Rick Davidson (grassflats2@yahoo.com), Editor
"The RedManiac"
In spite of a windy May, the fishing has been very good in Steinhatchee, both offshore and inshore. May is a month of many tournaments in our area; the two largest are the Reeling for KidsTournament with hosts Doug Johnson and Donnie Young, and a new tournament this year, the Mel Tillis Fishin’ with Mel Tournament. Just to give you a few examples of the winning fish, in the Reeling for Kids tournament, the largest trout (4.5 pounds) was caught by Creative Sign Solutions; the largest redfish was Lucas Smith’s 7.5 pounder, Ray Hedgecock nabbed the largest kingfish (a 24 pounder) and Shane Morris’ 15.9 pound grouper captured that category. The Mel Tillis tournament signed up over 100 boats. James Farnell and my buddy Jeff Evans tied for the biggest redfish (7.06 lbs.) and Jeff’s wife Debbie nailed the third largest. Jeff and Debbie fish out of Jeff’s canoe using cut and live bait, and almost always are near the top in local tournaments. The big trout was Gaige Griffis’ 4.26 pounder. Kim Holsenbeck’s 4.49 Spanish barely beat out Hall of Fame baseball player Wade Boggs’ 4.46 pounder. Brian Hecker cleaned up in the offshore categories, landing the largest grouper (16.4 pounds), the largest amberjack (22.5 pounds) and the second and third place kingfish. Rex Liberman, fishing on the same boat as Brian, caught the largest kingfish, 29.9 pounds. Captain Tommy Thompson and I had the great pleasure of fishing with the legendary Roland Martin. We would have had a great time if we could have just gotten Roland to open up. Actually, Roland is a ball of fire on the boat, and kept us howling much of the time. I’m sure we spooked a number of reds laughing, but when the fishing started to get serious, he was very intense. With his experience on the Redfish Tour, he picked up our area and style of fishing quickly. We fished topwaters most of the day and had some fantastic action early. He caught the large redfish and Spanish on the boat and we all combined to take the third place prize in the inshore slam division--certainly one of the highlights of my fishing year so far.
Several of our guides were fishing other areas this month, including Captains Rick Bouley and Wiley Horton. Other guides filed the following reports.
Captain Walt Carlson, www.captainwalt.com
Wind -wind-wind---this is the wrong month for all this wind…but if you could get out the fishing has been great! As for the grouper the better fish are coming from 60 feet and deeper, using my same old baits: threadfin herring, Spanish sardines, cigar minnows and of course, live pin fish. Trout are still tearing the Gulp shrimp up. I’m using the 3-inch “New Penny” color in clean water and the white or glow in dirty water under a float. Be sure to have your cork rig set so it keeps the bait about 6 inches over the grass. Live pinfish are still catching the big fish! I like to drag one far behind the boat in my drift. For redfish, everyone should know that a gold Johnson spoon is about the best there is…unless you have some mud minnows. I like using live bait---guess it's a carryover from my fishing fresh water for large mouth bass using live shiners. The picture is a cobia that weighed 66 pounds and was 50 inches long. Saw some big king fish this weekend along with nice red snapper---the fishing has been great except for the wind. Scallops—the season’s getting close and we’re getting reports from fishermen that they’re seeing plenty--here's hoping we have a good season for them.
Tight lines and good fishing, and don't forget to take the kids!
Captain Steve Rassell, www.lastcastrass.com
Fishing continues to be good along the Steinhatchee coast with plenty of limit catches of trout and reds. The fish can be taken in shallow water early and late in the day on plastics as well as live bait. As the day heats up you'll do better moving to 6 feet. or deeper and fishing slow on the bottom with Gulp or Slurp soft baits. The colors working best are white early in the day, and baits with yellow or green are working very well. There are still a few Spanish ‘mack's’ around. The blues are plentiful and the larger sharks have begun to arrive in deeper water. The smaller ones will be here any day now. Don't forget: scallop season is coming up July 1. Book now to get the dates you want. Thanks and good fishing.
