What an outstanding day, the weather was great, the water was great, and of course the fishing was great. As I started the day I quickly noticed the clouds building along the barrier islands of Cayo Costa and Gasperilla Island, however it wasn't enough for me to really take account. I got an early start around 6:30 am on the water and underway to my favorite bait spot inside Cayo Costa. Today was a little harder than most to get the bait required to beat up the Snook and Redfish, it seemed my secret chum mixture was a little off. After some time passed we slowly filled the bait well with really nice Green Backs and then we were on our way to another bait spot. That's right another bait spot, for some special bait. What, you ask? Sting Ray! This morning was a falling tide to around 12:30 in Boca Grande Pass, and I figured we would fish for Snook or Tarpon on the falling tide. Once the tide went slack we would try our luck with Goliath Grouper. Goliath Grouper love sting ray, the bigger the better. Collecting this bait is no easy task, you can't go to your local bait shop and buy it, you have to go and get it. There are multiple methods you can implement, you can try snagging them with a large weighted hook, use a spear gun or my personal favorite, gig them. It took awhile but we filled the well with 3 large rays, and we were ready to begin the day. We caught good numbers of Snook on the southern end of Gasperilla Island and Cayo Costa on the inside with one fish over 40 inches, and plenty of Gag Grouper mixed in. As we neared the slack tide we set up on the Goliath Grouper. We hooked up right away with what I guess to be about a 200lb fish, and then a larger one. We never got to see them because we were quickly cut off. The Tarpon bite was a little slow again today. When fishing for Tarpon the key is to have good sized Thread Fin Hearing to throw at the rolling fish. It certainly didn't help that there were plenty large Hammer Heads hunting in the area today. All in all, it was a great day. So all you folks out there reading this saying to yourselves "I want to go fishing" I will give you some words to ponder. Why not "GET UP, GET OUT, and GO CATCH EM"!
Capt. Jason Marsh
239.246.3579
anglerschoiceoutfitters.com
