Thursday's trip was met with lots of high expectations. The tides were ideal for hunting snook and redfish. Before running to the Eastern shore of Tampa Bay we needed to gather bait. My anglers today Jim and Tom joined Captain Steven to gather bait.
Unlike previous days the Skyway Bridge was lots of work, it took an hour to have just enough for the day. It was very expensive bait as I ripped 2 cast nets on barnacle encrusted pilings. Use caution when tossing a net up current of hazards. With a stronger than forecasted NE wind making the water choppy it was a bumpy ride to Bishops Harbor. Snook were nowhere to be seen; Tom had one snook explode on bait with no hookup. Jim and Tom were making great casts with no results.
I decided to leave the snook behind and check out the redfish action at Tarpon Key. As we eased in on the mangroves the Captain next to us was hooked up. Moments later they were on hooked up again. We casted chunk baits along the oyster bar and waited. We saw numerous reds but did not connect. So much for plan B.
About now Captain Steven was anxious to get his anglers on fish. I moved us to a shallow grass flat with and deep drop off to 10'. Again a slow start then thankfully we started catching trout. Most were beautiful keeper size spotted sea trout with many 18-22". These beauties were thick and clearly eating like crazy. Mackerel made their appearance with one a pushing 26". The bite was on for 15 minutes then off it was like that for an hour.
Thank goodness the day ended on a positive note. Jim and Tom were great guys, good anglers and fun to have onboard.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
