Friday was all about giving back at the Fishing for Hearts tournament. This was the first event for Fishing for Hearts and Captain Steven was very impressed. Check out Honorary Chairman Joe Madden of the Tampa Bay Rays. Loggerhead Marina in St. Petersburg, Florida was our host for the 9 am start.
With my anglers onboard we headed to my Tierra Verde sure fire trout spot. Our first baits were barely wet when a Tarpon jumped within 100’ of the stern. So here we are with light tackle in hand and Tarpon rolling in my trout spot. We never got the tarpon to chew nor the trout. This was the first charter ever not to get a trout from this spot. A few mackerel and several cut offs was not an impressive start.
Our next stop again started slow then Paul’s rod bent deep and I could see he had a large trout. Things got real exciting as the trout was at least 25”, now I am thinking this baby will win the trout division. Excitement turned to sadness as the trout threw the hook boat side! Within minutes Paul had another large trout 23-24” with the same sad result. Our largest trout landed was 16”.
Paul and his wife Sonya were awesome, a true pleasure to have onboard. Captain Steven really wanted to get them the Grand Slam so we ran across Tampa Bay to the Port Manatee area. Tossing and chumming live white baits into the Mangroves prompted some action. Paul had a nice blowup tight to the Mangroves, after several jumps Paul landed a nice 22” snook.
Now we needed to get Paul a redfish for the Slam. We ran to Ft. Desoto to no avail. Overall one off the toughest bites Captain Steven has run into this year. Both times running past the Skyway ship cannel I saw mackerel and Bonita but not our intended targets.
