Saturday, June 9, 2007

Little Redfish


I forgot to mention when I posted about Tropical Storm Barry, we did get out on June 2nd for some bay fishing. The waves on the Gulf were 10- 12 feet easily and the beach was totally covered (up to the boardwalk on stump pass beach). So we fished Lemon Bay. There are plenty of oyster bars all around Lemon Bay that provide all the right stuff for Red Fish. Well we hit the tide just about right and threw some free lined shrimp right at a couple of oyster beds. I did battle with a couple of nice RedFish, followed by two surprise snook attacks!

Anyway, this bay fishing trip was followed by our failed attempt down in Boca Grand Pass on Sunday June 3. It seems ALL the fish went off shore, including the "white bait", or "green backs" as they call them. We tried to get some bait for snook, reds, and trout....but noth'in showed up. So it was just a long boat ride on Sunday. Fortunately Monday had some treats, for which I am still sore from!

More pictures to come!

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Posted by TRock at 10:09 PM | | Comments

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Tropical Storm Barry: Fishing Report

I was down for an extended weekend and was flying on June 1st to get to the Englewood-Charlotte Harbor area. Of course this was the esact time that Tropical Storm Barry was forming in the Gulf. The reason for my visit? Tarpon!

Barry formed very quickly. It started as a wave down around Cuba and quickly gained energy and became a named storm on friday evening. The storm stirred up the Florida Gulf, causing ten foot seas or more and resulting in the erosion of many beaches. Other impacts related to this were the impact on recently nested turtle eggs on the beaches. Many of them simply washed away. I viewed this at the Stump-Pass Beach on Manasota Key.

Anyway, the fishing slowed to a halt at Boca Grande Pass. There were no tarpon to be found. Local Captains, including Mike Wise of "Wise-Guy" Charters explained that the low pressure drove the fish out off shore several miles. As the seas calmed over the weekend and the high pressure took hold, the Tarpon were back in limited form. Normally there are upwards of 50,000 or more tarpon right in the pass this time of year, but on Monday experts estimated only 1000 had returned.

The good news? They were hungry! Luckily we were able to move our charter to monday morning and the bite was strong for about 90 minutes. Then, suspiciously, they disappeared again! For about 45 minutes we couldn't find fish and then...bam!..they were back to stay.

All in all we had five good hook ups. Heavy shark activity led to one being swallowed up by Bull Sharks and others being chased rigorously. We did, however, bring in a 6 foot, 150 pound Tarpon close enough to leader.

What a day! I'm working on organizing some pictures...I have to edit the video we took.

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Posted by TRock at 8:56 AM | | Comments