Sunday, June 24. 2012
As our Boca Grande season winds to an end with tropical weather, and small craft advisories it’s safe to assume that The Reel Animals Fishing Team has not been on the water this week. The weather has been anything but normal this year. I mean when have you heard of cold fronts in May and June, in Southwest Florida of all places. At the first of May we had morning winds out of the Northeast and our afternoon “sea breeze” was out of the Northwest, weird huh? They’re still wacking the tarpon here in Tampa Bay, my good friend, Captain Glenn Taylor, when not making lobster rolls at his restuant Boardwalk Grille at John’s Pass, is killin’ them in the afternoons with double digit hookups and landing a good portion of them. When I say good portion anything above a thirty percent land ratio on tarpon I and most tarpon captains consider good. The reason for this is these fish are huge, explosive, and they jump, a lot. Some of the times when the fish jumps, clients, me included don’t bow and the silver king has a knack for plucking the hook, and breaking lines.
This week here in Tampa, Captain Stephen Marchovich, reports that the inshore bite is on with great redfishing on oversized fish on cut bait, trout and snook on live bait. He told me to look for the snook and trout around the passes on an outgoing tide, fishing the ledges. It will be interesting to see how this weekend’s weather will effect the inshore action. Offshore the red snapper bite is on, there’s a shocker, with mango, and yellowtails in the mix. Remember in just a couple of weeks Gag Grouper opens and we will be able to keep gags, and red snapper for a short period before snapper shuts down, so be sure to take advantage of this to make the most of you dollars. Cause you and I both know it ain’t cheap to make the long runs with marine fuel around five bucks a gallon.
Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:30 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday. Call in on Saturday’s to WFLA 970 for Reel Animal’s Saturday and Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am. Also visit our website @ www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com and friend us on face book or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’."
Saturday, April 28. 2012
A couple of weeks ago Mike and I ran a group trip for the Tampa Bay Lighting and all of our hockey dudes had a great time. Well this week I had the pleasure of fishing Bubba Kennedy and his son Quinn, and Clay Roffer, both equipment managers for the Lightning, one day and then the next Lightning right wing Adam Hall and his father in-law Albert from South Africa. Clay’s last name may seem familiar to some of you off shore fishermen; his dad is founder/creator of the Roffer’s Report, which is sea temp and current info in real time to locate exactly where the big boys are.
On first trip with Bubba, Quinn, and Clay we ran out about 20 miles or so and were catching Greater Amberjack and Bonita, when all of a sudden my mate Stephen Doughty, shouted COBIA. Yours truly flipped a crab over and game on. There was another cobia with that one only slightly smaller, but he was more interested in what had his buddy by the snout than the other crab we were offering up. Bubba quickly brought the fish to the boat; Stephen gaffed it, and bam in the box. Just after that bam the permit showed up. My pal Captain Glenn Taylor was there on a charter with us, we both pulled anchor and started to drift fish and it was “Katie Bar The Door”, it was permit galore. The next day, we met Adam Hall and father in-law Albert and ran 55 miles for some mangrove snapper, it was pretty sloppy with a confused sea with waves 2-3 coming from the west and south in no particular pattern, fun, but the new 29’Yellowfin made short work of it. I had called Glenn and arranged to meet him there to team up on the snapper, but he had company, uninvited follow him the 55 miles, and well the snapper thing it weren’t happenin’. We ran a farther and game on. Large Mango’s, Greater Amberjack, Lesser Amberjack, Bonita, Huge Gag Grouper (not in season because there aren’t any), Scamp Grouper, and Black Fin Tuna. Just a great couple of days with some of the areas greatest guys, not to mention world class athletes and community icons…so thanks fella’s it was wonderful.
Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:30 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday. Call in on Saturday’s to WFLA 970 for Reel Animal’s Saturday and Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am. Also visit our website at www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com and friend us on face book or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’."
Friday, April 6. 2012
Grouper season for all species except Gag and Goliath opened 1 April and all
reports were incredible! Capt. Billy took a crew out to 45’ of water and
limited out due west of Anna Maria Island. They caught Red Grouper up
to 22 pounds and Scamp to almost 9 pounds. The reports from guys who
went deeper were just as good or better. Frozen Sardines and Squid
worked well together as did live Pinfish. The Kingfish bite remained hot
as well. I took Bill Giesking from Pepin Distributing out with a few of
his clients and we caught 20 or so from 8 to 25 pounds slow trolling
live pilchards and cigar minnows in 40 to 50 feet of water. Almost every
bait we put out got struck within a minute or two of starting our
troll.
I recommend trolling versus anchoring up if looking for the
bigger fish. Inshore the Redfish, Snook and Trout bites all remain good
while big schools of Spanish Mackerel are invading the bay from almost
every angle. These guys are great targets for the kids as the action is
almost non stop. Look for the birds working the surface and you’ll find
the Macs. Load your livewells with fresh white baits from the Sunshine
Skyway bridge or one of the bay area markers and just go fishing. It’s
almost hard to not catch fish right now.
Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on
News CH8 at 6:30am and Sundays at 11:00am for the Reel Animals Fishing
Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to
9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals
Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.
Saturday, February 25. 2012
This weeks windy conditions pushed us inside to the residential canals to fish docks. The action was incredible! Redfish in all shapes and sizes, Big Trout, Sheepshead, Flounder and Snook all showed up. The Redfish, Snook and Trout were eating mostly live pilchards while the Sheepshead and Flounder preferred a live Shrimp fished right on the bottom with a ¼ ounce jig head. Some of the canals were so good we spent entire 4 hour charters in one canal working several different docks. Be sure to step up your leader as you will have some fish break you off. I use no less than a 30lb fluorocarbon leader on the docks.
Look for canals with good water movement and lots of old docks as these seem to produce the best. The docks around Apollo Beach, Tierra Verde, downtown Tampa and Pinellas Pointe are all great places to start. If you can fish these areas at night you will probably double your success. The dock lights attract the bait fish and put the big fish in the mood to eat. Fish the edges of the lights as the Reds, Snook and Trout will lay just outside the lights to ambush prey as it comes into the light. Be sure to take your time running around the bay in the dark as floating debris can do serious damage to your motor and make for a long cold evening.
Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and Sundays at 11:00am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 8:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.
Friday, February 17. 2012
After the cold front earlier this the water temps cooled down a good ten to fifteen degrees, depending on where you were. Later in the week the water warmed back up and the fish started to feed. The trout bite turned back on but the redfish are still a little slow to take the bait. If the future forecast holds true they should turn on any day now, as there are plenty of reds in the area. Also the black drum are back all over the bay, the key for me to catch these fish is to use a jig and position the boat off to the side, ahead of the school. Too many times fishermen will chase a school, from the rear, and this simply doesn’t work for two reasons. First they feel the pressure of something large chasing them, and two and probably the most important, they don’t eat out of that end. So take your turn they will swim by. Offshore the grouper bite remains better than we have ever seen, but you can’t keep them unless you are a commercial fisherman with the proper permits and licenses. The state elected to go concurrent with the Federal law so our grouper will not open in April as has been the norm but rather August. But don’t fret there are plenty of other fish to bring home. The blackfin tuna have shown up, Captain Larry McQuire reports in 120’ and are being taken on butterfly jigs. There are also great catches of snapper, yellowtail, hog, and mangrove, amberjack, and one that is over look but one of my favorites, grunts. Fried up there is nothing better. I have also received reports that the permit have shown up south of the bay area so they should be here right on time. Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:30 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday. Call in on Saturday’s to WFLA 970 for Reel Animal’s Saturday and Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am. Also visit our website @ www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com and friend us on face book or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’."
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