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

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.

Well, I had to send the new Nikon D90 back last week for an exchange. Nothing major wrong with it but I was still in the return period so I figured why live with it being imperfect. I hate being without a camera though. Last week we got some good redfish and I didn’t get to get any pictures for a report. Hopefully my clients will send in the pics that they took.

It’s going to be a little windy this week but thankfully it’s supposed to stay in the 70’s all week so the fish should chew pretty well. Redfish and trout are the targets this week. The reds have been everywhere in the Dunedin/Palm Harbor areas. Some days they have had lockjaw but I think that was due to the full moon we had last week. They should eat better this week. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know.

Last week’s freezing temps are gone. Today’s weather was awesome! Looks like more of the same the rest of the week. I can’t wait. The fishing should be great!

Man, I heard somewhere that this past week was the coldest week we’ve had here in the Tampa Bay area since 1982. I Haven’t checked to see if that’s true but I don’t really need to. All I know and all I care to know was that it was COLD! It got down to 22 degrees at my house one night this week. I’m not going to fluff things up for you at all. The bite this past week was tough. Very tough. the water temps dropped into the high 40’s (something I have NEVER seen) and the fish had lockjaw bad. We saw plenty of redfish. Hundreds of them in fact but getting them to eat anything was tough. We did manage a few keepers in the upper slot and a few trout but that was about it.

THE GOOD NEWS….

Sunday
Mostly sunny. Highs 71 to 76. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Monday
Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s. East winds around 10 mph.

Tuesday through Friday Night
Partly cloudy. Highs 75 to 80. Lows 57 to 62.
partlysunny

Saturday
Partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs 76 to 81.

I’m loving this forecast. The fish have had lockjaw for about a week. They’ve got to be starving and this warm weather could cause them to put the feed bag on. Look for next Saturday and Sunday to be great. By then the water will have had a week to warm up and the fish should be happy.

I get asked a lot about what the best time of year is to fish for certain species of fish. I usually say, “Anytime you can go”. But the truth of it is, there better times of year for each species. Times of the year when the bite really shines. We’ll go species by species here to give you guys a good idea. I’m also working on a chart for this for the site as well.

Redfish: Oct.-July.
Now we catch redfish all year long but the best fishing is during the fall winter, spring and the first part of summer.  During the hottest months of the year, August and September, the bite really needs to happen early before the heat gets to bad.

Speckled Sea Trout: Dec.-March.
If you want to get into your limit of large trout. This is the time to do it. We catch trout year ’round but The winter months really produce the big fish and the most fish.

Snook: March-July and Oct.-November.
The state is always adjusting the “season” (times we can take some home for dinner) so check with your guide if you plan of keeping one. We catch snook pretty much any time other than the really cold parts of the year but the Spring and first part of summer really is snook time. We also get into them pretty good when the water begins to cool down again in the fall.

Tarpon: May and June.
If you want to land a tarpon, this may be your best bet in the state. I run these trips during these months in Boca Grande, Tarpon Capitol of the World. Then in Tampa Bay in July we still have pretty good tarpon fishing here from July to the first part of September.

Spanish Mackerel: April-September.
These toothy marauders are slashing through the whole Tampa Bay area during these months. We do get into the rest of the year but not like we do in the summer time.

Cobia: March and April.
These brown bombers cruise the flats of the Tarpon Springs area during these months. It’s prime site fishing opportunities if you want to catch a 25-40lb fish in less than 3 feet of water.

The Best of the Rest: All Year.
We catch all kinds of things and many of them cooperate all year long. Grouper (shallow water), mangrove snapper, sheephead, bluefish, sharks… there’s no limit to what we might catch on a charter. There’s always something to keep our lines tight and smiles on our faces.