I meant was that if anyone saw us in there for too long they would know something was up. Then the spot would get hit by more and more people as fisherman tend to have loose lips.

I asked him if he was okay with hunting for other fish and he said that he was. We checked out at least 2 more miles of shoreline with only getting two more bites. He didn’t complain a bit. He genuinely seemed to be having a great time. After about 3 and a half hours I told him that I hate that it was a short trip but that I had to be heading back to pick up my kids. He said that was fine and that he had a great day.

While we were idling the boat to deeper water, he told me that he was headed to, “The deep blue sea in search of amberjack on Saturday”. Said he was going 60 miles out of Clearwater. He said that amberjack was his favorite fish to catch and one of his favorite to eat. He asked if I would like to come along. I told him that I already had a charter booked so I couldn’t go.  I asked him if it ever made him nervous to run that far out and he said no. He said that the boat handled rough water well and they watch the weather to make sure it’s safe.

Saturday morning my friend Marquis and three other anglers headed out to the “deep blue sea”.  Around midnight his family called the Coast Guard to tell them that Marquis and his crew were past due from their fishing trip. Yesterday they found Nick, one of the anglers, clinging to the upside down boat 35 miles west of Clearwater. He is still alive and recuperating. The other three anglers, including my friend Marquis, are still missing and the Coast Guard have given up their search.

I fear that I have lost a friend. I fear that wives have lost husbands. I fear that fathers have lost sons, mothers have lost sons, children have lost fathers…

I had already played out, in my mind, future fishing trips with my new friend. I will be praying for him, his family and his friends. I hope you will too.