A Guide's Mind

1/18 Fishing Report and MORE

2008-01-22T00:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-17T21:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-05T18:01:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-05T18:00:00.001-08:00

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.

2007-11-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-11-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

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).

Quick trip, quick bite, quick report.

2007-11-15T17:01:00.001-08:00

Tom called me a while back about a fishing charter for he and some of his friend that were in town on a business trip. He said that they wouldn't have a lot of time to fish (a little over three hours) but that they would rather get out on the water instead of play golf like some of the other guys at his corporate get together. When they arrived we all made quick intros and rushed to the fishing grounds. We needed these fish to cooperate and we needed them to do it fast.

The first spot was a group of oyster bars that were beginning to get flooded by the incoming tide. Perfect timing for such a quick trip. Luckily we had a live well full of greenbacks that a fellow captain was generous enough to share with me (because my bait spot had run dry) and when we pulled up we started chumming. The first bite came on a really nice trout but we lost him at the boat. It took a little while to get another bite but when we did, everybody started hooking up. The bite only lasted 15 minutes but in that time we managed 7 or 8 redfish and three really nice trout.

Redfish are everywhere in the Tarpon Springs area right now. Just look for mullet and you'll find them. The last couple of days they have become more reluctant to take an artificial bait but if you have some pinfish or green backs they will bite.

Mission Accomplished

2007-11-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

My very important client arrived early this morning. Very early. We were supposed to catch the last of the incoming high tide today which would put us in the water around 11am. However, he tugged on my bed sheets around 6am and quietly whispered, "Daddy, it's time to go fishing." I assured him that the fish were still snoozing and that he should climb into the bed with me and nap a little longer.

When we finally got ready to hit the road, all my son Cade could do was tell Mommy and his little sister that he and Daddy were going fishing and that he was going to catch a big redfish. Cade has been on the boat before but not for a fishing trip with just he and Daddy. He was excited to say the least.

First up on the agenda was to get some bait. Instead of trying to manage the cast net and watch after him, I decided to stop at Hart's 1 Stop in Tarpon springs and pick up a dozen pinfish and a dozen shrimp. From there we headed to the boat ramp in New Port Richey.

Once in the water we worked our way to one of the spots I mentioned in yesterday's report. On our way there, Cade just had to play with the shrimp. He asked all sorts of questions like, "Can the shrimp swim? Why do they have so many legs?" and, "Can we eat these?". He kept me busy for the 10 minute idle out to the mouth of the river.

When we rolled up to the first spot, I didn't see much in the way of fish. Yesterday I could see reds everywhere. I may have been early though as yesterday I hit this spot three hours later in the tide. Oh well, I cut the first pinfish in half and chunked him out there. I stuck the rod in a rod holder and resumed answering the deep questions of a three year old little boy.

It wasn't 5 minutes before the rod bent over and I handed it to Cade. He struggled to turn the handle of the reel but I told him that he could do it all by himself. He finally beat the fish and drew him up beside the boat. I pulled the little 19" red out of the water and he grinned and said, "I caught a big redfish!" I said, "You sure did son. Good job!" We took a quick photo and released the fish to fight another day.

We didn't get another bite today. Mostly because we had done what we had set out to do and Cade's mind was occupied with accomplishing other goals. He wanted to drive the boat for one thing and he wanted to make the boat go fast like the boats he saw leaving the river. I granted both wishes and we called it a day.

What an awesome feeling to take your son "real" fishing for the first time. We've spent countless hours on the dock of our neighborhood pond catching bass and bluegill, but taking him on the boat and seeing him get excited about landing a fish that I am passionate about was a real joy. When the day was over and I was putting him in the car seat, he looked at me and with a childlike sincerity he said, "Thanks for going fishing with me Dad. I had fun with you." The word "Awesome" is the only one that comes to mind every time I remember that moment.

On the way to go fishing.

The ride home after fishing.

Scouting for Tomorrow's V.I.P. Client

2007-11-08T17:47:00.000-08:00

My son turned 3 years old last month. He's become my best fishing buddy... on the neighborhood dock at least. But now, as he would say, he's a "big boy". When I left this morning to go check some new water for fish, he all but cried his eyes out that I didn't take him along with me. He's been on the boat with me before but never for a serious fishing trip. Usually it's just been a trip to the beach to hang out with his mom, his little sister, and me. So today when I saw those bright blue eyes turn dim with tears because he couldn't go, I decided that if I found good numbers of fish today that I would take him out tomorrow and let him try to catch his first redfish.

I didn't leave the house early today because I knew the place I wanted to check out and it required a high tide. High tide in New Port Richey was going to be around 11:45am today. So I rolled out of bed at the crack of 8am and took my time prepping the little boat (Ranger 169 Ghost). I left the house about 10am and hit the Ramp in New Port Richey around 11am.

