Bluebird skies, high pressure and a stiff NE wind blowing 15 gusting 20 made Sunday less than ideal conditions. The day got brighter when I picked up my clients Kevin and brother Dave at O'Neill's Marina. From the first greeting it was clear Kevin and Dave would be fun. With a live well full of white bait we made the 20 minute run to St.Petersburg beach anchoring in 18' of 78 degree water.
The ride out showed no signs of life with bait, birds, mackerel all missing. The beaches have been loaded with bait schools for several weeks with Mackerel schools everywhere. It was clear Saturdays winds dirtied the waters and I had my work cut out for me.
Good news we got the mackerel action going after about 15 minutes with Dave scoring first. I actually thought he had a Kingfish on as the runs were long and strong. Soon it was clear it was a huge mackerel weighing in over 6 pounds. The Mackerel action was ok at beast nowhere near the non stop 20-40 fish an hour of last week. The fish we did manage were almost all true bragging size Big Macks.
Dave had a big hit which quickly made a mess of his Power Pro braided line. I'm guessing a big Kingfish or Spinner shark. Cutoffs are common even with 40-50 pound leaders and long shank hooks so bring plenty of gear.
Next up we were targeted Bonita but the Egmont ship channel was full of 3' swells so we headed to the local grass flats. With not much time left I made the call to chase redfish on a local mangrove island only to find a school of Redfish already surrounded by 4 boats. We saw several mid 30" Redfish but none would chew. Overall the action was slow but Kevin and Dave made the day a great one.
Captain Steven
