In Captains school we are told it's not if you fall in but when you fall in. Bait on the bridge today was far under the overhang, my tower is too tall to get under and get in where the bait was holding. Captain Bret Gamrot of On Shore Off Shore Magazine to the rescue. Bret pulled alongside to allow me to transfer into his boat as to get under the bridge. You guessed it I ended up in the Bay, Big Thanks to Captain Bret for hauling me out of the drink.
We were part of a 3 boat trip with 10 fishermen. We had the pleasure of having Gary, Trip, Geoff and Greg onboard. We ran to the Pinellas Point area as we have been on a solid bite of redfish, trout, mackerel, and jacks. We found the water cloudy a result of recent winds & rain. Good news the bite was on as it was only a few minutes before the fun started. The trout bite was super, we were consistently catching 19-24" chunky trout pushing the scales to almost 5 pounds. This was one of the best big trout bites we have been on in the last 6 months.
Fly lining large scaled sardines was the ticket to success. Braided main line with a 30 pound fluorocarbon leader finished with a 1/0 owner hook was our technique Wednesday. No rocket science here this is very basic yet amazingly effective tactic. We were targeting 2-5' of water adjacent to oyster bars. One of the contests within their group was catching the most species and we surely had a mixed bag. Trout all big, jacks, ladyfish, bluefish among others filled out our list. Redfish which were eager to chew in this area Saturday and Sunday were nonexistent. We did see several singles cruising in and out of the potholes we were working but never got one to the boat. One of the other boats had a super day with 9 reds all over the slot limit. Way to go Captain Bret and team. But wait there's more species, 2 different catfish, mother n law fish, pelican and a 2 hp Suzuki outboard! We also had more people on board at the marina upon return than when we started. Overall a very fun day with a great group of anglers.
Today's safety tip is simple, PFD's, Personal Floatation Devices, Life Preservers whatever you want to call them are so important, looking back I should have been wearing mine.
I swear by Woody Wax non skid wax, this product is outstanding if you have not tried it you have to check it out www.woody-wax.com the other boat had slick surface unlike the surface I was on before I went swimming. Clean up on dried up blood, scales is a snap and the overall surface has better gripping powers.
Captain Steven