I have been fishing out of the big boat (Ranger 2200 bay) so much lately that I forgot that the Ghost had the back of it strapped down. So I backed it in and tried to get it off the trailer 2 or 3 times before I remembered that it wasn't going to come off the trailer until I let it loose of it's binds. What was really cool was that the ramp had absolutely no traffic but there were a few people at Hooters watching me back the boat down like an amature, all the while a big fat sticker on my back truck window proudly said, "Capt. Clay Fishing Charters" on it. I laughed to myself at how silly I looked while sporting an advertisement about my naval prowess on my truck. Oh well... no body's perfect.

Once I was through with my circus at the ramp I headed South to a little bay that I had seen a nice school of fish at over two months ago. There was no guarantee that they would be there today but it just seemed right. When I shut the motor off and calmly dropped the trolling motor, I approached the shallow point where I'd seen the school of redfish before. They weren't there. That kind of placed a little doubt in my mind about the day's plans. Never the less, I pressed on. I worked the shoreline for about another 150 yards and I spotted the first fish. He was lying there undisturbed and I made a perfect cast. When the bait came close he turned it down. More doubt crept into my mind. But it wouldn't stay for long as I quickly found that he was the lead fish in a school of over 50 fish. I hit the Powerpole and began making calculated casts. The third cast produced the first fish of the day. It wasn't a large fish but it was a fish and I felt the doubt begin to melt away.

Hooking and landing that fish spooked the remainder of that school. I never found them again but I kept working the shoreline and when I came to a similar spot I found a similar school of fish. This was a long stretch of shallow water lined with mangroves. But every 200-300 yards or so, there was a break in the mangroves and a shallow sand flat with spars grass extending form the water. The fish seemed to be milling around the grass that extended from the shallow water. I hooked another 3 fish at the next little sand cove.

After I had thoroughly bothered that small school of fish I moved on. Eventually, I came to a tight cut through which opened up to a large back country bay. Just inside this bay was a small island that had a deep cut along it's Northern shore. The water was crystal clear and I could see them . Tons of redfish were just hanging on the edge of this deep hole. I began casting around the edges and managed 6 more fish before the tide started dropping to a point where I needed to leave.

On the way back to the ramp I stopped at a few islands near the mouth of a river that looked similar to the last island that had produced so well. I decided to try them. As I worked my way up to them I spotted what looked like a submerged log. It wasn't. It was a 35"+ snook. I tried my best to get a good cast on her before I floated over her and I thought I have made a good presentation. But she disagreed and turned up her nose and swam off. That's when I saw all the redfish. They were everywhere. I worked those Islands for another hour and caught 8-9 more redfish and 1 nice trout.

It looks like I've found my fish for tomorrow's very important client. My 3 year old son. He's never caught a redfish before and if he gets one tomorrow he may never remember it; but I will and I can't wait.

Today the fish were broken up into two groups. I found good numbers of fish that seemed to like a change in a shallow, mangrove lined, flat. Whenever I found a large sand patch with tall grass in it I found fish. I also had good luck near islands that had deep cuts next to them. I tried a variety of baits including clear/gold flake Exude RT Slugs, gold spoons, and Mirr-O-Lure Mirr-O-Mullet. Not of which coaxed a nibble. But, the hot bait for the day was Gulp shrimp in a natural color rigged on a Mustad weedless weighted hook. Total for the day was 15 redfish and 1 trout. Check back tomorrow for my son's fishing report. I have high hopes.

It was all so cool.

2007-11-05T15:18:00.000-08:00

What a cool day. Literally and figuratively. A good friend of mine, Capt. Greg DeVault, was going to be out of town today and referred some of his family friends to me for a day on the water chasing redfish and trout in the Tarpon Springs area. Leonard, Andrew, and Emily own boats of their own that they can use when they are down here visiting from Pittsburgh but they wanted to have someone take them out and show them a few tips and tricks. I was more than happy to oblige.

The time changed this past weekend so I had to get up an hour earlier to head to the ramp to catch bait. There was a brisk chill in the air as I dropped the boat in the water and I wished I had thought to wear pants instead of shorts. I did have a light jacket in the boat so I knew I would survive. Leonard had said that he had tried for greenbacks this past weekend with limited success and he wondered if he had done something wrong. After catching bait, I arrived at the boat ramp to pick up my crew for the day and I was able to confirm that he had done nothing wrong. I too had trouble finding the little snook candies. I did however manage to fill the well with plenty of pinfish and that was fine to me because I know redfish love them.

