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.

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.

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.