Thursday I had the pleasure of filming a new TV show Fishing Florida. Originally we were scheduled to film last month but Mother Nature made quick work of that. Bait was a challenge, the Skyway Bridge was very rough making tossing a cast net very difficult. I hit the flats chumming for white baits and had a well full in 30 minutes.
A short run and I was welcoming Jason and the Fishing Florida team. It was a unique experience having microphones and wires running through my fishing shirt. We had one camera on board and another on a chase boat.
First stop we chased big trout near the beach. The bite was slow resulting in 2 trout and a mackerel in 30 minutes of fishing. I wanted to get the crew on mackerel but a quick search and bumpy ride deterred our efforts and we ran back inside.
With the high tide nearing 2.5' we hit a local Mangrove Island and quickly found a big school of large 30" plus redfish. My second cast resulted in a solid hookup and great fight from a 33" golden bruiser. This red took me into then out of the mangroves then under the boat. Each time the red saw the boat it went nuts. My next bait was crushed but I miss the hook set. For the next hour we watched 50-100 jumbo redfish swim back and forth through our baits. Lock jaw set in quickly and these reds were done chewing.
The day didn't get much better as we had to work hard to get a few trout to eat. We had good tides but a very tuff bite. The recent windy days has the water looking milky which I am sure played a role.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
