Last Updated on April 20, 2009 by Capt. Jason
It’s been a really windy spring thus far. It seems as though the wind just won’t quit. Windy days are usually bad fishing days and we’ve had to adapt to make sure that we succeed. Luckily for us, the fish haven’t been phased. We’ve been able to find fish in protected areas from the wind and on occasion, we’ve thumbed our nose at the wind and caught fish while battling the chop on the water.
Right now, redfish are schooled up big time in the St. Petersburg area. Finding them has not been hard at all. The hard part is finding fish that are willing to eat. To do that we’ve had to find fish in deeper water. The fish that are in less than two feet of water are skittish and just wont eat. That’s tough for us because they are the most visible fish. Some of these schools hold 500 or more fish in them. But you can waste a lot of time looking at them if you are disciplined enough to go after smaller groups of fish that are more comfortable in deeper water. Which is what we did last week. Clients were treated to days of over 30 over slot redfish by going after fish that we couldn’t see but we could get to eat.
Trout on the other hand have been biting well in really shallow water. The bigger fish have been in the New Port Richey area in less than two feet of water. To get the bite going well you need to chum them up a lot with free sardines. We’ve been getting trout from 18-25″ regularly.
Snook are starting to make a show of themselves but they still aren’t a main target. We did get a few keepers in the Tarpon springs area but look for it to be a few more weeks of warm weather before we can target them successfully.
Tarpon season is right around the corner. If you’ve wanted to catch a tarpon this is your chance. I’ll be running tarpon charters from the St. Pete area all the way down to “World Famous Boca Grande” in Charlotte Harbor. Book your trip today for a chance at the “Silver King”.
I hope you guys like the new fishing report. I’ll be using my blog for reports from here on out for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s easier for me to post reports and the other is that you can subscribe to my blog and you’ll get email notifications when I post a new report.
See you soon! Let’s go fishing!