Fishing Reports

Predictable cold fronts for the next few weeks is the normal weather pattern. Bait will be hard to find in most cases. This is that time of year to head into the local tackle shop and pick up artificial bait. I choose 3 different kinds, one on top of the water, one in the middle of the water, and one on the bottom. My top water choice is no secret. Zara spook jr. I prefer 2 colors, bone, and white with a red head. Most tackle shops also sell an item called tournament trailer. This is a treble hook with feathers tied to it. Take some type of cement and paint the threads around the base were the feathers are tied on, and it will last longer. I also try to make sure and purchase a quality hook. The next choice is a Mirrolure 27MR any color. This is a suspending twitch bait. This ...full report

Great Gag Grouper fishing now and through the new year. Plenty of Grouper to be caught. No problems finding fish, no shortage of fish. More fish this year than years previous. Call me for the truth on Grouper fishing. Have fun catching all the Grouper you want even in February or March. Grouper are plentiful and are not endangered, we catch and release over 100 Grouper alive on most trips! If you want nonstop action catching fish come out with me on the Gulf Grouper. ...full report

Sanibel Fishing during the holiday week of Christmas and New Years. Great weather and warmer water have the fish in a feeding pattern. Schools of Ladyfish, and Bluefish, can be found all over Pine Island Sound. The schools are easy to locate because there are so many birds and Dolphin feeding on them. Fishing close to the passes is still producing good numbers of Grouper. The Snook and Redfish are close to oyster bars. See ya on the water! Captain Greg Hood ...full report

Charter Boat Gulf Grouper Fishing Report- -Hernando Beach Awesome Grouper fishing here in the waters west of Hernando Beach. Plenty of good size Gag Grouper in all depths of water. 10 to 15 keeper size Grouper each trip has been the norm for a few months now. We hope this will continue in the weeks to come. Water temperatures have stabilized around 67 degrees and fishing has been very consistent. Additionally, we have caught plenty of large Grunts, Sea Bass, and Mangrove Snapper along with the Grouper. Hernando Beach Fishing Forecast: Larger Gag Grouper will continue to hang around with the stable water temperature. Tip of the week: Fish slower and chum a little to get the Grouper bite going. Look for the Grouper around the larger reef areas. Sea ya on the water, Capt ...full report

Fishing Sanibel and Pine Island Sound this week is great with rising water temperatures. Snook, Redfish, and Seatrout, are all feeding near the passes and on the grass flats. This is a great time of year to get that inshore slam on artificial. The Seatrout are getting bigger every year! Bob and Jordi Nemeth caught a nice 5 lb. Seatrout yesterday, and Jordi caught an inshore slam! See ya on the water! Captain Greg Hood ...full report

In between cold fronts the water temperature has gone up to 67 degrees and the Grouper fishing is outstanding. With perfect water conditions come spectacular fishing trips. Many anglers this week enjoyed limits of Gag Grouper. Some fish were in excess of 15 pounds. A slow approach has been the trick to make the Grouper bite. Just leave the bait on the bottom and do not move it. Unbelievable, but true this really works. Best baits are still Northern Mackerel, Grunt heads, and chunks of Mullet. Hernando Beach Fishing Forecast: Grouper season is at its peak. There is great fishing now! Sea ya on the water Capt Rick Rodriguez 727-992-9494 www.gulfgrouper.com ...full report

Had a killer day on the St. John's river Sunday 1-4-08. We put in at Salt Springs run along with about 100 other boats. We didn't feel like fighting the boats to look for beds so we headed out to the river. We fished rattle trap's and buzzbaits most of the morning, only 2 dinks. Then we headed up near the Ocklawaha river. At this point we were really trying everything in our boxes. Couldn't find any beds, trickworms, rattletraps, spinnerbaits weren't producing. I recently became a prostaff for elgrande lures and was sent a few samples of their mexican rattler, which is like a trick worm on crack. lol. I decided to try it out. I tied it on a carolina rig and fished it around a shell bed my partner had marked. Second cast I caught a 3lber. This worm is so big I thought I would have to really ...full report

Wow fished some clients on Tuesday of this week and we spanked em. I told the clients if the bait was still in the same spot we should be able to catch them. I pulled up in one area of the lake and yes the bait was there. With three lines in the water we had a fish on every 15 seconds or so. yes I said every 15 seconds. After about 3 hours the fishing started to slow and to the best we could keep track we caught close to 90 Bass. The fish are following the large pods of bait in the lake and if you know where they are the action can be fast and furious. Now for two days later we went back to the same spot and there was no bait anywhere. The bait and fish had moved probably to open water. Now we had to hunt. We moved to many different spots and caught 3 or 4 fish in each spot probably caught ...full report

Fishing this weekend has been kind of hit and miss. One day you catch em great and the next is just average. On Sunday one of my clients caught 37 fish with the biggest one being 6lbs. and I caught 21 fish. I am finding huge balls of bait in the lake now so the fishing will only get better. The schooling fish should get crazy with some 100 fish days to be had if you know how to catch them. Now we are getting unusually cooler weather for this time of year we probably won't get any spawners till January. When this happens the sight fishing will get good. See ya. ...full report

12/12/08 Took 2 charters on approaching cold front on Lake Toho Friday. On my first trip took Ted Sheppe and Lars Church old clients from Florida. We started out it was cloudy windy and looking like rain. Ted wanted to use Shiners so we tried to find a sheltered area to anchor up where I had been catching a lot of fish but it was just too windy there. Having fished Toho for over 25 years I know that if the lake gets muddy it can be very tough fishing so I went to a spot that was out of the wind somewhat and it was a great move. We caught 14 fish up to 8 lbs. 6 of the fish were 5lbs. or larger. The first trip was ½ day so came in about 11:00 a.m. Had 2 very happy customers. My second client Robert Mantel from North Carolina was waiting at the dock when I got there. As you may know when ...full report

