Captain Billy Nobles of the Reel Animals fishing show ends each show with "Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishing". Wednesday Captain Steven had the pleasure of fishing Wed, Ann and their 2 sons Jet and Jake.
First white baits for bait and chumming had to be gathered before I picked up my anglers. Today gathering bait was a real battle with Captain Steven arriving 5 minutes late to pick up his anglers.
Deep grass flats 6-8' on Tampa Bay's eastern shoreline North of Port Manatee was the area we started. The bite started with catfish not the intended species. Soon our chum bag brought Mackerel into the mix. Jet and Jake are 5 and 7 and had their hands full with screaming drags. At one point Jet had a Mackerel crush his bait nearly pulling him overboard. Mom crabbed hold of Jet while he battled a mackerel pushing 30".
Both Jet and Jake were amazing displaying great patience and angling skills. The boys were a great helping getting baits out of the live well and release the residual baits at the end of our trip. Don't under estimate how good young anglers are.
On today's trip we scored mackerel, jacks, sharks, trout, catfish and snapper. The bite was funny it would slow and I would say 5 more minutes, like magic every time I said that the bite turned on. A truly fun day with a great family.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