After the introductions and loading the boat, we hit a dock near the ramp that has been successful for both snook and redfish in the past, merely because the tide was right for it. The fish however didn't get the message. We only gave that spot 5 minutes and headed to the only spot South of the Anclote River that I wanted to hit today. When we arrived we could see a few mullet milling around and that's always a good sign. We had to reposition the boat once before Emily had managed to coax the first redfish of the day to the boat. For a good hour after that we managed several more bites that resulted in a couple of keepers that went in the well. One of which had been hooked before as evidenced by the hook lodged in his throat and the line still hanging out of his mouth. That guy must have been hungry.

After the bite died down here, we headed North of the Anclote River and North of Gulf Harbors to find some productive oyster bars. It wasn't long before Leonard had hooked up with the first fish at this spot and we all thought it was a lower slot redfish. It turned out to be a very nice sized trout. Because we were North of Fred Howard park, the season is still open for trout, so this guy went in the well. We continued to work the edges of the oyster bars for another couple of hours and we boated another nice trout and a few more redfish to round out the day.

The productive bait for the day was both live and cut pinfish all fished 12" under a weighted float. We fished both the last of the incoming tide as well as the first of the leaving tide and the fish bit on both. Cuts around oyster bars and shallow flats near the edge of a channel were the hot spots. And, apparently the best bites are to be had by really cool 12 year old girls. Emily stole the show today landing the most redfish all by herself.

Cool weather, cool people, and hot fishing. What more can you ask for?

Super Troopers.

2007-11-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

That's what my clients were this weekend. They were Super Troopers. I knew the weather was going to be a little windy but the weather report had forecasted the weather (when I read it the night before) to have the winds calm down a little as the day went on. I figured, worst case scenario, that we could spend all day fishing the Little Manatee River. It had been holding plenty of snook and a few redfish. When I rolled up to the ramp early in the morning though, a stiff, cold, wind cut through my long sleeve teeshirt. Ouch... looked like we would be in the river all day. Which was fine to me. It just limited us to one particular area and would prevent us from fishing any of the Cockroach Bay area or the Piney Point area, which are both holding reds and snook right now.

So I dropped the boat in the water at Simmons park and hit the edge of a flat nearby where I'd been catching bait for about 1 week and 1/2. The birds weren't diving today so that had me worried. The first throw of the net yielded 3 net shredding catfish. Not a great start to the morning. A few more throws and I didn't have much to show for my efforts. I decided to make one more throw before heading out into the chop to find other bait spots and "bang", I hit the greenies. I started chumming harder and it wasn't long before I filled 2 live wells with greenbacks.

So I headed back to the ramp to pick up Kerry, Cody, and Kim. They seemed excited to be there and were all smiles. That's what I like to see. Little did I know what troopers they would truly turn out to be later in the day.

I told them that the wind hadn't died down like I had hoped but that we would have a safe, fun, day fishing the river anyway. So off we headed to the railroad trestle near HWY 41 where good reports of snook had been relayed to me by a few of my fellow guide buddies. We didn't do too well there but a friend of mine, Capt. Greg McCullough caught a few dink snook at the other end of the trestle. From there we proceeded to work our way back to the mouth of the river, hitting several points and cuts along the way. We managed hooking up on a couple of small redfish and a nice jack. When we got back near the mouth of the river, we stopped and fished under some sailboats where I had been freight trained by some monster snook earlier in the week. I hit this spot a little late this day and the tide was barely moving. We tried throwing greenbacks, pinfish, and even mullet up under the sailboats but we didn't get a hit. However, the wind seemed to be dieing just like the tide at this point. I had the bright idea that we could head out to the flats to the South for some trout while the tide was dead and then follow the water up to the shoreline as it rose.

Off we went. There was a mild chop on the water on the way down and I was excited to not have to be confined to the river which had produced only a few fish. When we got to the flat where I had caught over thirty trout a few days earlier, I thought the catching would commence. Man I was wrong. We tried that for an hour without a bite except from a few catfish. I did see saveral upper slot snook however but couldn't coax a bite. I decided to head further South to the spoil island in search of some redfish. An hour of that and we couldn't find them either. Time to head back North and see if the tide had come in enough to hit some redfish spots near Cockroach.

When we came around the spoil Island I knew we were in for it. The wind had picked back up out of the North and I was oblivious to it to this point (because the spoil Island had blocked us from it). I knew it was going to be a long, rough, wet, ride back. And it was. I never, ever, like getting my clients wet. I was really dreading this run and worried about how they might feel about me getting them wet. To my surprise, they were all smiles the whole way back and when I got back to the calmer waters of the river, with all of us drenched, I apologized. They just looked at me and said, "Hey, we own boats back home. It's part of fishing and we're having a great time." Wow, you don't know how those words made me feel. I want all of my clients to have a great time, catch lots of fish, and feel like I treated them like V.I.P.'s. When a day goes the way this one had it really gets to me and for them to say they were having a great time really lifted my spirits. We decided to hit a few more spots in the river before heading in and we managed just a few more bites fom a few smaller snook and ladyfish. Nothing huge but at least we finished by getting a few more bites.

