Sunday morning was odd with low hanging clouds and no sun. What wasn't odd was the amazing amount of scaled sardines at the Skyway Bridge. The tide was low enough for me to ease my Pathfinder Tower boat under the bridge. This spot was thick as thieves with large white baits. Chumming was quick as the baits were all balled up and ready for me to toss my Calusa 10' net over them. The vibration coming up the main line indicated I scored.
15 minutes later and it was game on with Spanish mackerel in 6-10' of water adjacent to a shallow grass flat. After a dozen macks we had a hit that was clearly different. It was the fattest 22" spotted sea trout I've ever seen. It was more of a redfish bulldog fight vs. the typical head shake of a trout.
We continued to focus on grass flats with deep drops offs and good tidal flow. It was interesting as the mackerel, jacks and ladyfish inhaled the sardines while trout strongly preferred live shrimp over the white baits. The white baits are on the big side which I think makes all the difference.
With a very low high tide of only 1.6' Redfish were vacant on shallow flats. So ran back to another deeper grass flat where it was quiet for 15 minutes then a rod began to scream. I saw the line coming to the surface and thought it was a Tarpon getting ready to jump. A spinner shark 4' long erupted and skyrocketed 3' in the air. Check out the teeth on this baby.
In short order we nailed four spinners all which jumped and screamed drag. Mixed in were mackerel, trout, ladyfish and more small Jacks. No glamour species snook or reds but a fun and busy day overall.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
