1/18 Fishing Report and MORE

The fishing was pretty good. We had several hook-ups with redfish and trout. Most were caught on Exude RT Slugs. I don't know if the fish were short striking or what but we only landed about 1/3 of the fish we hooked. I think the total for fish landed for the day was 8 reds and 3 trout.

When will this wind quit blowing? I've already had to cancel 4 charters this month due to marine warnings. That's not good for the old wallet.

I have had a little good new this month though. For starters, apparently I have fallen into the web building business on a part time basis. I was contracted for two sites this month. Both of which are nearly complete. You can check out my "web building site" at www.captainclaywebdesign.com

Also, Capt. Greg McCullough and I have decided on a production studio to shoot, edit, and produce our upcoming fishing show. Multivision Media will be shooting our pilot for "Backwater, Beaches, and Bays" sometime before the middle of March. The show will air nationally on The Sportsman Channel and possibly locally on Brighthouse 47.

The Wind is Blowing and I don't Care

A friend and fellow guide called me tonight and said that he has to get out of the house tomorrow. The wind and rain has kept both of us at home the last couple of days and we're both tired of it. We're heading out tomorrow despite the less than stellar weather forecast. Fishing report to follow.

Playing Catch Up

I've kind of been neglecting the blog for the last month or so. I was very busy in December with charters due to our unusually warm weather and that kept me busy writing fishing reports. Also, I stayed home instead of going on Christmas vacation so I could squeeze in the clients that wanted to fish around the holidays. Anyway, this week the wind has really decided to blow and that's led to a slow week for me so I thought I would catch up here on the blog.

The redfish bite right now has been great. Recently we've seen the average size of the fish increase to where it's not been unusual to get a fish to the boat over 30" long. Trout fishing has either been phenomenal or terrible. It seems that the few days following a cold front makes them bunch up and easy to catch but if we have a few days of warm weather they spread out and are hard to find.

2008 looks like it will be a jam up year for running charters as I have already scheduled trips for February and March and I'm already getting calls for April, May, and even June. Hopefully the wind won't blow all that much like it did last spring.

Picky Eaters - New Port Richey, FL

Maybe it's the cold front we just had pass through or maybe it's the fact that I ran out of all of my favorite lures and just used some stuff I bought in the bargain bin at Fisherman's World this week. The fish have been eating so well for the past few weeks that I figured I could get away with using a bottle cap with hooks on it if I had too. I guess that's not the case. I'll be heading back up there to get the good stuff this weekend during their "Fishing Frenzy Sale" I guess.

I had only one Mangrove Red colored Exude RT slug in the whole boat and it drew all 8 strikes for me before it was finally destroyed. Nothing else could entice a bite. If I was stranded on a sub-tropical island that had shallow grass flats surrounding it, and I could only have one lure, that would be my choice. Not only have I caught the most fish on it, but all my personal bests were caught on it. I caught a 53" Redfish in Mosquito Lagoon on one, a 44.5" Snook in upper Tampa Bay on one, and a 31" trout in the Indian River on one. Anyway... I'll do my best to make sure I never run out again.

I was fishing in New Port Richey again today to get ready for some up coming charters. I was poking around in more nooks and crannies that I haven't hit before and also checking on one spot that's been holding some big trout. The trout were still there and the redfish were everywhere. However, like I mentioned before, they were picky eaters.

There are redfish on nearly every flat between the Anclote River and Hudson. I'm finding most of them in lass than 1.5' of water and they are hanging on the edges of mullet schools. One thing i did notice today was that they were bunched up more than they had been in the past few weeks. Maybe this cold front schooled them up as I pushed 3 separate schools of 75 fish ore more.

If you're looking for reds in this area, just get on your trolling motor and go. If you start pushing fish, slow down and work the area real hard. They will settle down and chew for you, once you find them, as long as you slow down and don't make too much noise.

Christmas is coming and I usually go see my family for a week and then go deer Hunting for a week. For the first time in 10 years I am staying home. I'd like to spend some of that time fishing with you guys so if you're going to be around during your Christmas vacation, book a charter with me and we'll tear into some fish.

Big Fun With My Son

I love hanging out with my three year old son, Cade. I especially love going fishing with him. A couple of times a week he and I make a trip down to our neighborhood lake and fish from the dock. He usually tears up the bluegill and I help him land them. I have seen and hooked some absolute monster bass there in the past and I finally got one. Only problem is, now my son thinks bluegill are boring and wants to catch "a big old bass" like dad. So that's the new mission on the frequent trips to the lake. He's gonna' catch one "just like Dad".

Timing is everything... lately.

Have you ever told a joke that would have been funny two minutes ago, but at the moment you chose to blurt the joke out, it was too late to garner a chuckle? Well... I had bad timing today in one spot today. Luckily, I hit another spot at just the right time.

I picked up my charter today and I made the bone head decision to not catch bait prior to picking them up.