This isn't as much a fishing report as it is a blog note and a thank you note today. I want to hit a home run every trip but sometimes it just doesn't work out like that. It makes it all the more enjoyable when you have such "Super Troopers" on the boat as I did with Kerry, Cody, and Kim. Thanks guys for chartering me and being such an awesome group of people. You're welcome on my boat any time.

Fish are harder to keep on the hook when it's windy.

2007-11-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, Rob from Alberta, Canada called me about going on a Clearwater fishing charter. They wanted to use all artificial lures and target some redfish and snook. I was excited because artificial lure fishing for those two feisty game fish is my passion. We were supposed to go yesterday but I asked if they could reschedule the trip to today in hopes that the wind would lay down. It didn't.

I asked them to meet me at 10:30am this morning in order to give us a chance to hit one of my favorite low water spots at the last of the leaving tide, as well as the first of the incoming tide, and they obliged. I left the house early to head to the ramp so I could say hey to Terry, who works at the bait house at the Seminole Boat ramp. When I got there I only saw one other boat at the ramp. The high winds (20+ knots out of the North) had kept everybody home I guess. So I talked to Terry for a little while and put my boat in as Rob and his brother Jim arrived. We loaded the boat and off we went.

Rob and Jim are accomplished anglers and their ability to cast a light lure in the wind was needed today. The plan was to hit shorelines that were out of the wind. The only problem was the wind was blowing so hard that it seemed to just cut right through the mangroves, even on the lee side of any shoreline we were on. My hopes for the chop on the water being knocked down by foliage didn't come to be. Though any hope of sight fishing was obviously out, we did see a couple of snook pretty quickly at the first spot. They were close to the boat and spooked by the time we saw them but at least I knew there were some fish around.

The tide was low and getting lower, just as I had hoped. Mullet were everywhere and a few were getting crashed by snook. So things were looking good. We worked the edge of a now dry flat by blind casting Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Shad on Mustad weedless weighted hooks. About 20 minutes into the trip, Jim said, "fish on!" Two seconds after his exclamation, Rob said, "I've got one too!" I'm thinking "sweet, double hookup! This is gonna' rock!". Jim lands his lower slot redfish and halfway through Robs fight, his snook wore through the leader. Oh well, we had a double hook up early in the day. It was a great sign.

We continued to work the flat and managed a couple of keeper sized trout. It wasn't what we were looking for but we couldn't really just pick up and go because the wind kind of had us hemmed in. We saw a couple of more snook so we knew there were fish around so we were just going to have to keep working the area hard to get more bites. A couple of hours later rob hooks up again and this time it was a nice upper slot redfish. The fish seemed well in hand when all of a sudden, within 5 feet of the boat, he just comes unbuttoned. Dang it. Another thirty minutes go by without a bite and I decided that we need to get on the other side of the flat and into the trough that runs along the shoreline.

In the first 10 minutes of working this new water I see a few wakes and two tailing redfish. They were super shallow and the wind was making it hard to make a good presentation but Jim laid one in there just right and hooked up. Another lower slot fish makes it to the boat. But just after that fish was released, the few other fish that were hanging around seemed to disappear. We didn't get another bite in that area.

Plan B time. I told the guys that we might get wet but we need to try to run to another spot. I'll save you some reading time though by cutting to the chase and letting you know that the next spot, a spoil island South of the Bellaire bridge as well as the spot after that, Sutherland Bayou, didn't produce anything but a couple of very small trout.

Between the wind today and the two biggest fish of the day coming unbuttoned, it was tough out there for lure fishing. We did our best though and didn't come away with a blank. Flying a kite today would have been a whole lot easier but Rob and Jim did great (I think) by hooking two snook, 3 redfish, and 5-6 trout. Not bad at all today considering today considering the tough conditions.

God, Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...

2007-10-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

...the courage to change the things I can... and the wisdom to find fish, figure out how to make them eat, and put them in the boat for my clients. No matter how tough the conditions.

I sit here tonight, checking on the weather on the internet. The world wide web says things are going to be tough this week. This week is turning out to be one of the windiest weeks of the year. I get two senses of emotion when the weather isn't perfect for fishing. I feel a little bit of anxiety because I want things to be perfect for my clients. On the other hand, I get a little excited by the challenge of putting my clients on fish despite conditions that are less than ideal.

