Rick Davidson (grassflats2@yahoo.com), Editor
How Big Was It, Rick?
Both inshore and offshore, the fishing has been hot in Steinhatchee. Tournament season is here, and weekend slips are hard to find at the Sea Hag Marina. The migrating pelagic species, cobia, kingfish and Spanish mackerel, are following schools of pogies, moving northward. Fine catches of all of these have been made this month, and the Spanish mackerel seem to be particularly large and active compared to last year's catches. At the Big Bend Bash near the end of the month, Brian Kiel weighed in an 18 pound kingfish caught in relatively shallow water, taking the largest offshore prize. My fishing partner, Doug Barrett, caught the largest inshore fish, a 5 pound 3 oz. redfish, but Brian's son Casey came in second with a monster 4 pound 15 oz. Spanish. Doug and I caught 18 redfish that day, and almost all were keepers, but the really large fish were well hidden on that day...but they are definitely around. The grouper bite has been on as well. Trout have been plentiful, especially the yearling shorties on the shallow grass flats, but keepers are mixed amongst them. Larger trout have been scarce, but some have had luck fishing jigs and cut bait in 8 to 10 foot depths.
Here are some reports from our guides:
Captain Brian Smith, www.bigbendcharters.com
Kingfish are here, and they're not surprise catches anymore. Trolled grouper plugs and free-lined baits off stern while bottom fishing are the best ways to connect For grouper, trolling with large lipped lures in fifty feet is productive. Bottom fishing in 45-75 feet has also been fantastic, using frozen or live bait. The bite is good enough on frozen or fresh cut bait that either buying or negating live bait all together may pay off in terms of saving time. Cobia are being caught on the markers, inshore sloughs, large rock piles and wrecks using live bait floated under corks or sinkered to the bottom. While they're around, many are short but we expect their larger buddies any day now. Grunts and sea bass are plentiful. A chunk of squid dropped on hard bottom 40-45 feet will result in a stupendous fish fry. The Florida snapper are running large; two pounds! For amberjack, find offshore wrecks and free line hand-sized live baits or bigger, white buck-tails, shallow running darting plugs and large top water lures will wear out the most zealous fishermen even if most of the fish are short of the 28 inch minimum.
Captain Wiley Horton, www.tunersportfishing.com
I don't write about every fishing trip...but this one is worth a report. The crew started off with a long time customer, the venerable custom rod builder from Dalton ....an unstoppable fishing force that is Coach Paul Bagby. Coach brought with him another old friend and cinematographer, Cefus to pay for everything and the ringleader, Clint....a mild mannered gentleman on land who wears a cape and flies when offshore.
When Clint called to set everything up, I realized I needed a mate to keep an eye on the fishermen while I tried to find some fish to keep them occupied. Darren agreed to go even though he has been out with the Coach and Cefus before and knew what to expect.
I try to vary the first stop each trip based on experience and gut instinct. This day's first drop was in 58 feet. I made sure to have a rod baited up prior to getting to the spot....Cefus and Coach relaxed on the way out and took several minutes rigging their rods once the spot was reached. My bait was a large pinfish that was immediately inhaled by a 10lb gag. No one else got a bite on this stop. We set up a trolling pattern out to 65 ft. A couple of gags made half-hearted attempts to pull some string and were quickly placed in the fish box. Three more attempts to bottom fish were met with zero bites. I'm convinced my life has a soundtrack, but the fish were not interested in country, rock, jazz or rap. While screwing around with the Ipod, a disco tune came on....and we got a double strike of nice fish. With every strike, Clint went into a frenzy barking orders at whoever was on the rod. More disco resulted in more fish, with several doubles and the largest lizardfish ever seen on the Tuner. Clint and disco make for some high-energy fishing.
Sometime in the morning a cattle egret spotted the boat and landed on the bow. The previous day's strong easterly wind had blown the bird 40 miles offshore. He was plenty tired and proud to make some new friends. For most of the day he rode on the bow. By 2pm , we had 16 nice fish and headed toward the hill. Our bird buddy took off and, not seeing any cows....came in for a 30 knot, full flaps landing on the transom that would make a carrier pilot blush with envy. After a minute or so, he hopped into the cockpit totally ignoring Cefus but keeping a sharp eye on the Coach.
We were well up the river before he squawked at us and headed toward a shady spot on the bank. Tally for the day was 16 fish, 150lbs total, 15 caught on the troll while listening to KC, Donna Summer, the BeeGees, Kool and the Gang....I'm downloading some more disco tonight!
Captain Tommy Thompson, www.flanaturecoast.com/capttommy
It's been one of those redfish months for me and my clients. Not that I don't enjoy catching trout on light tackle, but the bigger fish have been in deeper waters and are less likely to come up to the top and strike a topwater lure, my bait of choice! Deep water fishing for trout can be fun with fly rods, but when the wind's blowing, it's tiring to blind cast an 8 or 9-weight fly rod for too long!
I've been finding some nice reds schooled up in the shallows on both sides of the river and have put some new dings in my boat's bottom getting to them. They seem to hang around for an hour or so and then move along, usually following schools of mullet. One day I had 11 to the boat and the following day we 'left them biting' after catching 20 fish, up to 8.5#. Rick and I fished the Optimist Tournament (Winners are listed on the 'Dock Talk' page.), and although we had fish that were contenders, we didn't finish in the money. We did catch three fish above the slot limit of 27", including the 12-pounder Rick's holding the the photo. Of course, he 'cheated' and used live bait! I got mine on sub-surface hard baits worked very slowly over rocks.
May looks good, and if the wind slows, we'll have some good days for fly fishing or for throwing topwaters for big reds.
If you've ever wondered just how I found some of my favorite close-to-shore fishing spots, take a look at my latest book, The Inshore Advantage, Aerial Photos of the Shallow Waters Near Steinhatchee, Florida. It's available now at the Ship's Store (hint, hint!) and makes an excellent and useful reference or gift.
Captain Steve Hart, www.legallimitscharters.com
MAY 2008 FISHING FORECAST
May fishing forecast: Offshore kingfish and grouper will be plentiful. Trolling over live bottom in water from 35 to 60 feet will be most productive, but both live and dead bait will produce as well fished on the bottom. Be ready for the blazing run that will distinguish kingfish strikes from the freight train weight of a gag. For targeting kings, slow-troll live blue runners or large pinfish; a small treble stinger hook will help. Trolling in shallower water (15 to 25 feet) near bait pods will result in all the Spanish mackerel you would want, with the additional chance of a random kingfish as well. Other places to look nearshore are the offshore bars to the north, the Dallus Creek bars and Nine Mile Bank. These are also great locations for migrating cobia, so find some areas of drop-offs near offshore bars, throw over a bag of chum, and wait for the fun. Always keep a few live pinfish out under corks to tempt the cobia that will wander around looking for a meal. When trolling for Spanish, make sure you're using a short piece of wire in front of a small spoon, feathered jig, or lipped plug. Trout will continue to be easily available on the grass flats to the south of the river, and near the Bird Rack to the north. Fish Gulp baits on jig heads, either alone in water over 4 feet, or under rattling corks in 3 feet or less. Redfish will continue to be plentiful near structure (oyster bars or rocks), either close to shore or nearshore. Because of all the tournaments this month, make sure you've made your reservations for lodging at the Sea Hag. The convenience of waking up, walking outside and hopping in your boat can't be beat. And as in any season, all the fishing tackle and bait, both dead and live, that you need can be purchased at the Ship's Store. See you at the cleaning tables..
