$13,000 Fishing Tournament Next Weekend

21st Annual Saltwater Fishing Tournament
May 5, 2012

There is a very large fishing tournament happening on May 5th, That is next weekend. Here is the Article I found talking about it
 http://www.examiner.com/article/13-000-inshore-fishing-tournament

and here is the website for the Tournament.

http://www.optimistclubperryfl.com/

Fishing Report from Capt. Chris Haught of Inshore Charters

Captain Chris Haught of http://www.inshorecharters.com submitted this report to the web site.

 "Fishing in and around Tampa Bay has been unbelievable lately. We’ve been fishing mullet schools with live and cut bait for redfish in lower Tampa Bay having good success on the higher tides.

Snook have been on the flats near the structures and potholes eating scaled sardines, large threadfins, and pinfish. King mackerel have been on the beaches when the wind is cooperative out of the east and the water clarity is good. Anchoring up over hard bottom areas and putting out a spread of live baits on the surface and some live and dead bait on knocker rigs has produced kings, Spanish, bonito, key west grunt, red grouper, gag grouper, flounder, mangrove snapper, and more. Speaking of beach fishing, the flounder bite this year off the beaches has been stellar. Many of the flounder have been really nice sized compared to the usual size we see here.

 My Spanish mackerel fishing has mostly been inside the bay so far because of the number of fish hanging near the schools of threadfins. I’m pretty much using live bait on the good tides and cut strips of bait on the slower tides. We’ve been hitting the plus sized seatrout in the real skinny water on live bait, cut bait, and artificials and the smaller fish have been more plentiful in the 3-6 ft. grass flat areas eating the same things.

 Those deeper grass areas are also holding nice bluefish, ladyfish, jacks and more to bend the rod. We’ve been catching plenty of cobia so far but most have been on the small side with not many bigger ones yet. The tarpon are in their normal hangouts and have little traffic compared to May/June so now is the perfect time to target the silver king.

  The sharks are also making an appearance inside the bay on the flats, the edge of the shipping channel and near the passes which make for an exciting battle on light tackle."


Captain Chris Haught
Tampa Bay Florida Fishing Guide
http://www.inshorecharters.com
chris@inshorecharters.com
727-420-4429

TampaBayFish.com - Weekend Fishing Report

TampaBayFish.com  Weekend Fishing Report. Saturday and Sunday are not suppose to be the best weather days. If your going fishing there may be some good chances on Sunday, watch for heavy rains and winds to possibly shut the fish down.

Weather UPDATE: Thunderstorms Saturday with the chance of rain going way down Sunday. It seems like a dip in the temperatures on Sunday but only to 79 so it should be excellent fishing all weekend long.

RADAR LINK

FORECAST LINK
SATURDAY:
high 80-83 70% chance of Rain
low 59-62
NE WINDS 10-15mph
SUNDAY:
high 73-78 60% isolated chance of Rain
low 64-66
N WINDS 10-15mph 

Fishing Report: Look for Fishing to be good if you can get to protected waters and watch for the rain and winds. 

• FISH Redfish are hitting topwaters and trout are hitting popping corks with live or plastic shrimp.
• Spanish Mackerel and Kingfish are making strong appearances. The Kings seem to be running strong out over the close wrecks and off the beaches and the Spanish Macks should be all over the Bay.

Any Florida Fishing Reports or Tampa Area Specific Fishing Reports are welcome please submit comments or other information here and maybe we can help others catch fish too.

Spoons that I have caught Redfish and Snook on

This is another part of my favorite Lures section these are some of the Gold Spoons that have produced well for me over the years I have caught Trout, Redfish and Snook on every one of these Lures. The gold spoon with the small red spinner in the back seems to outproduce the plain gold spoon for some reason.

Redfish Lures

Tampa Fishing Report from Capt. Rick Reddick of Tampa Fishing Charters

Capt. Rick Reddick submitted this report. Visit Tampa Fishing Charters for More info:
April 11, 2012 - Tampa Fishing Charters

Wow what an awesome spring mackerel run we are having. While slow trolling over artificial reefs and other live bottom areas we have barely been able to keep our baits in the water. We have had at least three Kingfish each day and around ten Spanish mackerel. Not to mention all “the ones that got away”.

