Saturdays forecast was looking good with light winds so Captain Steven planned fishing several miles offshore. Local reefs are on fire with big mackerel, kingfish, bonita and sharks. We picked up our clients John and Jarrod who are in town for a wedding at 6:15 headed and ran 5 miles south to gather bait on a local grass flat. 10 minutes of chumming and the tell tale flash of white baits started. With everyone helping we were loaded with bait and nearing our first stop at 7:30.
Tierra Verde has been holding big numbers of large trout and jumbo mackerel. I was confident we would slay the fish, well 10 minutes later we only had several lost fish due to cutoffs. We even had 40 pound leader cutoff! Both of my guys were quality anglers so I knew it was the conditions not the fisherman. We finally got the bite going with several trout and mackerel but it was nowhere close to what it’s been. About this time it was clear the 5 mph wind forecast was not correct, I had concerns the south winds would cancel plans to run offshore. Sure enough as we moved into the Gulf it was clear we needed to change plans and stay inshore.Bo
We set up on a local grass flat on Boca Ciega only to find the wind whipped flats were already muddied. Sounds winds at 15 make a mess of lower Tampa Bay. I wasted no time and ran to Pinellas Point and finally got into a decent bite. I chummed with cut white baits and fired up the black tip sharks. Even small 25-30” sharks are a blast on light tackle. Just ask Capt. Chris Colvin who was today’s mate. Capt. Chris ran into one angry shark and came oh so close to getting nailed! This shark literality jumped at Chris with teeth chomping. The black tips saved the day!
