Rick Davidson (grassflats2@yahoo.com), Editor
"The RedManiac"
Scallop season is here, and the Ship’s Store and the cleaning table are hopping. Bucket of scallops are lined up waiting to be cleaned, and Aaron Smock shows you the right way to store scallops….on plenty of ice. Paige and Karlie, from Bradenton and Atlanta, show off a couple of fine specimens, and there’s a great looking bowl of the little devils, ready to fry. Scallops continue to be easily available, with the best places currently being outside of Rocky Creek to the south, and near the Bird Rack to the north. Best depths have been from 3 to 6 feet. For more information, go to our scalloping page (http://www.seahag.com/scalloping.htm) for excellent advice.
Also seen at the cleaning table have been a lot of trout, some very nice redfish, and even some large permit taken from 90 feet. This was the same depth at which this cobia, weighing 65 pounds, was taken by Brian Ellington. The coolerful of fine gags and huge red snapper were caught on Nick Denham’s boat in 82 feet of water. Some of the snappers weighed over nine pounds.
Our guides have been very busy. Most of them will do scallop charters, so check out their websites for more information about each one. If you’re from out of town and will be in Steinhatchee for several days, consider hiring a guide your first day, to learn the area and make the rest of your trip a little easier. These are our guide reports this month.
Captain Brian Smith, www.bigbendcharters.com
Inside waters of seventy feet or less there are three players providing enough activity to keep one’s mind off the infernal heat of summer. Those players are red grouper, Florida snapper and mystery cobia. Red grouper are on flat firm bottom that displays the sonar screen as ‘fuzzy bottom’ at depths from 42 foot out. Some drops will prove empty while the next the fish won’t let the baits hit the bottom. As for bait, small pinfish are great but frozen sardines and squid will work as well. Florida snapper are day savers and welcome dinner guests to the fish fry. They are running larger than average, eating anything dropped on hard bottom where they live (40-55’) and put up a strong fight on trout tackle. A five gallon bucket of Florida snapper is thirty pounds of whole fish yielding approximately 6-8 pounds of delicious pink fillets. EAT UP! Cobia fishing is more like hunting…of course, you could be the lucky boat the 50 pounder swims up to surrender its life. Anchor and pitch live baits out if the structure is large enough to warrant the effort as you go through your day. Hopefully, sometime during the cobia quest, the ‘man in the brown white striped suit’ will swing by to test your tackle and skills. In terms of scallops, this is a go-get’em year! Enjoy the marine Easter egg hunt. Good luck offshore! Be sure to bring sunscreen and plenty of water.
Captain Steve Rassell, www.lastcastrass.com
With the arrival of some unexpected cool weather last week the trout reappeared in the shallows and they were hungry. With the water temp in the low 80's the fish have been feeding more than usual. Near limits of trout are common and the red fish are stillon the flats but have moved off the shoreline a bit. We’re still catching them where you find the mullet. There are more cobia around this summer then I can ever remember seeing. While most are under the legal size, we did manage to boat two keeper fish, with the largest of the two weighing 28lbs. It pays to keep a gaff on the boat. Tight lines and good fishing.
Captain Rick Bouley, www.naturecoastflatsfishing.com
There has been a steady supply of redfish in the shallows throughout the month of July. If you are fortunate enough to find them early in the morning when water temps are in the low 80's and there is a reasonable amount of current, then you can feed them; although the bite is sometimes half-hearted, it is much better than you will find later in the day. When the water temperature approaches the 90 degree mark and the sun is directly overhead, you need maximum peak current flow to interest them. However, if you can find that occasional day with good cloud cover and cooler air temps, as was the case on Saturday the 21 st, we had exceptional fishing throughout the falling tide, with water temps remaining in the mid 80's until around 2 pm. There were dozens of slot-size reds, trout and huge numbers of mullet mixed together. For the first time since spring we had shots at several reds in the 34" to 38" range in water so shallow that their wakes looked shark-like when we spooked them. Unfortunately it was dead calm and extremely difficult to approach them, and even harder to catch them under such still conditions, but what a great day of sight-fishing. The larger fish were a welcome surprise as I had been finding mostly 4 lb and under reds the first 20 days of the month. I have not been out on the deeper grass flats but my guess is there are lots of smallish trout to be had if you can avoid the areas that the scallopers frequent. Typical summertime artificials such as top-water plugs when the floating grass is not too thick, and jerk baits rigged weedless Texas-style work well when there is too much grass. Gold spoons and spinnerbaits work well when then sun is up, and use D.O.A. Terror-eyz and plastic jigs on the bottom in the holes. I have only had a couple of fly charters this month and the most productive fly has been a wooly-mullet in chartreuse when in bright sunlight or grey in low light conditions. Top-water poppers have worked OK when the grass is not too thick
Captain Walt Carlson, www.captainwalt.com
Fishing has been tough this month with all the scallopers running boats everywhere…the fish get scattered, and finding them is a real task. I'm still fishing the creeks and catching some nice reds as you can see by the pictures--my friend Bill and his son from Texas had a great time! Offshore is a challenge too. I'm having to go to deeper water, around 65 feet, to find fish and it's one here and there. Red grouper are doing well but the gags that are keeper size require a lot of hunting around. Scalloping has been good. Up around the bird rack seems to be the hot area right now, but you still have to find just where they are. I do scallop charters so give me a call and we’ll get a bunch.