There are some things I just can't control in my life (work wise). One being the weather, and two being the appetite of fish. I've got two choices; I can either drop my boat in the water, already defeated by the conditions that I'm dealt, or I can charge into the day excited by the challenge that lies ahead. I choose the latter. If fishing was easy, then nobody would ever hire a guide. I do this because I love the pictures of smiling faces on the clients that I help catch fish. No matter how hard it is to find the fish, no matter how hard it is to make the fish eat, no matter how tough the conditions of the day.

God, continue to grant me the desire you instilled in me. Bless those that step upon my boat. And help us enjoy the pursuit of the game fish you created for us to chase after.

Amen.

(side note... I don't know Bill W. and I hope I haven't offended anyone who does. In fact I just learned that he isn't a local fishing guide this morning. lol But, I thought you guys might find it interesting/funny how I came up with this topic.... The idea for this blog entry came from a movie I watched the other night. The movie was called Mr. Brooks. The main character was a high profile business owner who had a split personality. His split personality made him want to kill people for fun. Now I know that sounds horrible and how could I relate that to fishing? Well, he kept saying the "Serenity" prayer in an attempt to stem of his desire to kill. I couldn't help just thinking about the prayer he kept saying though. I kept thinking about how frustrated I had been of late with the weather and how I had no control over it. I had heard that prayer somewhere before and the movie just reminded me of it. I think it’s an awesome prayer and to hear it again reminded me that I shouldn't get frustrated about things I can't control.)

The Phone

2007-10-26T22:30:00.001-07:00

There are three major logistical tools needed to be a successful fishing guide (this doesn't cover the basics like catching fish, being personable, and having a great boat... ect.). I believe the top three tools are the internet, a great boat, and a cell phone. The first two are useless if you don't manage the last one properly. The number one key to managing the cell phone properly is to ANSWER IT. I try my very best to answer every call. I never leave home without it and I sleep with it next to me on the night stand. The second key to managing the cell phone properly is to return phone calls as soon as possible, should that rare occasion come up that you miss a call.

Well, things kind of slowed down last month around here but for the past two weeks the phone has been ringing off the hook. Here's where a prerequisite to proper cell phone management comes in... You must have a good calendar. It makes scheduling a trip so much easier for me as well as the client. It also makes keeping my schedule strait much easier. It keeps the important things like, who, when, where, and special notes regarding the trip straight.

So, I've been giving my cell phone and calendar a work out lately. That's good news for you guys. That means I'll be on the water more and more. And, the more I'm on the water, the more I'm in tune with the fish. That equals bigger and better catches for you.

A Very Red Day

2007-10-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

I had a great game plan set out for my Clearwater fishing charter with John Sr., John Jr., and Gabe today. But, just like many of my plans as of late this one had to be changed midstream. First off we had a lot of rain yesterday and I was afraid that bait would be hard to come by. I even talked with another well known guide at the ramp and he too was lamenting the hunt for bait prior to his charter today. Luckily, I pulled out of the boat ramp and hadn't made it 1/2mile down the ICW before I saw a ton of pelicans diving. I know that could only mean one thing, bait! I guess the rain hadn't messed up the bait situation after all. So I pulled over and in less than 10 minutes I had blacked out the well.

Well, I went back to the dock to find that my clients were already there waiting for me, early. Which is MUCH better than them being late. They let me take a few minutes to clean the boat off a little and then off we went to pursue the plan that would not be. On the agenda was to hit up three barrier islands on the west side of the intercoastal waterway, working our way from North to South back towards the boat ramp. The first spot has been my most productive in the area for the past month or so but when we got there, things just didn't look right to me. The mullet weren't as thick as they had been when we were doing well on redfish there. We did catch a few trout and a ton of small grouper but that was it. This is when we switched gears. Instead of hitting the other two barrier islands in succession, I decided to go hit a spot near the mainland. Good decision (pat myself on back, lol).

After about 5 minutes on the trolling motor we started seeing the unmistakable wakes of redfish.

I put the Power Pole down and began throwing some greenbacks out as chummers. It wasn't long before the chummers were getting crushed, and then shortly after, the rods were getting bent. The bite lasted just a little over an hour and we managed 15-20 redfish in that time. One thing we all noticed was that the redfish seemed to really key in on the small pinfish over the greenbacks. Though we got bites on both baits the pinfish were much more successful.

After the bite died down we decided to catch the tail end of the original plan and hit the last of the three barrier islands. It was slow at this last spot but we did hook two big snook that got away and landed two more redfish to finish of the trip.

