Fish Logs

With this past weeks weather at home not being exactly Fisherman friendly. Billy and I were fortunate to be spending 3 great days in Key West filming episodes of our TV show. The fishing and weather down south were both awesome to say the least. Tuesday and Wednesday we fished with Capt. Alex Canalejo out of Murray’s Marina. Tuesday we targeted Yellow Tail Snapper on the near shore reef. We caught 20 or 30 of them from 2 to 5 pounds. A good chum slick and freelined 3 inch pilchards were the key to our success. Wednesday the wind layed down a little and Alex decided to make a run for the blue water. We ran into a crazy Dolphin bite about 20 miles west of Key west. Lots of schoolie sized fish in the 8 to 12 pound range. We caught 15 or 20 fish and also got some great underwater footage for the show. Again a live well full of pilchards were used to catch and keep the school near the boat.

Thursday morning brought higher winds and bigger seas but that did not deter our captain from being optimistic. Captain Zach Bentley took us out to some rock piles just 8 miles off of Key West in 200 feet of water. Drifting with free lined pilchards produced several nice Bonita and a surprise visit by a nice summer Sailfish. Capt. Billy landed the sail in about 15 minutes with some great jumps and under water footage for all to enjoy.  This great fishery is only a 7 to 8 hour drive from Tampa, so keep it mind when you need a great summer fishing fix!

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

The dog days of summer are in full swing! Water temps are high and this weeks tides were very slow making things even tougher. There are plenty of fish around and with next weeks full moon tides approaching things will change up in a hurry. Redfish remain the best game fish target on the skinny flats. Big schools of oversized Reds are roaming all over the bay. Weedon Island and the 4^th street area are both holding a couple of nice pods along with Piney Point and Simmons Park flats. A 4 inch Berkley Gulp Shrimp on a ¼ ounce jig head left sitting on the bottom in front of the school is tough to beat. The stinky bait will almost always get a bite.

The inshore Snapper bite has finally picked up as well. Capt. Billy and I both had great luck this week working the rock piles along the shipping channel edge. Small Pilchards fished on a knocker rig was our best bet. Chumming with a chum bag and extra baits also added to our frenzy. It was good to see the Snapper as I was starting to think they wouldn’t be coming in this year.

The offshore bite was very steady this week with Red Grouper and big Mangrove Snapper taking the spot light. Most of the bigger fish were caught in at least 60 feet of water. The bigger fish are taking live pinfish on the bottom.

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and Sundays at 11:00am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

With record temps pushing the water temps even higher, beat the heat by fishing early or at night. Our best inshore action on Redfish was early in the morning with good incoming water. Cut threadfin herring fished on ¼ ounce jig heads worked best. The fish were very skittish to our boat pressure so long casts were needed. As the sun got up we changed gears and worked the deeper flats for Spanish Mackerel and Speckled Trout. Small Pilchards under a cork worked well as did Gulp Shrimp in Natural color. Again a ¼ ounce jig worked well to get the baits down in the 6 to 8 foot water depths we were working.

Capt. Woody Gore reports having similar luck with the Redfish up around Weedon Island, also on the incoming tides. One of Capt. Woody's clients also hooked and landed a nice 35 inch Snook this week which is great to hear. The inshore Mangrove Snapper bite has been slower this year than last but we are starting to get some reports of some action.

The offshore scene has been steady as well. From 60 feet of water on out all reports have been good. The Mangrove Snapper bite has been the most impressive. Great reports coming in of nice limits of big Mangrove’s mixed in with Red and Gag Grouper. Frozen Sardines, Squid and live Pilchards and Pinfish all are working well. Last winters super cold temps have kept the deeper waters of the gulf cooler this summer and made for some great late summer offshore action.

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.