Fishing Report

You can post your report on the discussion board of spearfishingusa.com and we will transfer it directly to the fishing report link. Any pictures must be emailed to RRahall@tampabay.rr.com . Charter Captains!!! The fishing report link is a great place to promote your charter business. We welcome any discussion from charter captains about their boats and services which we will put directly on the fishing report link along with any report of a charter plus pictures. In addition should your charter business have an active website we will be happy to link you to ours.

Left the dock at 9:00am Sat. Morning with a forecast of 10-15 from the north. The Brother-in-law is in town, so we must go. With twenty pinfish in the livewell and the usual squid and sardines, we headed SW. Fishing in 40-50 ft., we boated three Keepers and about 25 shorts, mostly gags. Seas were running all of three feet, but died down enough to make the trip to the barn comfortable. 3 fish, 20 gals. diesel. Big points from Bro-in-law. No pics, sorry rich, can't get anyone to bring a camera on board. My boat has destroyed three good ones, one of which was yours.

fishing on sat

well we wanted to go fishing for a long time so we planed a trip to go out to about 90 to 100ft of water we got some reports that it wasn't that great in that depth but we just wanted to go fishing trying to forget about the gas bill on the way out we left around 7am and headed out we got to the spot dropped lines and sat there for 10 15 min no hits so we made up are minds we wanted to move its about 9 now and there's no wind and very hot so we hit the next spot and sat there for about the same amount of time were all wondering whys there's no fish when on the fish finder there is all kinds of bait so we get ready to go to the next spot right when we start the engine we get a hit pull it up and its a 10lbs red so were like drop some more lines as we do in the next 5-10 min we pull up 6 more keeps so we ended up with 7 keeps and got home by 1:30 turn out to be a good day just a little slow

Neil and Robert: Fishing

From: Rich Rahall
Date: 25 Jun 2006
Neil and Robert left the dock yesterday aboard Neil's boat for a run out to a spot in 140ft of water. According to Neil, the water was blue and there was some fish on the line. Enough for supper. The real thrill was the ride home. One may recall that a front came out of the northeast yesterday. When the wind kicked up, Neil and Robert were still approx twenty mile from shore. The surface winds produced choppy seas. Forward speed was reduced to appox 20mph, plenty of water over the bow.

womans tournament

The annual ladies fishing tournament out of gators was a blast. The tournament was to benfit the celma mastry ovarian cancer foundation. My wife Jamie and I do this tournament every year to support it. We caught several large trout and a few snook which the snook were not in a category. I had been on a few charters recently that produced nice trout. We did end up taking the trout category with a 4 pounder. I would like to thank the old salts for another good year. I will be on catch 47 the fishing show giving reports along with all the other captains around the state. For more charter info. please call (941)729-7404 Capt. Mike Davis

fishing on the beach

Leaving the dock at 7:30 am I took a few guys fishing. First stop was pass a grille channel to fish for pompano and lady fish. Unfortunately we could not get the jigs past the ladyfish. So off to egmont we went to chase tarpon along the beach. Schools and schools of tarpon all along the beach. Taking along blue crabs which has been the best producer over the few weeks that the round up has been going on I thought this would be our best choice of bait. It seemed to work for the first few hours however the tarpon are much spookier in the 4 foot of water we were fishing. When after the silver king make sure that you load the baitwell with every bait possibe to give yourself an edge on these fish.

Great Day! We saw one boat on the way out to the secret spot and one boat on our return. Once we arrived on site we had a good fish show on the screen which proved to be correct. The largest of the fish was a 33" gag weighing in at 16 pounds.. We caught one Mango at 5 lbs and an American red at 5lbs. We kept about ten fish. Fisherman aboard the Sealegs included Steven Youngerman, his father-in-law Sandy, and me.

Fishing offshore

Ran the boat out yesterday to 140 ft. The day started at 2 am out of bellair. We met steve at clearwater pass and were given several dozen baits to help our adventure out. They were catching cobia, shrimp, snook and snapper. We started in 140 at a spot I limited out on gags the week before in just under an hour. Unfortunately we only caught one black there . It was not what we had expected. Next stop was a wreck that produced kingfish and red grouper but still not what we wanted. All in all it was a great day on the water cant wait to get back out.