Maintenance Day

2007-10-23T18:23:00.001-07:00

After 12 days out of town fishing th Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Tour Championship, I needed to attend to some of the minor repairs needed on the boat. So, I headed to Land O' Lakes Marine (the only place I would buy a boat from) to file some warranty claims. Ranger makes the best boats on the planet, but even they aren't impervious to the regular problems that plague boats that spend most of their lives in saltwater. Saltwater and the sun are the two most damaging agents to a boat here in Florida. And mine gets plenty of exposure to both. So, today was the day to get some of the minor repairs underway so that when you hire me to take you fishing that you can rest assured that you have a sea worthy vessel under your feet.

I have three problems right now. The most important of which is that the breaks on the trailer aren't working. I need them to help me stop. Capt. James Pelham (left) and Jason King (top right), are the head saltwater mechanics at Land O' Lakes Marine and they are experts at trailer brake repair. So that problem is sure to be fixed for sure in short order.

My next problem is that my trailer winch is cracking at the base. this could be bad but it will be replaced with a stronger base.

Then the least important. yet still important to me, is that all of the wheels are corroding. Hopefully Ranger will replace them.

So today, I didn't have any charters but I did have some work to do getting ready to take you fishing. I hope the next time we go out that you'll appreciate that even the days I'm not on the water I am preparing my equipment to be in top shape so that you and I both have an exceptional experience catching fish instead of worrying about whether the equipment will perform as it should.

Something I Hate Doing

2007-10-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

I did something yesterday that I hate doing. But I had to tell someone that fishing may not be too great on the following day and give them an opportunity to back out of asking me to take them on a fishing charter. Ouch... that hurts the wallet.

I had someone call me yesterday afternoon wanting to go on a fishing charter today. I'm sure I didn't sound too enthusiastic on the phone because all I could think about was that I hadn't been on the water here in in almost two weeks because of being out of town for FLW Redfish Championship. I really don't like to pump someone up about a fishing trip and accept their money unless I know I'm on fish. So yesterday I asked the guy if I could call him back. I told him that I would like to check the tides and call a few other capt. buddies and see how things looked. The tides didn't look too hot and the captains I called had been fishing all weekend with horrible luck.

So I called the guy back and told him that I wanted to be honest with him and let him know that my expectations for the trip (today) wouldn't be very high. But, if he wanted to go fishing, I wanted to take him. I just wanted him to be aware that there's a possibility that the fishing might be less than stellar. I left the decision on whether or not to go, knowing what I had just told him, up to him. He passed.

I know this might not sound like a good business decision but hear me out. If I had told him that the fishing would be good (knowing that it probably wouldn't be), took him on a charter, and didn't catch a lot of fish... What is he going to say about me to his friends when he gets back home? That's right. He'll bad mouth me. I would rather him go home and tell his friends that he called a guide that was honest about the situation. Or even go home and not mention anything about me. Anything is better than having someone go home and give you a bad rep. Reputation is all we have as guides.

Hey, I could have made $450-$525 today regardless of the fishing. But is that what I really want? Well, yes and no. I need the money but I need my good reputation more. I believe in the Biblical principle that says, "It's better to have a good name than great riches." I better have a good name because I sure don't have great riches... yet. lol

Murphy's Law

2007-10-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

I don't really believe in Murphy's Law but we didn't have a whole lot go right for us this past week at the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Tour Championship in Orange Beach AL. We did have one very important thing go right for us however; we got there and back safely. In fact, that's the most important thing. But it is also just about the only thing that went right for us.

When my tournament partner and I first started practicing for this tournament about a week ago, it was very windy. The wind is not a tournament anglers friend. It creates choppy water that muddy the water up as well as make long runs dangerous or even impossible. So we decided to pre-fish close to the start of the tournament the first few days and just deal with the milky water. We caught a few fish a day but nothing that would provide us with a tournament win. The last two days before the tournament we decided to trailer the boat to places that would be 60-90 miles from the start of the tournament. We found a few more fish there but the wind was predicted to get worse, not better. So the game plan the night before the tournament was that we would stick close by and hope that our fish got bigger for the tournament.

We woke up on tournament morning to find out that we had absolute quagmire conditions. Heavy downpours, lighting, and high winds. As if not catching a lot of fish in practice wasn't enough, now we had to deal with mother nature as well. At the start of the tournament we took off running to our first spot in the southern end of Moblile Bay. It was a torturous run in a ridiculous amount of rain. I wore shooting glasses that were hi-vis yellow just so the raindrops wouldn't hurt my eyes while running.

