Fridays trip was a charity Grand Slam tournament. The Tampa Bay Grand Slam consist of catching a snook, redfish and trout.
Bait was very easy to gather with huge schools of threadfins and white baits hanging out at bridges and grass flats on lower Tampa Bay. With the live well stuffed I made the 20 mile trek to West Shore Yacht Club. I picked up my anglers Ronnie and Linda at 845 and we quickly made our way to Weedon Island.
With a strong high incoming tide we targeted Mangrove Islands. Our first stop resulted in 2 redfish a trout and a stingray. Ronnie had bragging rights so far with the bigger redfish. So far was the key word. Our next stop again on Mangrove islands Linda caught a chunky 21" snook that inhaled her white bait. Linda quickly followed that with a solid 24" redfish. The chunky red missed the bait the first time and turned right around and slammed the bait. Now Ronnie needed a snook and Linda needed a trout to complete their slams.
Our next stop was covered in Mullet but no reds or snook. We moved out to a 4' grass flat and Linda quickly completed her slam. Ronnie also caught trout and ladyfish but no snook. About now the sky was turning black so we moved to a Island very near Westshore Yacht club. The area is covered in big rocks and grass often holding nice reds and snook. Ronnie got hit hard and ended up with no hook. His next cast Ronnie had another big hit and his leader broke.
Lighting and thunder put an early end to our day. Ronnie and Linda were quick to tell me they are not fisherman but they did an awesome job. It was my pleasure to spend the morning with super nice people from North Carolina.
Captain Steven Markovich