May 2006
Lines and Lures by Gay Varano
May 2006 Tropical View
Vol. 7 No. 5
Pg. 26

<<<<COULD THIS BE THE SHARK??!!

"A wide range of reports covers the fishing spectrum. some of the most notable are Josh Kramer's 6 foot Sailfish that he brought to the boat and then released all in the Egmont shipping channel, Jim Fentress's (of Jim's Dive Shop fame) 110lb Mako Shark, Gian DiBella's 14lb King caught just off Treasure Island on a blue runner, John Lee and crew's limit grouper catch..."

This all started two days before the 21st. Trying to catch white bait only two inches long in a 1/4 bait net. What a nightmare. Most of the bait gets gilled. Thankfully, four children enjoy picking them all out. We wind up catching about 50 pinfish. Friday at 5:15am, the boys show up at the dock with surprisingly no hangovers. We depart at 5:30 in calm seas and arrive at our first destination about 7:20. We don't even stop as there is another boat anchored up. On to location #2. 120ft, blue water, 77 degrees. Many reef donkeys greet us. All of our live bait at this point is useless, as we cannot get it to the bottom, the AJs are so thick. We make the best of it, and boat two for the smoker. We continue to fish and catch what I think is our limit of Red Snapper. (Come to find out, I'm fishing Atlantic rules, not Gulf rules.) None the less, we leave with 5 Red Snapper, six large Mangos, and two Wormbags.....er AJs. Two more stops o! n the way in, not much luck, arrive at the dock around beerthirty. Steven cleans the boat, I clean the fish, Tim watches and drinks beer. His job will come tomorrow, as he will cook a terrific Red Snapper Picata for all. Round trip of about 130 miles, 70 gal. fuel, not many fish, great time had by all.

kingfishing off Clearwater

Ran out today for a little rnr on Clearwater hard bottom. Only having mullet for bait that we caught up in the narrows we were hopeful that the kings would take it. Luckily for us the bite was on at about 7:00 am. We caught kings ranging from 25-35 lbs. There is a front coming in later today hopefully it wont affect the fishing much.

Pompano fishing is red hot

Get those docs goofy jigs out its time to go catch pompano. There have been large quantities all down the beaches in the swash channels and passes. People have been reporting their limits in less than 1 hour. Remember the limits have been changed to 6 per person, and the size limit is 11-20 inches to the fork. You are allowed 1 over 20 inches and permit are aggregated with them. That means you can have a combined fish limit of 6. SIZE LIMIT IS TO FORK OF THE TAIL. ANY QUESTIONS GO TO WWW.MYFWC.COM

Clearwater fishing report

We ran the wrong way it sounds like. Went and fished the hard bottom and came up with only Spanish mackerel. Lots of bait out of Clearwater white bait with a few shad mixed in at the bridges. After we left the hard bottom we ran to Dunedin reef which there was no bait on. Then came the fun part I had to get back in and fix my boat. Hopefully we can sneak away this weekend to catch those snapper.

Kingfishing again

The kingfishing is going strong right now. Just outside of Johns pass 1/4-1/2 mile we limited out within 2 hours. Lots of glass minnows and Spanish mackerel chasing them. We just trolled around the outside with some fresh greenies caught on the flats inside the pass.

RED SNAPPER SEASON IS FINALLY HERE

April 21 and slick calm. Its time to go get the red snapper and grouper. Water vis. is top to bottom just about everywhere. Limit is 4 per person and 16 inch size limit overall.

THE KINGS ARE HERE

Took a group of guys and girls out on Wed. on the 30 foot Century. Along for the ride was Capt Ken, Kevin, Karen, Leon, and family. We started south out of Johns Pass about 14 miles around markers 7-8 in the shipping channel. Not much happening in the ditch area itself, but just outside the channel plenty of fish are being caught. Bob Trapp was also out there trolling spoons with a fishing charter of six people and limited out in kingfish with the biggest one being 20 lbs. That was all on a half day charter. We also were catching fish 2 and 3 at a time. The fish seemed to be between markers 5 and 6 all the way down to 9 and 10.There were lots of Spanish Mackeral mixed in with the kings.