When we got to our first spot we found that we were fortunate that the wind was in a direction that left our stretch of shoreline calm. We quickly boated two smallish fish and decided on moving onto a spot that we had heard held larger fish. While idling off the flat, we notice that another team (by chance they were real good friends of ours) was waiving at us to come over and talk to them. When we got within ear shot they told us that they were broke down. I checked the radar on my GPS and it was obvious that another huge rain squall was coming and that we all needed to get out of there. So we tied them off to the back of the boat and towed them back to the tournament headquarters. The storm squall chased us there the whole way and we arrived just in time to take cover. Wind, rain, lightning all came down around us for about an hour. By this time we had only been able to fish for a grand total of an hour and it was almost noon.

When the weather lifted to a point where we felt somewhat safe fishing we left the dock in search of bigger fish in places we had never fished before. We scooted under a little bridge on the East side of Mobile bay and began pitching Gulp Shrimp under shrimp boat docks. We caught a few flounder and a trout and were sure that this was a good sign that there is at least life in this little bay. About an hour later I hooked a nice redfish that quickly entangled me in a crab trap buoy. We rushed over to the trap and scooped up the fish, buoy and all. After swapping a smaller fish out of the live well for this 4lb fish we were almost out of time. So we headed back with our 7lbs 6oz stringer. It was good enough to put us in 37th place for day one. Not what we had hoped for but good enough for us considering what we'd been through that day.

The next morning we were awakened by the loud, house shaking, roar of thunder. We didn't believe that the tournament would start on time. So we called the director and asked about the status of the start. He just said, "come on, we working with a green light. We're starting on time." In disbelief, we threw on our fowl weather gear, dropped the boat in water at the flooded boat ramp, and headed to the start of the tournament while ducking lighting bolts during the whole 6 mile trip.

The 2nd day started much the same way as the first day of the tournament. We had to run the boat in blinding rain to our first spot. But the wind had switched directions and our once calm flat was now a washing machine of muddy water. We knew this wouldn't work so after about 20 minutes of fishing we decided to just "wing it". We headed to the closest protected water we could find and just began fishing. Sadly, the only bite of the day came from one of the biggest jack crevelles I had ever caught. Oh well, it brought a smile to our rain soaked faces and we had to take a picture.

Time ran out and we had to make that depressing run back to the weigh-in with no fish in tow. It's not the only time I've had to come to the weigh-in of a tournament empty handed but it doesn't happen often, and when it does, is stinks.

Sometimes things just don't work out like you plan. Sometimes it hurts you and sometimes it helps you. Some of the teams in the top 5 for the tournament had their plans change because of the weather as well and they just happened to be fortunate that their change of plans helped them. It's frustrating but hey, I can't let it get me down. I have charters to do and I'm excited to get back home and fish with my clients. "Murphy" may have gotten me last week but the fish at home had better watch out. I've got a score to settle. I need to see some fishing rods doubled over this week and the redfish and snook at home better be ready.

Upcoming Tournament

2007-10-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

10-10-2007

I've been spending the last couple of afternoons trying to get ready for the FLW Redfish Championship in Orange Beach, AL. Getting ready to leave for an out of town fishing tournament can be fun and miserable at the same time. I get to shop for new lures, tune up my fishing tackle, and reorganize my tackle bags. That kind of stuff is fun to me. But, I also get to go change the oil in my truck, pack clothes, and get a haircut. Those things rank right next to getting my teeth pulled on my "things that aggravate me to death" list. Oh well, fishing tournaments do motivate me to do things that I normally would keep putting off. So that's good.

This particular tournament is really exciting for me. It's the richest redfish tournament in the country and not just anyone can sign up and fish it. I believe there is over $250,000 up for grabs and only teams that finished the regular season in the top 50 spots in their division are invited. My tournament partner, Capt. Frank Jackson, and I qualified for it by finishing the year in 17th place overall in the Eastern division of the FLW Refish Series. Not too shabby, if I must say so myself. There were 175 teams vying for those top 50 spots that would put them in the championship and we finished in the top 10% of the field against teams that included such well known teams as the Watts brothers, C.A. Richardson and Ray Van Horn, Greg and Bill Devault, Rick Murphy and Scott Guthrie, and Mark Sepe and Andrew Bostick. These guys are some of the best redfishermen in the country and we have our work cut out for us.

There's been a lot of logistical preparation going on for the last few days and you've already heard me mention some of it. But to be successful (and I hope we will be) we've been doing some research about the area to get prepared for the actually fishing we'll be doing when we get there. Looking at Google maps, reading online fishing reports, and discussing options with other teams that we're working with are all things that we can do to help us form a game plan. That type of stuff has been going on for months. Once we get there for practice, we'll put our preliminary game plan to the test for a couple of days. We'll check the areas that we predetermined to fish based on maps and reports we've read and we'll try baits that we think will work. After those couple of days we'll sit down and re-evaluate. We may find that what we've been doing is working and already have an established pattern. In that case during the rest of practice we will look for other areas that match the profile of the pattern we have. Or if things don't look good the first couple of days we may have to scrap the original approach and rewrite the game plan. It's a process of elimination. It's just as important to us to know what doesn't work as it is to know what does work.