Captain Tommy Thompson, www.flanaturecoast.com/capttommy
The steady easterly winds have made fishing challenging during May. It seems like that big high-pressure cell has lingered off the Georgia coast a lot longer than planned, and when the National Weather Service predicted winds at 5 to 10 kts, we got them at 18-20-- and more!
Anyway, my style of fishing is to get in very close to shore and throw topwater lures or spinner baits (rigged with Gulp! bait) over rock piles and oyster bars at the mouths of creeks and small bays. The wind became a nuisance later in the mornings, but we were usually able to make some nice long, away-from-shore casts to some nice reds and trout.
Regina and Glenn Herron came up from Palm Beach and picked up topwater lure fishing quickly. We had a great day and they’ve promised to return to Steinhatchee. The next day I fished with Karen Thomas and her son, Alex, from Gainesville. Karen’s husband, David, had given her a trip for her Christmas present, and we finally got to go. Young Alex had a blast, and is turning into a great fisherman. He’s patient and tries very hard to concentrate on making long, accurate casts.
As you read in Rick’s introduction, we had a great time with Roland. Rick neglected to mention that we (he) had the third place redfish in the Reeling for Kids Tournament the week before.
The month ended with three days of pretty good fishing. My Dad came up from Yankeetown to fish and went home with a couple of nice reds for dinner. Yankeetown is a nice place to live, but the fishing can’t compare with Steinhatchee. He’s always willing to make the drive!
The editorial staff, including Glenn Hughes (Publisher), Doug Olander (Editor-in-Chief) and Chris Woodward (Editor), of Sport Fishing Magazine were here for a retreat at the end of May. Several guides from the Sea Hag (Randall, Brian, Wiley and myself) took them out to fish and see the area. The full moon slowed things up a bit, but everyone had a good time. They’re planning a nice feature story on Steinhatchee for later this year.
Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about trout fishing at Steinhatchee, take a look at Polly Dean’s story in Florida Game & Fish Magazine’s June 2007 issue. She did a good job of outlining close-to-shore trout action.
Captain Brian Smith, www.bigbendcharters.com
The wind has been blowing making offshore opportunities rare. When we could get out the seas tended to be roughed up from residual waves. However, the gulf can be a chameleon where the morning rough seas hide in the afternoon. Pink mouth grunt (Florida snapper) have been day savers in the mornings when running around isn’t that comfortable. They are a tasty fish and have been running larger than average on hard bottom at depths between 45-55 feet. Squid or cut bait is best since it stays on the hook awhile. Also, don’t be surprised to bring in five to ten keeper grouper during a day of grunt mugging. The old saying is true ‘where there’s grunts there’s grouper’. The grouper bite has been scattered from 30-75 feet. The determining factor has again been the seas and your ability to endure the ride. Live bait is always a good solid bet but threadfin herring have been working fine. Kingfish have been taken while trolling for grouper. They are a fine drag ripping surprise. Remember kingfish are best served fresh so one good one steaked up and shared by all aboard is plenty for one trip. Good red snapper have been taken over double secret numbers from 65-85 feet or more. The bag limit is two per person. When you think about the gas is takes to go and come back, those are two expensive fish. Cobia are cruising the grass flats and are popping up around any and all structure. I always have a large spinning outfit as a ready pole planning on a chance encounter. The weather is projected to stabilize into its normal pattern and the fishing is good so come on over and take part in a great day on the water.
Captain Steve Hart, Legal Limit Charters (352) 498-3299
May has been a great month, the grouper have been doing well the cobia are back and we have been catching some nice snapper. As far as the grouper live bait has been working well as always, but there have been days that cut bait has worked better. If you looking for grouper I would spend a little time in the 45 to 50 foot range before going to the deep water it may pay off. My best snapper fishing has been in the 80 foot range but I have also picked up nice snapper in the 60 foot range
