With apologize it's been some time since my last report. After copious amounts of rain the last 4 days I finally got back on Tampa Bay Thursday. Bait while still small was plentiful and the live well was loaded by 7:15. To keep from gilling your bait size down to a ¼" net on lower Tampa Bay.
I had the pleasure of having long time client Tim and his son Nathan on Thursdays trip. The first thing I noticed was the water temperature had dropped almost 8 degrees so I was optimistic the fish would chew. As we reached Tampa Bay's South shore the water in the live well started getting dark looked almost like coffee. My log books had some great Intel so I felt good in the location I choose. Keeping a log off tides, water temperatures, moon, tides and air temperature are key.
Sight fishing was out of the question so I tossed live chum baits and let the fish giveaway their location. It was long and the fun began. Our first snook was airborne and the fun began. By 9am we had a Tampa Bay inshore grand slam consisting of Snook, Redfish and Trout. We also had other species join in the action trout, snapper flounder and a puffer fish.
The action was steady the first hour and when the bite slowed we would move a few yards or send out more chum baits. The 4th move was amazing. It was snook on for 3 hours. Doubles were common. It was a fire drill for Captain Steven taking pictures, netting, de hooking, re baiting. I love it. The day was epic I terms of the number of snook caught and released. Easily we landed and released 70 snook. My anglers did a great job with perfect casting bait after bait. We were all worn out by 11 and called it a day.
