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Nice Sea Trout Morning

We got out this morning as light was just beginning to provide enough illumination to navigate without a spotlight. My older brother and his son-in-law were my guests for the trip. Amazingly they showed up at exactly 6 o'clock as agreed and we set out. We started out on a big 3-4 foot deep flat that always holds a few fish and drifted west.

The son-in-law, we will call him Matt, is from Indiana and gets out in the saltwater maybe twice a year. He has a very aggressive cast and thinks the harder he whips it the further it goes. I explained to him that it was much like a golf swing in that it is all about rhythm. He wouldn’t listen and I watched as he whipped the hell out of my St. Croix rod all morning. Anyhow he is first to get a top water plug in the water and within 3 casts he boats his first 15-16 incher. A few casts later he is ripping the lure out of their mouths he is so excited.

My brother on the other hand is also fishing a top water plug that he still insists doesn’t catch trout. It wasn’t long before he lands his first fish and I give him the ole “top water baits don’t work huh?” As we continued our drift, schools of mullet were getting busted by what appeared to be small Tarpon. The flats were incredibly alive this morning and provided a great “family” guided trip.

All in all we landed 15 fish, 8 for Matt, 6 for my brother and one whole one for me as well as losing another 10 fish. Almost all of them were keepers with the biggest going to Matt at 18+ inches. I spent most of the time being the nice “guide” and letting the guests have all the good hardware and clean water in front of the drift.

By 9:00 the bite was diminishing so we headed back in to make sure Matt didn’t land in the doghouse. Fifteen fish in less than 3 hours and I still had the whole day left to get some projects done.

I can’t think of a better way to start the weekend than this…

First Light Fun

Went out this morning at first light with a live well full of giant shrimp and the weather looking good. Came across all kinds of small trout with only a couple of keepers but mixed it up with 2 redfish and a three foot hammerhead.

I thought I had a giant red or trout because I was catching them left and right and he busted the surface when he took my shrimp. Unfortunately a hammerhead showed up.

He was about 3 feet long and fought like hell for about 30 minutes on 15Lb test and I didn’t even have a wire leader. It was a great fight but stole valuable time away from Trout fishing.

Get Rid of Stains on Your Boat & Gear

Over time even Stainless Steel will rust and your boat starts to look very used. I use a product called "Never Dull" that easily removes rust stains as well as most other marks and blemishes.

This unique product is a soft material that reminds me of heavy duty cotton. It contains a solvent that is truly amazing for removing marks on fiberglass and metal. It will remove most rust on fiberglass, aluminum, stainless steel, and even painted surfaces.

You can pick it up in a local Wall-Mart store and see for yourself.

Grouper Offshore

My fishing partner Chipper went offshore Saturday while I was at home rebuilding my dock. He took some live bait out 7 miles from Longboat Pass and tore em up. In all he caught 10+ grouper including this nice 20"+ fish.

Weather was a little on the rough side with seas 2-3 feet with an occasional 4-5 swell coming through. Look for the water to lay down as the Holidays approach.

The forecast calls for 2' seas for the next several days.

Snook in the Canals

Weather forced a shortened trip yesterday because of increasing winds from todays cold front coming through. We fished the canals around cortez and didn't have much luck. We did land one snook around 20" on a DOA shrimp out of the mangroves.

More later once the weather clears...

Live Baiting Around Docks

Saturday was another fun one in the Cortez area. My buddy and I loaded up the livewells with white bait and fished around the docks on the northwest end of Longboat Key in the afternoon.

Using light spinning tackle and freelining white bait we tossed lines around the docks and had good success. We caught grouper, trout, and a small snook. We also pulled out a 18" mackerel, imagine that.

Conditions:
Water temp 66 degrees, tide was about mid and not moving up or down but there was a slight current still moving in. Sun was out bright and wind was blowing around 5-7 knots.