Big Macks and screaming Kings were our targets Wednesday morning. Before heading to the beaches off St. Petersburg we needed to (you guessed it) get bait. Motoring along the Skyway Bridge at sunrise is as good as it gets. I could see bait flipping everywhere along the old North bridge, chumming was not needed. Two tosses and the live well was stuffed.
While running the Egmont ship channel to the Gulf we encountered hundreds of terns diving, oddly there were no Bonita, Mackerel, Jacks just glass minnows by the millions. We finally set up on hard bottom in 20' just North of the beautiful Don Cesar hotel.
Fifteen minutes and one smashed bait was all Captain Steven could muster as numerous boats in the area had better luck. Finally the first drag started screaming and Jim was tight into a beautiful Spanish Mackerel. Just as quickly Dave's rods went off sadly he lost his fish near the boat. I kept a steady stream of chum baits flowing which helped the so so bite. We had sharks chasing our catch and witnessed a King Fish cut in half one boat over. Captain Mike Anderson of the Reel Animals had a youngster jump a spinner shark that made to amazing leaps. Amazing site.
Our center rod bent wildly and the drag screamed! 175 yards of line smoked from the reel in seconds. The big King came unbuttoned after 5 minutes of battle. The action was ok for several hours. To change gears we ended the day on a hot trout bite.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
