Archive for December, 2011
Got out with Mike this morning in the kayaks on Tampa Bay looking for redfish and anything else willing to eat our jigs. We started fishing depressions and pot holes landing a dozen or more trout and a few flounder. We moved up onto the flat into shallower water and started seeing tailing redfish. Casting into potholes, and at tailing/cruising redfish we landed many fish in the upper/over slot size range. As the tide came in the fish moved their way onto the flats and began tailing aggressively.We landed several more fish before calling it an early day to get back for Christmas day festivities.
As always, all fish were landed on red/gold flake MirrOLure Lil Johns on weighted weedless worm hooks. It is important to remember to rig lightly for these spooky fish. No more than 20# fluorocarbon leader is a must and long casts to avoid startling the fish.
Got out Sam to fish the low incoming tide in the afternoon. With the tide moderately high and incoming fish were scattered across the grass flats, tailing and pushing in very shallow water. Using MirrOLure Lil Johns in red/gold flake on a weighted weedless hook we landed several large upper/overslot sized fish. Temps in the high 70’s-80’s makes for very comfortable conditions, especially while wading to these spooky fish. 
Got out with Sean, a fellow employee at Osprey Bay, to do some lowtide fishing in Upper Tampa Bay. We launched the kayaks around 11 am anticipating a lowtide around noon. We fished deep water with Lil Johns on 1/4 oz jig heads and landed a dozen small redfish and trout.
Once the tide began moving in we moved out onto the flats to look for larger redfish. Lighting was poor but I was able to sight cast to one large over slot redfish that resulted in a hook up. This fish ate the gold/glow DOA shad tail. Sean also connected to two other slot fish on the flat as well.
This time of year is the best for sight fishing to large redfish on shallow, crystal clear grass flats in Tampa Bay. If casting to tailing, laid up and cruising fish is what you want to do, then now is the time to go!
Got Jordan out during some low tides recently in Tampa Bay for some redfish action. At our first stop we caught several trout to 20″ and a few reds to 24″. There were mullet guys running around the area we wanted to fish so we decided to relaunch the kayaks and fish elsewhere. After a short paddle in, we were back in the trucks and on to our next destination.
Our next spot payed off as we found tons of redfish laid up in potholes waiting for the incoming tide. We caught fish after fish until the tide got too high and the fish were able to escape the potholes and scatter onto the grass flats. Our bait of choice today was MirrOlure Lil John in red/gold flake and golden bream on 1/4 oz jigheads and weighted weedless hooks.
With moderate temps the redfish action remains steady in Tampa Bay this December. Fishing is hot, lets’ get out there! Give me a call and I’ll put you on them!
Got out with Trent in the kayaks to do some post cold front low tide fishing. We started around 9 am to catch the tail end of the out going tide and fished for several hours into the incoming. The bite was hot right off the bat as we connected to low slot redfish on almost ever cast with several snook, trout and flounder mixed in. The redfish were on the smaller side but we landed several quality sized snook between 25-32″. As always the bait of the day was a MirrOlure Lil John in red/gold glitter on their 1/4 oz twist on jighead. The final tally for the day was 30+ redfish, 17 snook, 2 flounder and a handful of trout to round out our slams. Enjoy the pics!
Got out with my buddy Trent and Sam Root of www.saltyshores.com near the mouth of Tampa Bay to fish some low tide potholes. Sam and I met on a fishing forum many years ago and have been fishing together ever since, he know owns and operates Saltyshores as well as the Salty Fly (the largest fly fishing tournament in Florida).
The winds were blowing a stiff 15+mph making the tide extremely low. Fishing potholes with MirrOlure Lil Johns we caught somewhere around 40 fish including redfish to 29″, trout to 22″ and several keep flounder to 17″. Here are the pics courtesy of Sam, be sure to check out his site for more great photographer from all around the state and beyond!
Got Brad from GAFF magazine out on an awesome pre front lowtide bite in Tampa Bay… our day’s catching will be featured in an article by Brad in the January addition of GAFF magazine, be sure to pick one up!
Fishing potholes during the end of the falling tide and beginning of the incoming Brad and I caught well over 50 redfish, trout and flounder. All the fish were caught on MirrOlure’s Little John on 1/4oz jigheads. The bite was hot and we were hooking up every cast for nearly three hours straight. Here’s the pics.. 
My girlfriend was recently in town over Thanksgiving break home from school in Gainesville so I finally had a chance to get her out in the kayaks. We fished a low tide near the mouth of Tampa Bay and caught 12 redfish, lots of trout and a hefty 18″ flounder that came home for dinner. No monster reds today, but all respectable lower slow and some underslot fish mixed in with the biggest being 23″ or about 3-4 pounds. Todays fish were caught on DOA cal paddle tails on 1/4 oz jig heads. 
Got Sean and his buddy out for a few hours in some less then desirable conditions but we still got the job done. It was windy and rainy but Sean still got his first snook. He lost a few others, but was able to land one little guy for his first ever. Good job Sean! They’re only going to get bigger now. All todays were fish caught on MirrOdines and She Dogs from MirrOLure.