The big trout bite had been on fire and all you needed was a 1/8th oz. jig head with any soft plastic on it to load up. My guys jumped in the boat and I made the fatal flaw of announcing that, "we might catch 100 keeper trout today." They were excited, and so was I, until we showed up at the spot and only got one bite in an hour. Granted it was a very nice 22" trout but I was about 99 fish short of meeting my prediction. Those fish will probably be in those holes again on a lower tide but I had scheduled this trip around high water. Bad timing on my part.

Well, now that I made the great decision to not catch bait before picking up my clients (I almost always catch bait prior to pick up) I had to get some pinfish in the well. Luckily it only took about 10 minutes to load up and off we headed towards the mainland in New Port Richey.

It took a little time on the trolling motor to find a nice sized school of mullet, but when we did, we put the Power Pole down and started slinging baits. It wasn't to long before we were getting slammed by mid-slot redfish. We boated 8 in 30 minutes and then we had to get off of the flat before we were high and dry.

We only got two more bites after that rush today, another redfish and another really nice trout. That's the second trip in a row where the bite lasted less than 30 minutes. Granted, we have done well in those short time periods but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if the bite lasted a little longer.

All I can say is that if you know where fish are, stay on them. They are going to bite eventually and if you aren't there when that brief window is open, you may miss out. Again, look for milling mullet. Throw live or cut pinfish, 10" under a cork, into the mullet schools, and if your timing is right, you could be in for a fast and furious bite.

What's the best pitch in baseball?

I know this may sound like a strange question to ask on a fishing blog but this question was posed to me many years ago, when I was playing minor league baseball for the Yankees, and I believe the principle behind it's answer is applicable to fishing as well. I was on a team filled with talented pitchers. Some of us had tremendous fastballs, some of us had nasty changeups, and I was gifted with wicked curveball. We were all having one problem though. We were walking a lot of people. So one day, our pitching coach pulled the pitching staff aside and asked us all, "What's the best pitch in baseball." One guy said, "a fastball", another guy said, "a curve ball", and another guy said that the best pitch in baseball was a changeup. The coach just laughed and said that we were all wrong. The best pitch in baseball was a strike. It didn't matter the style of the pitch you threw if it wasn't a strike, he said. You can't control if the batter will hit the "strike" you throw but you can be pretty sure he won't have to hit the "ball" you throw. He said that no matter what style of pitch you throw that you have a much greater chance of getting an out with a "strike" than a "ball".

I've been hearing a lot of talk at tackle shops and reading a lot of posts on internet forums lately about, "what's the best bait?" I always want to interject and ask, "Do you know where the fish are?" Because you can have the best lure, live bait, tackle, and boat but if you don't know where the fish are then what do the other things matter? Do you see where I'm going with this? I can have a great curveball but if I can't throw it for a strike then I'm not going to get any outs in baseball. I can have the coolest, bestest, most hyped lure on the market but if I don't know where the fish are I'm not going to get a bite.

After our coach taught us what the best pitch was, he suggested that we work on that instead of getting more break on our curveball or more juice on our fastball. With fishing, I would suggest you work on the ability to find fish.

Now you have to keep in mind, that the people you know that seem to always catch fish, don't just go and pull up to a spot and start hammering fish without doing their homework. I can promise you that those people have spent many hours searching, hunting, and just looking for fish. If you want to just be able to go catch fish and not study the environment you're going to be fishing, then I can almost guarantee that you will have several frustrating days of not catching fish for ever day you have where you do catch good numbers of fish.

Here's how I work on finding the "strike" zone. .

Just like with a baseball glove in baseball, I think a trolling motor is essential for helping you find redfish and snook. It allows you to cover more water while minimally affecting the awareness fish have of your presence. I use the trolling motor to break down a shoreline by what I call "sampling". The primary goal here is not to catch fish but to find fish, all the while doing it in a time efficient manor. This is not an instant result technique for catching a lot of fish, rather a way to build a repertoire of fishing spots so that your future trips will be more successful.

So, I'll pick a shoreline that I want to "sample". I decide on a starting point and an end point. I work the shoreline rather quickly throwing lures that I know have worked for me in the past. I know that I will not be covering the area in depth by doing this but that isn't my goal. I'm just trying to cover as much water as possible while gaining an understanding of where the largest quantities of fish are holding on this shoreline. Think of it like a presidential poll. Do they call every potential voter or do they take a sample from a select few people? That's what were doing. As I work the shoreline I make note of every fish I see and every strike I get. The more visual signs of fish and the more bites in a single area raises the level of importance of that spot in my mind. All the while being able to eliminate the areas with few signs of fish and few to no strikes.

So then I'll go home and open up Google maps online or I'll break out an aerial photo of the places I fished that day. I'll highlight the places that were most productive and make note of the weather and tides. To really drill down an area, I will follow the same routine in the same area but at different times of the year and at different tides.

After I've figure out how to throw a "strike" in a particular area, then I can worry more about pitching the best "style" of bait. The "strike" is number one, without it, you've got nothing.

Once you learn how to be in the "strike" zone on a regular basis, you need to come back and check out my blog entry about picking the right bait for the right situation (coming soon).