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!

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.

Yesterday, my wife had to work and I had the day off. So I was in charge of watching my two awesome children. My 4 year old son Cade and my 2 year old daughter Claire. Cade has been fishing for 2 years now so he’s a seasoned vet but Claire hasn’t shown much interest in fishing until yesterday. She had a “game on” attitude.

We first started by heading down to the neighborhood lake armed with Zebco reels and white bread for bait. I first put Claire’s bait in the water and it wasn’t long before I heard the impatient cries of… “I can’t catch them… they won’t eat…. help me daddy!” Just seconds after the first complaint, “FISH ON”! Claire was hooked up! She didn’t immediately understand what to do but she hung onto her Barbie fishing pole just fine.

First fish over the rail was a healthy bluegill. Then Cade’s bait hit the water and he handled himself like a seasoned pro. He kept telling me, “You just have to wait.” I reassured him and it wasn’t long before he had a nice bluegill.

We ended up with 8 or 9 bluegill before the kids started eating the bait and we soon ran out. Claire caught her first fish and Cade caught the biggest bluegill I had ever seen.

How could a man have more fun? I don’t know. My greatest loves participating in my greatest love with me. Life doesn’t get any better.

Just finished up washing the boat and getting her ready for a full week of fishing. Tues., Wed., Thurs. and Fri. are all booked up (except I think there are some afternoon 1/2 days still available). Surprisingly, this coming weekend is still open. I guess people will a little busy partying for the Superbowl.

Anyway, the weather looks like it’s going to be awesome all the way through Thursday. Friday looks a little iffy but we’ll see. We’ll be targeting redfish and trout all week. Check back for reports.

I don’t get to go fishing “for fun” a whole lot anymore but tomorrow I’m headed offshore with a friend of mine. Matt invited me aboard his 23′ Dorado to go try and catch some grouper and anything else that would taste good. I’m excited about it as it’s been a bit of a stressful week and I need a getaway. I’m Taking my Nikin D90 with me and I’ll have a Tokina 11-16mm lens on it so I hope to come back with some good pics. Check back tomorrow night or Sunday morning to see the pics I’ve taken and to read the report.

Super Bowl Week has almost been booked up. I still have Monday and Super Bowl Sunday open. If you’d like to go fishing this week the weather is supposed to be awesome… just let me know.

I finally see a light at the end of the cold weather tunnel that we’ve had for almost a week. Temperatures are supposed to get into the mid 70’s by Friday. I really miss those temperatures and I’m sure the fish do too. Also, a nice relief will be the light winds that are forecasted for the weekend. Instead of the 20-25mph winds we have today and tomorrow, the weekend is supposed to have 5-10mph winds. That will make the warmer weather feel even nicer. Not to mention the fact that it will make for some nice calm water out there.

The nicer weather forecast is probably due to Barack Obama being the new president. See, he can fix everything (tongue in cheek).

I just can’t help but think that the economy can’t be as bad as the media has made us think it is. I was at the SHOT show (HUGE outdoor show) in Orlando on Friday and I just can’t believe that thousands of vendors could afford THOUSANDS of dollars for their booths if we were in any kind of deep recession. Then yesterday, Circuit City started their going out of business liquidation sale and there were hundreds of people lined up before the doors opened. If people were really struggling all that bad, would there be that many people lined up to buy a new flat screen TV????

I don’t know. Either we are in as bad a recession as they say and people are just dumb enough to keep spending money anyway or people are not as bad off as the media says.

I know it’s tough. That’s not the point. But is it a deep depression though like the media is hyping? I mean really… do you think our grandparents were lining up to by radios during the great depression? I don’t think so. I think most of them were trying to figure out how to split a pea 6 ways for dinner. But… that’s just my thoughts. Don’t let the media push us into self fulfilling prophecies.

In other news…. I’ve added my Boca Grande Tarpon Charters to the online reservation system on my website. If you’ve ever wanted to catch a tarpon, this is your year. Go to the online reservation page to book your trip now. Dates will fill up pretty quick by the beginning of April.

Also… everyone that is on my email list (past clients) that sends me a referral during 2009 will get a trophy frame from www.wildlifepins.com ($99 value) using an image that I took during their charter. Check your email box for details.  If you take a charter with me this year and would like a trophy frame of your catch we’ll hook you up with one at my cost ($50).

See you soon!

Man! It’s too dang cold! For everybody up north reading this, for me “too dang cold” temps start at around 58 degrees.  It’s supposed to get into the low 30’s tonight. The 30-40 degree range is where I break out a GPS to reassure myself that I am still in fact in FL.

The only good news about this cold front is that the fish should eat real good once we have a few warm days under our belt because they sure aren’t going to eat much over the next few days.

I guess it’s time to do some tackle maintenance.

This should be a fine experiment. Now you guys who’ve been fishing with me will be able to keep tabs on what I’m up to and those looking to go fishing will get an idea of who they’ll be spending time with on the boat.

Hope you find some of it interesting. I’ll be posting about daily stuff, family stuff, photos I take, fishing stuff… Pretty much anything I find interesting.

Thanks for stopping by! Let’s go fishing!