"Fishing" 4/2/06

Decide to have a relaxing day of seeing if we can round up a couple of kings or get some macks for John to make some fish spread with. Well, the best I can say about fishing today, and bait for that matter, is - it was a gorgeous day to be on the water and get a tan. Bait was hiding out real well - took about 2 hours to gather up a measely 14-16 big fat cigar minnows. A decent number of boats out - did not see one fish bite, let along get caught. We did not have any action all day. Stayed within about 12 miles of shore - trying a few different places - nothing. Tried some hardware (broken backs) to entice some macks - nothing. Sure was a pretty day though.

Rebel sea fishing charters

Ran a fishing charter Wednesday aboard the Rebel Sea. What a perfect weather day. Started in 130 ft off of johns pass. The water looked clean water felt a little cool. The fish shows that were on the bottom were incredible. The recorder showed fish on every spot; but we couldn't get them to chew. Up until 1:00 we could only get yellowtail snapper, red grouper, scamp, and mangrove snapper to chew. After jumping from 6 different numbers we decided to run a little shallower to 85 ft. First stop in 85 ft produced 8 black grouper up to 15 lbs. The next stop was in 85 ft and produced 5 more blacks up to 14 lbs. It took a little bit to get these fish to chew; but once the bite was on it kept going for about 1-2 hours at each spot. Sometimes it just takes a little bit to get them to chew. For charter information call Captain Mitch or Bill at 492-0479

mike r trip

Hey Mike, I was reading your post about your trip into the gulf and couldn't get any fish to bite. I know you are a consummate fisherman so I know that's not the issue. We also had that same problem with the great shows and no hits that same day, moving from spot to spot. We finally had to make a stand and anchored up in 128'. What we did was to drop a bag of chum on the bottom and that seemed to get the fish into the right mood. We had non-stop action for three hours catching Amber jack, gags, mangos (up to 9.3#)but no American Reds. Try that on your next trip and see if that works. It also works well if you have Rich down on a dive. Good luck Jack Penny

After serving my time in Church, Robert Franckle and I headed offshore at 9:20am for the rockpile in 115 ft. The Water was flat. About half way there, the front came thru, bring N. winds at 10. We continued until we arrived at "the parking lot." Four boats within 250ft of each other. No thanks. Continued farther out to 2nd pile. Only one boat there. Anchored up, no fish, although a good show on the recorder. Off to another spot due south about 10 miles. No boats!, No fish. Good show. On the way home, stop in 78ft at one of Roberts secret spots, good show, no fish.

Probabilities: 1) We don't know how to read a bottom recorder. 2) We can't fish 3) Fish are there, don't want to bite.

Answer: All of the above.

Best part of whole trip: Mother in Law staying at house and I'm not there!!!! Fuel Burn: Does it really matter given the previous?

Mike

Clearwater fishing report
From: steve
Week of January 23 - 27, 2006
Ran out of clearwater pass about 25 miles to 65 ft of water. Did not get in the water though. We found a ledge in 65 that looked like it had a good fish show on it but could not tell what was down there but cant wait till this sinus cold goes away so I can go shoot the fish on this ledge.

Fishing 75 ft southwest of ft desoto
From: Jd
January 23, 2006
Went out fishing Sunday with my family south of Ft. Desoto. The screen on the fish finder showed a good show. The first three baits in the water produced nothing but three big bull red drum. The next still produced the same. We did not dive that day the water felt a little cold . We are still waiting for the water to warm up.

Negative on the diving, just fishing. I took Steve Youngerman, Tim Bodner and Neil said he would tag along. I thought we would be in good shape, as I acquired 24 pinfish at the Bait Bucket. They were small, but more than I could find. Anyway, we went out SW to about 85 ft. to three different ledges, all with good fish shows and bait. We caught nothing but small grouper and the dreaded key west grunt. On a brighter note, the water vis appeared to be about 40 ft. The seas were calm and water temp was 67 at the surface. Thank God for barbeque chicken!!!!!