Right now I'm going to go to work on a whole separate process of elimination. I am going to try to figure what I need to get done before I leave and what I can put off until I get back. Figuring out what will make my wife the least upset with me will help ensure my fishing success (and marital bliss) in the future.

Money Talks... should I listen?

2007-10-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've recently had a few opportunities to save a good deal of money through a few different fishing reel companies. Naturally, my first reaction to finding out about these opportunities is to be excited and inclined jump all over them. However, none of the companies I have a chance at getting deals from are from reel companies that I currently use. The more I thought about it the more I realized that if I did go after these opportunities, I would be making a decision based on money and not on the merits of the equipment itself. Not that those companies make poor reels, it's just that if I really wanted to provide those reels for my customers (or to use them myself), they would already be on my rods on my boats.

If you look around on my website, www.captainclay.com , you won't see any links to "Sponsors". There's a couple of reasons for this. Long before I started guiding, I used to run fishing tournaments. Part of running a good tournament was having good prizes to supplement the cash awards. That meant I spent a lot of time on the phone calling reel companies, motor companies, and lure companies asking for sponsorships. The phone conversations always seemed to go the same way. I would introduce myself and tell the voice on the other end of the line what I did and asked if they could help. Almost on cue with almost every conversation the tone of the voice on the other end of the line would drop. Even those that helped never really seemed excited to send product for me to give away. The reason is that the fishing industry hits these guys up all day long, every day, for free product. They kind of get tired of hearing people ask for hand outs. I quickly got tired of asking for them myself. So ever since I started guiding I never really felt much of a desire to get back into making those phone calls. Another reason I've never really pursued is that there are a very select few products that I trust and like using. If I'm going to be sponsored by someone I want it to be by those companies, not just any Tom, Dick or Harry rod, reel, or lure company just because they'll give me a nice little discount.

When someone hires me for a day of fishing, I always strive to give them my best in every aspect of what I do and provide. If it means paying full retail for tackle and boats then that's what I'm going to do. You pay a full price for a charter and you deserve a full service fishing experience, complete with the best boats, rods, reels, and lures I can afford to provide you.

Now, just because I don't list any official sponsors for my charter business doesn't mean that some companies haven't recognized my loyalty to them and how I sing their praises every opportunity I get. Because of their appreciation for me as a customer, a few companies have offered me some discounts without asking me for sponsorship recognition in return. They do this because they know that I shop at their store because I value the service they provide or I buy their boats because of the craftsmanship and personal attention they give to each and every customer, not because of a discount.

Now after rambling on about the "whys", I feel obliged to mention the "whos"... I get a few discounts from a FEW of these companies, but nothing that the every day weekend warrior couldn't swing if they asked for it. These are the companies I use because I trust them, believe in them, and have had great experiences with.

I use G.Loomis, Shimano, and Kistler rods. Simply because they build superior products and their customer service has never let me down.

I almost exclusively use Daiwa reels because I am convinced that there isn't any better reel on the market today. Of all of all of the Diawa reels I have ever owned (and there are a lot) only two have ever needed service and all are still with me working flawlessly today. I cannot say the same for other reels made by other companies. I've never had to give up on a Daiwa but I bet I've laid over 50 other reels, by other brands, to rest in the last 10 years.

I use Yamaha motors on both of my boats. Simply because I've never had one fail. In fairness, I've only ever owned one of it's competitors... but it blew a power head.

I use both Berkley Gulps as well as Exude lures. I believe they both have their place when one works better than the other but each are always in my tackle box.

I'm probably a Ranger boat owner for life. When I first bought a

Ranger it was second hand boat. I had a few problems with spider cracking in the floor and Ranger discovered I had a busted bulkhead. After they inspected it, their Florida rep just looked at me and said, "This isn't right, and we're gonna make it right." They did. They called me 3 weeks later and asked me what color I would like on my new hull. I had never given them a dime at that point but they made a long time customer of me with how they treated me like king.

Well, there you have it. These companies don't endorse me, I endorse them. What do I get out of it? Well, I get the satisfaction of knowing that when I take you fishing that I am giving you my best. Not just the best of what I get discounts on. A true endorsement is when you speak highly of someone because you believe in what you're saying, not because you're getting a discount for saying it. Should one of these companies approach me one day for a sponsorship, you can bet I won't turn it down. But, you'll be able to come back to this article and say, "See, he doesn't use company 'xyz' because of a discount, he's been using them all along."