Took 2 people from Latvia to the Butler Chain mid morning for a ½ day, they caught 14 fish on crank baits, top water and split shot rigged sinkos. The fishing was a little slow when we first got there but it pick up as the water warmed a couple degrees. We found the fish on a ledge dropping off to 15 feet of water. All the fish were 2-4 lbs. Great Fishing! Capt Pete Matson www.a1bassguideservice.com ...full report

No, Not Tales, Fish Tails! That's right Redfish are tailing every where on the Mosquito Lagoon. The Reds are starting to bunch up in their winter styles and getting out early you can see these wonders of nature tailing in the shallows of the Mosquito Lagoon at day break and beyond. The main key with these fish are as always to approach them with extreme caution and patience. The winter or cooler months of fishing with me are my favorite times to fish out here. The weather is PERFECT! Shallow water, well I love it too! I go light...VERY LIGHT! This alone for one will allow you to draft less and two can make polling a lot easier. The majority of the fish my clients and myself are catching are in 10-15 inches of water and I am able to pole up to within just a few feet of them. The best choices ...full report

Fishing Report from Spotted Tail A new year is upon us. My resolutions are to lose ten pounds and ride my bike more, as well as learning to use Lightroom in an expert fashion. That ought to be enough for a few months, anyway! On Monday long time friend Rick DePaiva and his friend (my new friend!) David McCleaf joined me for a day’s paddling on the Banana River Lagoon. We launched our boats in the fog and began our paddle. The first fish I saw, I at first thought was a dolphin. The fog was playing tricks with my depth perception. It turned out to be a large Black Drum, tailing and happy. Ricky rudely interrupted his happiness by dropping a black streamer near him. When he ate, Ricky stuck him, and happy time was over. The beast was at least 30 pounds, a heck of a way to start the ...full report

The start of the new year has turned out to be really great. The weather is working out well and tagging right along with it is some really awesome fishing. The past several weeks have actually been really, really good. Almost everyday I was on the water with a client and pretty much an overall success was accomplished. Even a few days fished for myself just to keep in touch with these beauties of the back waters. I am always following the feeding patterns and habits of these beautiful creatures of the flats we like to call game fish. The past days and weeks have produced(and continue to produce) exceptionally great catches of Redfish, Trout, Black Drum and even a few mixed bag fish. Let's start of with the Redfish bite. Reds have been roaming the flats early and throughout the morning/day. ...full report

INSHORE: January will be full of sunny days and windy conditions for most of the month. We can expect a few days a week to enjoy and the rest can be a challenge to get out on the water. Offshore is usually choppy to rough seas, but will hold some great Sailfishing for those who can get out on the ocean. We will be playing cat and mouse with the wind, but there is always somewhere on the river to enjoy a day of fishing. Trout season re-opens and many anglers will be out with their popping corks on the grass flats. Pompano will also be cruising around the river & surf and you never know where or when you can pick up some of these great tasting fish. The Grouper bite along the channel will still be good as will be the dock fishing for them. Jetties will hold lots of Bluefish, Mackerel and ...full report

Happy New Year to everyone and best wishes for a great 2009! When I reported last month I commented how fantastic the fishing was...well it hasn’t slowed down, in fact it only got better. It was a great way to close a busy year as I fished with charter clients from many states across the country and they weren’t disappointed with summer like conditions of 80 degrees and glass calm days throughout the month. Our catch numbers have held steady with a 10-20 fish average on most trips for light tackle spin fisherman. My fly fisherman have really done well with too many chances to count each day at Redfish, Trout, Snook, and even some Tarpon; and on most days got at least 5-10 eats. All of the fish are now firmly into their winter patterns and favorite holding spots. It’s my favorite time ...full report

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! INSHORE: There has been a lot of fish reported this week starting with the Sheepshead, Sand Perch, Croaker and Black Drum. The Sheepshead bite has been going off any where you can find a little structure. Try using a live shrimp or fiddler crabs. The area bridges are holding a lot of Sand Perch, Croaker, Black Drum and Sheepshead. Try a live shrimp or a piece of frozen shrimp. Starting today Trout season is open again. Look for good Trout action around Bear Point, the Midway Road area and up at Harbor Branch. Try a live shrimp fished under a Cajun Thunder cork or a soft plastic bait like a D.O.A. shrimp. Still a few Redfish and catch and release Snook around Round Island and Queen's Cove. These fish have been taking small Pinfish. Look for the Spanish Mackerel, ...full report

Ending The 2008 Fishing Season Offshore Fort Lauderdale - Bring it on 2009! The Winter season is definitely making it's presence felt here in South Florida with cold fronts pushing through one after another. We do prefer our 80 degree afternoons, but these chilly spurts bring more than just the shivers to us Fort Lauderdale locals, it's the start of our red hot winter fishing season. In November, we had the best Sailfish bite I've seen in years! Kite Fishing is key when it comes to catching a Sailfish. Live Google-Eyes dangling from the kites really seems to turn them on. With moderate winds coming from the North and the East, we were averaging 5 - 15 Sailfish a day. It has slowed down a bit, but not much. Watching those Sailfish jump 5 feet high, 5 times in a row is the ultimate adrenalin ...full report