Today was the day to take Robert and the Bros. fishing. We left the dock at 8:30. Seas were calm, winds nothing. Stopped for fuel at Merry Pier. Diesel is three bucks/gallon. Stopped to try our luck at PAG marker for bait, nothing. Two hours later we arrive at our first stop, 105ft. Caught many American reds, try to catch bait, no luck. Go to next stop at 120, enemy boat on the number. Proceed to third stop, now around sixty miles. Anchor up, proceed to catch more American reds with a few mangos in between. never in a million years would we ever think we would be disappointed in catching American reds, as every one was thrown back:(

Went back to stop two in hopes that boat was gone, it was. Caught more American reds, threw them back. Stopped on the way home in 80ft. Caught small grouper. Headed for the barn at 3:45. Didn't get home till 5:15 due to heavy f! og for twenty miles. Thank God for radar. Good time had by all.

AS OF TODAY, DECEMBER 30TH CHAD CAMPBELL NO LONGER WORKS AT JIMS DIVE SHOP. CALL HIM DIRECT AT 727-543-5569, OR SEND AN EMAIL TO CHAD@SPEARFISHINGUSA.COM

Surface Fishing: Gulf of Mexico Dec 28, 2005

From: Jack Penny
Date: 29 Dec 2005

Six thirty am and it is time to head out into the Gulf of Mexico to fish. On board Michael, Wes, Uncle Terry, John Smith, and Riley Tuner. I have a spot picked out approx sixty miles offshore. The forecast called for wind five to ten knots, seas one to two feet. This changed around 10am when the wind shifted and started coming out of the south. About that time the only thing that appeared to be five to ten was wave height. We fished an area with water depth of 150foot. Landed a 24lb grouper while trolling. Amber Jack, mango snapper, and more grouper is what was added to the box. We did not do as well as we have on the last couple of trips. The ride back was less than smooth and my cell phone got wet. I had to go get a new phone once I got back home. In spite of it all any day fishing is a great day, and fishing with family and friends, well that's priceless.

A blue water Christmas

At last, blue water, at least on the surface. This as reported today by Jack Penny, who along with son Michael, and friend John Smith, fished the waters of the Gulf of Mexico fifty miles out. Seas were two to three feet. The trip started at 6:30am from Jack's dock. Michael had netted four dozen pin fish which were added to the live well. Once at the location, water depth 130ft, the action was all about amber jacks. Weight 25/30 lbs. Once limit was reached every jack from there out was released. Next grouper, Michael caught two 22 plus pounders on spinning tackle, 60lb braided line. Snapper, six large ones. Jack reports that there was a great deal of surface bait in the spot where they were fishing. At three pm. they started the motors and headed for home. The wind had shifted and the air temp was starting to drop. The only mishap to report was that a some point, Jack managed to snag his hand on a fishing hook with a large barb. Jack, the Eagle Scout, who to this day is always prepared, pulled out his first aid kit and produced everything required for minor surgery. Note, Jack is a doctor, this procedure did give pause to those who were witness to Jack at work on himself. Two movie scenes come to mind, first, the scene in the movie "The Perfect Storm" where the fisherman is hooked by the hook on the longline then dragged over board. The second scene is the one in the movie "Master and Commander" where the doctor extracts the shot ball from under his rib using a dull knife, a mirror, and lots of wine. I suppose on the next trip we should send a film crew out on the Penny Wise. We hope to have pictures to post, stand by.

Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

From: Jack Penny
Category: Choose Topic:
Date: 28 Nov 2005
Time: 20:48:05 -0500

Comments

Friday, November 25th, 2005, I went fishing with my son Michael, who is home from FSU for Thanksgiving break, my brother Jay Penny, and John Smith. We fished in 125 plus feet of water over very little structure. We caught a black tip shark, weight 125lbs, six and one half foot in length. Four goliaths, the biggest the size of a VW. Estimated weight 550lbs. Jay Penny brought this monster to the surface with 100lb test line. One black fin tuna, weight 26lbs. Seven grouper, the biggest weighed in at 23lbs

October 31, 2005
MUST READ: GROUPER BAN OVERTURNED!!!
http://www.thefra.org/new_page_2.htm

October 24, 2005
From: Mike Rieth

St. Anthonys Fishing tournament--Offshore

Friday at 3:30pm we discover the offshore division is, "up to the captains discretion". Sounds like they talked to the legal dept. Anyway, Sat. AM early I call my crew who all promptly bail on me due to the impedending hurricane. The forecast was for seas 4-6 feet and building during the day. I'm dejected, but given the alternative of staying home with four kids, I gather up the neighbor and head out of PAG. There were large swells at the entrance of the channel,but once past this, it was smooth riding. Since the forecast was quite shaking, we only went 25 miles SW, stopping at five or six locations. Visability appeared to be about 15 feet, water still brownish in color. All we need now is one grouper to weigh and we are done. Wrong again! Not one grouper boated all day, six or seven nice Mangos, one yellowtail, one 50# yellow lipped piece of #$@!$ (Goliath), two sharks, and numerous &%$# fish. Went to the weigh in that afternoon for the cold beer and food. Winning grouper---8lbs. Number of grouper weighed--3.

October 21, 2005
From: Site Manager

Anyone interested in chartering a boat for Spearfishing, surface fishing, and SCUBA instruction contact Ty Thomas: ovr.tyme@knology.net / (727)-688-3304

October 18, 2005
Offshore
From: Ty

Offshore report 10-18-05 A last minute trip was thrown together after I received a frantic call from Danny – “My engine blew – I’m on vacation – It’s gonna be nice – There’s a storm coming!!!” Ok, Ok, I get the point. Actually he didn’t have twist my arm. I talked Mark into blowing off work and bringing his son Austin as a Master Angler. We pulled out of JP before sunrise on the full moon and the ride out to 90’ was nice with a 2’ following sea. We started off hook and lining and the Snapper were still hungry from the night bite. We boated several nice Gags ( I think Austin said his was the largest ! ) and quite a few large Mango’s before I kicked the guys over the side to go shoot ‘em up. They came back with several nice fish and Danny also came up with a Rod and Reel combo one of my clients lost 2 month’s ago. Thanks Dan-o ! It still works ! The vis report at this depth was a poor 10’ so we moved West. Our next stop was a wreck in 110’. Mark and I rolled over the side and made our way down through a dirty top layer to the bottom where it cleaned up to about 15 to 20’ vis. The larger AJ’s were spooky but there was plenty to shoot on the bottom. We found several Firetruck Red Grouper hanging around the bow along with large Snapper and a bazillion Goliath Groupers from 30 to 400 lbs. I found a beautiful anchor and chain that was lying beside the wreck and after an exhaustive ascent with an extra 40lbs. ( Don’t try this at home Kids ! ) I boated a nearly new $400 set. Swweeeeeet ! Danny and Carey back dove the spot and boated a couple more bucket mouth Reds. We moved further South from there into about 95’ to another break and rounded out our day with a couple more Gags and a few more Snapper. The vis there was about 15’ but the bottom is very silty. One fin kick or a fleeing fish stirs it up pretty quick. All in all it was a great day to be on the water.

Depart from dock at 9:30 with frozen sardines, squid and live pinfish (some did survive the red tide). Winds out of the North at 10-15 (not 5-10 as reported.) Seas 2-3 on the way out. Heading approx 240 to Fin Barge area. Fished numerous ledges in area, water color of tea. Vis. probably less than 4 feet. Caught two gags, about 10lbs. By afternoon, winds pick up to steady 15. Time for a real shakedown in the 32 SeaVee. Seas 3-4. Home in about an hour, no problem. Fuel burn=$70. Bait,Food,Drinks,ice=$35. Ride home in SeaVee=priceless!