May 20th and 21st:
The water temperature a few days earlier was 84 degrees. We had a low pressure system come through and hang around for three to four days dropping a lot of rain. All of this rain and no sun lowered the water temperature to 74.
Wednesday May 20th I had Matt and Joe, down from Pittsburgh, for the afternoon and again on Thursday. The first thing Joe said to me was I want to catch a Redfish. I picked them up at 1pm and headed to our first spot about a mile south. We started our slow drift over a flat area casting several different plastic tails and Gulp shrimps. Ten minutes later Joe had his redfish and in five more minutes Matt had his. We were bouncing the jigs in and out of sand holes mixed in with grass. It was around these sand holes we caught the reds. Reds along with snook and trout are ambush feeders and will hide at the edges of these sand holes to feed on passing bait. I headed out Dunedin pass to the beach area looking for some Spanish Mackerel. After setting up and chumming for about thirty minutes, all we caught were some ladyfish. I think the drop in water temperature sent the Mackerel to deeper water. Later on the flats, using live baits and throwing plastics we only managed a couple of small trout before heading in. Any time the water temperature rises or drops so drastically, It has a big effect on a fishes feeding pattern.
The next day I had netted bait early, picked up Matt and Joe and headed south to Clearwater Harbor. We started out throwing some Cal plastics jigs in New Penny, Gulp shrimp and a top water MirrOdine. It was the MirrOdine that got hit first. A big slot size snook (28" to 33") slammed the lure just off the shore lined mangroves. She made a couple of nice runs and headed right back into the sticks. Pop! You knew that was coming. It happened so fast. She made her way around some barnacle crusted roots in the mangroves and broke off at the leader. It was nothing Matt did or could do because that is a snook's instinct. Swim out, ambush a bait and get back to some type of structure. Did not find anything else on that flat. The water temp there was 76 degrees. Very cool for this time of year.
The tide had started out and we headed to Clearwater Pass where bait fish usually gathers on each side and bigger fish follow. Today it was dirty and cool from all the rain so I turned around and headed to an inside bridge for some Mangrove Snapper action. Matt and Joe caught one keeper snapper and a released small grouper.
May 25th:
Monday I had Bob and his son Robert from Colorado, looking for some fish catching action. Met them at 7:30am and headed to a beach snook spot in Dunedin. We fished this area for about thirty minutes with no action. We moved about 200 yards and set up again. Bang! Robert had the first 27" snook. Moments later Bob got in the action with another 27" snook. The bite slowed and we moved on. The tide was coming in and there were some flats in Clearwater Harbor we had to visit. After drifting down the shore line about 100 yards, we came up on a large school of redfish. I quickly threw out some chum to hold the reds from spooking off. Bob and Robert cast two lines out and waited. We didn't know if the reds turned around on the chum or keep going. Well two minutes later we found out. REDFISH ON. Bob struck first with a 24" red. Then Robert next with another one same size. The bite shut down so we moved on across the flat about 100 yards. After staking out off a sand bar, I chummed up the area to attract some attention. This time a double header. Both fish were in the 24 to 26 inch range. In little over an hour of nonstop action, Bob and Robert caught 18 redfish all in the 25 inch range. Bob ended up with a slam (snook, redfish, trout) and Robert missed by a trout. With the new moon and that big incoming tide, the flats were beaming with willing redfish and snook on the beaches are in a frenzy. Get out and do some catching.
Capt. Gary Burch
AllCatchCharters.com/
727 458-6335