Obviously we did not catch these two kings in front of this dock, but it was time to take pictures for my happy clients and they did not mind the location. Catching bait has been pretty easy and quick. I am very thankful for the bait we have around and the kings and Spanish love them. While slow trolling it is not uncommon to get double knock downs and we have had at least one on each trip.

When the fishing is this hot, it does not take long to get a large catch like these two professional junior anglers achieved. We should have another month of this awesome mackerel run. Many other species of fish are biting very well this spring:

It has been a pleasure to live and fish in Florida for my whole life, but the months of March and April definitely exemplifies why Florida is the fishing capital of the world. Snook, red fish, trout and grouper have all been caught on recent trips.

In contrast to the previous two springs, bait is easy to find and catch. This mild winter has allowed our fishery the chance to recover a bit, and God knows we need it. While fishing out of Tarpon Springs the past week, we caught this black grouper by free lining a scaled sardine in an edge.

An edge is place were two current flows meet to form a water barrier, that is, two rips moving in different directions. Add a whirlpool effect and you have an Eddie. On the next day’s trip, we caught this snook immediately after leaving the dock:

This happy client had never caught a fish before in his 85 years:

He caught many fish that date.

Here is a picture of a gag we caught while slow trolling for kings:

Fishing for the next few months will be superb, so get out on the water and catch them up!

Captain Rick Reddick
Tampa Fishing Charters |Tampa Fishing Guides
http://www.captainrickreddick.com/
info@captainrickreddick.com
813-787-0249
Tampa Fishing Charters | Tampa Fishing Guides

FREE FISHING Days for 2012

The FWC has two Saltwater Free Fishing days scheduled this year there are Freshwater fishing days as well listed. This is the myfwc.org website that has the announcement. myfwc website announcement.

• June 2 (saltwater) This is the First Day of Red Snapper Season in the Gulf.
• Sept. 1 (saltwater) Labor Day weekend is always a busy fishing time and vacation time in Florida so free fishing fits right in.

for Freshwater the dates are

• April 7 (freshwater) This is past sorry I was looking for the info and it just happens I found it just after the dates.
• June 9 (freshwater) This is the opposite weekend of the saltwater free fishing day.

TampaBayFish.com  Weekend Fishing Report. The wind on Saturday may be a little high but Sunday will be very nice even if the temp drops a little. Flats are working up a lot of action, and the beaches will be heating up shortly. BAIT is everywhere and the schools of mullet are holding some Redfish.

Weather UPDATE: Scattered Thunderstorms Saturday with the chance of rain going way down Sunday. It seems like a dip in the temperatures on Sunday but only to 79 so it should be excellent fishing all weekend long.

RADAR LINK

FORECAST LINK

SATURDAY:
high 80-83 30% chance of Rain
low 59-62
NE WINDS 15-20mph
SUNDAY:
high 79-82 30% isolated chance of Rain
low 64-66
N WINDS 5-10mph 

Fishing Report: The fishing should be excellent in a lot of places around Tampa and the waters North and South. 

• FISH Typical patterns for spring are expected for Redfish, Snook and Trout. Redfish seem to be very active on the flats. Trout are hitting a lot of baits on all the deeper grass flats.
• Spanish Mackerel and Kingfish are making strong appearances. The Kings seem to be running strong out over the close wrecks and off the beaches and the Spanish Macks should be all over the Bay.

Any Florida Fishing Reports or Tampa Area Specific Fishing Reports are welcome please submit comments or other information here and maybe we can help others catch fish too.

Tampa Bay Fishing Report from Web Site

I received this report from the web site. Thanks for submitting this report and I hope your info can help someone else catch fish. The fishing date was 3/25/2012

"I went wading off of Bayshore Blvd in Tampa, FL. We were out about 300yds off the shore during high tide and we caught three speckled trout ranging from the smallest 17", the middle was 22" and the largest one was 27 1/2" inches. They were all caught on live shrimp. We had to weed through some of the smaller ones before the bigger ones started to hit."