July 2010
The fishing action at the end of July remained very consistent with a variety of species attacking our lines. We are still catching loads of trout, both in the passes and on the flats. During all of my charters, clients have been catching trout over 20 inches along with many slot size fish as well.
Mackerel continue to make a big showing in the bays on the moving tides. These hook stealers add plenty of action and some of the fish are very large for inside flats. Also joining the party in the bay is large, 24 inch, high jumping lady fish. Black tip sharks and yellow tail jacks like to hang around and add to the excitement.Redfish have been scattered, but I'm still able to find a few cruising the shallows at high tide.
Daniel and his 5 year old son, Louis, joined Salt Aire to fish the inside of Clearwater Bay on the noon high tide.
We were fishing several different grass flats and caught lots of trout in all sizes. Louis caught the prize trout of 22 inches. Daniel added several trout over 20 inches and together, both anglers caught several mackerel, lady fish and even a drag screaming, 24 inch, black tip shark. Daniel had taught Louis well. He handled his fish like a pro with very little help from either of us. Good job Louis.
Kyle, Dean and Kody teamed up to do some catch'en on the flats. At our first stop, we located some small trout, lady fish and a small rat redfish. As the tide was coming in, we checked several grassy areas until we found the hot one.
Dean and Kody were doing all the work and out fishing Kyle 3 to 1. They caught numerous trout of all sizes and several over 20 inches. Also some nice size lady fish stopped by as well as a few small sharks. Dean and Kody were jabbing jokes at Kyle but he just said, I'll get you guys later.
The tide was finely high enough to push up on a shallow flat in hopes of finding redfish. Reds like to frequent this flat but I haven't seen any good numbers of fish the last several visits.
We set up, tossed out baits and started to fish. Kyle wanted to throw some artificial bait in this area to change things up. He tossed out a white 4 inch Cal plastic on an 8th oz. jig head. This is no fish story. A 31 inch redfish jumped on that jig on the first cast. Kyle, a fisherman himself, fought the red to the boat, took a picture and released. Kyle happily said to the other guys, I told you so.
We ended the day on the shallows with many good pictures and lots of Kyle saying, I told you so.
Hopefully the action will carry over into August. There are still lots of bait around the bay and that's the main reason the fish are there. Using the incoming tide to fish in Clearwater and Dunedin, you should be able to find plenty of hungry fish.
Capt. Gary Burch
www.allcatchcharters.com
727 458-6335
