Archive for September, 2011
Got out with photographer Jose Chavez this evening to fish the full moon at night on the grass flats in Tampa Bay. We put int around 7pm and fished the falling tide until around 11. Unfortunately the wind was blowing a steady 10-15 mph out of the NNE which made things a little difficult. Using the light of the full moon to our advantage, we were able to locate a school of redfish tailing in less than a foot of water. My first cast ahead of the school resulted in an instant hook up with a 24″ trout, I put my rod in between my legs then threw my other rod with a jig into the fish and hooked up with a top of the slot redfish. Jose also threw into the fish and hooked a top of the slot fish himself.
After landing the fish we stopped to take photos, then got back into the action catching several large trout and redfish until the tide finished going out around 11. After the tide went slack, we opted to head in because of the wind and how late it was getting. Baits of choice tonight were MirrOLure She Dogs and various soft plastics including exude darts, DOA cals and gulp shrimp.
Paddled out this afternoon into Tampa Bay hoping to catch a gap in the rain storms that have been passing through our area due to tropical storm Lee. The winds were out of the south and at my back on the paddle out, allowing me to get to my intended target area fairly quickly. It didn’t take long for my MirrOLure She-Dog to be met by hungry snook. The dropping barometer and hard outgoing tide created a perfect scenario for snook to feed, and though I have no targeted them much since the freeze a few winters back, this was an opportunity that is hard to pass up.
Working my She-Dog through cuts in the mangroves and over potholes on the grassflat I found hungry line-siders everywhere that couldn’t resist my topwater. Around 6 pm the heavens opened up on me forcing me to put away my camera. I caught several more snook in the rain, including my biggest of the evening. Unfortunately because of the rain, I was unable to get photographic evidence of her, but oh well. She’ll remain just another fish story.
On the paddle in, the rain finally subsided and I was able to get the camera back out for some shots of snook hanging out on a dock light. I caught a few snooklets off the lights and a small redfish when I decided to call it an evening. The bite is heating up all over Tampa Bay and the weather is starting to feel like fall. This is one of the best times of year to get out and on some fish in the kayaks, give me a call and I can show you where the live and the techniques you need to catch ‘em!
My attempt at a picture of a snook crashing the She-Dog…
This evenings hot color was the MirrOLure She-Dog in GCRCH 
Another snooklet falls victim to the She-Dog..
I was trying hard to get a good action shot of a snook shaking its head or jumping, to not much avail
A nice slot sized snook, however snook season is closed along the West Coast of Florida indefinitely, so they’ll all have to be “catch & release”..
Can you see the snook? There were probably 20 or more fish hanging on this one particular light.
My article for this month’s Onshore-Offshore magazine was chosen to be the feature article for the month as well as
a picture of myself taken by Jose Chavez that was used for the cover. Check it out! Be sure to pick one up at your local tackle shop (they’re free!) or visit their website and view online. The article discusses different tactics for using a spoon to catch redfish. http://www.OnshoreOffshore.com
On Sat. 8/27/11 I fished the Hardcore Kayak Anglers Club tournament based out of Ft. Desoto. With a tropical storm in the gulf, the days conditions were less then desirable. With winds gusting to 30+mph and sustained right around 15-20 mph, this is not a day I would ordinarily go kayaking. But alas, at 6:00 am sharp myself, and 21 other anglers launched into the darkness. Lower Tampa Bay, especially Ft. Deosto, is an area I do the majority of my kayak fishing so I had a pretty good game plan. I spent the first hour of the day throwing top water plugs along mangrove shorelines hoping to catch a snook. With only a few small reds to show for by around 7:30 am, I decided to head to an area I knew had been holding a school of redfish for quite some time.
I paddled over to where I believed the redfish would be and setup, anchoring with the wind at my back to allow me to make long casts from my kayak to the fish. My first cast into the area resulted in an immediate hook up, and a 28.5″ redfish. After releasing this fish, I caught around a dozen more fish, all about the same size, but none bigger. After about an hour or more of playing with the redfish I decided it was time to catch a trout. My first cast into a set of deep potholes yielded a small 15.5″ trout, but still enough to have me on the board with a redfish and a trout early in the morning. I decided to paddle in, and relaunch and fish some canals and bridges in attempt to catch a snook.
I put my kayak into the back of my truck and pulled out of my first spot at 9:30, at this point in the morning I knew I was making good time and with the tide scheduled to turn and go out a little after 10 I thought I was in pretty good shape to catch a snook. After relaunching and paddling back out into the ferocious west wind, I began hitting docks for a snook. The only problem with my plan was that because of the high west winds, the incoming tide was freakishly high, and the out going tide never really started going out. This left me with little water movement for the remainder of the day, and no snook to show for.
Upon returning to the weigh-in I would find that my 44″ of a redfish and a trout would be good to earn me the biggest redfish of the tournament, but not quite enough to place “in the money”. Only one person slammed, with a 49″ slam of one redfish, one snook and one trout. This means that it would’ve only taken a snook over 5″ long to win… go figure, but that’s tournament fishin for ya. But not all was lost, my prize for winning largest redfish was an Aqaubound carbon Manta Ray paddle..! Here are the only pics I have of the day..
28.5″ redfish..
Me with some of the winners (second from the right) and my new paddle..
All in all it was a good day with good friends, and well worth the paddling in the brutal wind. I highly encourage anyone to check out this club’s website, http://hckaclub.com and join/participate in the forums, tournaments and other regularly scheduled events.
