Let the Dredging Begin

We needed to get some ghost shrimp for a our seahorse and the rule is I can't go out on the boat with out fishing. Since the low tide (-0.1L) was in the middle of the day, we really could not get back in to Centipede bay to fish for redfish. So we thought we may try to catch a snook or two in the Hernando Beach channel.

We picked up about 30 nice sized whitebait around marker 2A in the Bayport channel. Then we hit the Bayport Tri-pod for some live chum. The whitebait was very thick, one cast and I had more then I could use.

As we headed to the Hernando Beach Channel, we noticed a big crane on a barge at the end of the channel. My first thought was maybe we should head north and try around Pine Island. But, curiosity got the best of me and we headed towards the crane.
We approach at lunch time and asked a few question. The most important question was, when will the pumping will begin. I was told in about two weeks, they will start pumping the sand out of the Hernando Beach Channel. I'm certain this will drive the fish away from channel. After all, if someone came to your house and was going to vacuum for 8 hours a day, five days a week, I think I would leave too.

After a brief conversation we headed to the first cut and caught 4 trout (18-24 in), several jacks and a couple of short mangrove snappers. So it appears these fish really did not mind the crane ripping up the bottom 200 yards away.

We hit a few other cuts and caught more jacks, but this time we did not catch any blue fish. Perhaps they have continued their migration and left the area. We then hit a couple of grassy shallow areas to get some ghost shrimp and headed home.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

Tide : Incoming -0.01 12:07
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 74% full
Temp: 92 F
Water Temp : 85 F
Wind: 10 mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 4 Trout, jacks and 1 snapper.

More Bluefish, trout and cobia.

We had such a good time yesterday that we decided to do it again. I was hoping the whitebait was still bunch up. They where not and I had to through the net about 10 times to get about 50 baits. The whitebait was still in the same area around the turn marker in the Bayport channel, but they where scattered around due to the birds. Also to note the whitebait was thick in Centipede bay. While catching whitebait a small cobia was chasing the bait around the boat. This kept the bait at a distance from the boat. So the only solution I could find was to toss out a bait with a hook.

While the cobia was short, it did put up a nice fight and once released it left the area.

Once we had the whitebait we ran over to the the Hernando Beach channel and started at marker 5. We used 20# fluorocarbon leader, which proves to be inadequate for the teeth of a blue fish. We lost 4 hook within the first 5 minutes. So I switched out the leaders to 30# which cut done on the hook loses. We caught about 10 bluefish and decided to move and look for some trout. If you want bluefish the cut between markers 5 and 7, I caught them there for the last week. The next couple of cuts we caught 4 trout, but none as big as yesterdays, but all in the 20 inch range. We also picked up an assortment of jacks, lady-fish, blue-runners and a bonnet-head shark and a few small grouper. It rained on and off most of the day, so we did not get many pictures


Next stop was Centipede bay. We started in the back and saw a few fish cruising the rocky area. Tossed out some whitebait and the redfish swam right by it. This was a bit odd, but I think I figured out why a redfish would pass up a whitebait. A few minutes later we heard a crash in the water about 100 yards behind the boat. As it turns out is was a pelican diving on a big school of whitebait. So my guess is the redfish that I saw where coming back from dinner, I though I heard one of them say "I can't eat another bite". We did manage to get a a little 18 inch redfish to bite and he looked like he just got back from an all you can eat buffet.

Next week we plan to head out to some shallow rocks for inshore grouper fishing.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

Tide : .02 11:32am Rising
Water Clarity : clear
Moon Phase: 13% full
Temp: 92F
Water Temp : 84F
Wind: 5 mph NE - 10 mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: Trout, bluefish, jacks, cobia, bonnet head shark, ladyfish, rat red, grouper.

Fall Fishing is heating up

After Sunday's one redfish day, I thought we would go for round two. We left out of Jenkins creek to pick up whitebait. We hit the turn marker and the bait was thick. One cast and I could feel the extra weight of the bait fish in a 10 ft net. Which means I now have more bait than the live will hold. Skimmed off the larger baits and tossed in about 100 small baits (for live chum) and headed over to the Hernando Beach Channel.


We started at marker 5 and caught about 10 bluefish and jacks. While this was fun, we where looking for dinner. So we started moving in one cut at a time. The second turned out good. We had a double hook up on trout 25 and 26 inch trout, which filled the limit on 20+ inch trout.



We also caught a 12 inch mangrove snapper. I have seen bigger snapper around the rocks and I am thinking that it might be worth a shot to try to chum up the snapper.
We had a small bluefish on and this little cobia was chasing the bluefish trying to eat it. Clearly the cobia's eyes where bigger than it's mouth. So I tossed out a bait that would fit and he took it.

For those who have never caught a cobia, this is a baby, 40lb cobia are not uncommon. If you do catch one, they pack a big surprise, not only do they fight hard, once boated be very careful of there spines just behind their head. A typical place you would hold the fish when removing the hook.Much to our surprise we caught a 21 inch grouper. I've caught 10-16 inch grouper around the rock, but never one this big. A little bigger and he would have come home for dinner....

Over all it was a good day, we had non-stop catching and pretty good weather.

Good Luck,
Zippyjr

Tide : Rising
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 13 % full
Temp: 92 F
Water Temp :84 F
Wind: 5 mph NE - 15mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 4 Trout, 1 Cobia, 3 Grouper, 2 Sea Bass, 1 Mangrove Snapper, 10 Jacks, 5 blue runners, 12 bluefish.