Salt Aire
We are still having typical Central Florida summer weather. Day time around 90 degrees and water temperature in Clearwater Bay is stable at 85. The doldrums of summer have not ended. Fisherman can only hope for a little relief soon. Now for the fish, they have not moved too far from their hot weather locations. Trout are still along the edges of shallow grass flats in Clearwater Harbor. They are feeding on millions of small fry baits in the bay. Redfish are scattered around in different areas of St Joseph Sound and have not come together in big schools yet. There are some nice snook still hanging out at the beach right up next to the break water. Snook are mainly nocturnal and feed at night. That was evident because you can follow a group of fish a 1/4 mile down the beach, throwing artificial and live bait with no results.
Steve, Stephanie and Max from West Virginia, teamed up with Salt Aire early in September. The first flat was too shallow and did not give us much time to work this location of the bay. The flat was alive with mullet and bait fish, but the main predators have moved off. Moving around the bay and looking for grassy areas is a perfect way to find fish. This method produced a couple of small trout, several mackerel that cut off our hooks and a small shark. Another move found some deeper water right next to a very shallow flat in Clearwater Bay . The tide was still moving out and creating some decent moving water. After setting up and tossing out some chum, the first baits hit the water. That's when all H**L broke loose. We caught three redfish, nine mackerel, we lost as many to cut offs, four trout, one bluefish, one shark, three ladyfish, two jacks, two grouper(8 inches), numerous world record size pinfish and other trash fish. Steve's biggest red was 31 inches, Max caught his first lemon shark, 24 inches, and Stephanie caught a fish on everything cast.
As we finished the day, the last bait in the live well, a small pinfish, was tossed out on a float. It was this very last bait Stephanie caught her 26 inch redfish. After removing the redfish from the hook and line for some pic's, Max threw the same battered bait back out and caught his shark.
Some times in fishing or catching, you never know. So don't give up even on the last bait. "It's not over till it's over".
A few days later, Russ came aboard for some drag screaming, rod bending action. The tide was almost low when we anchored Salt Aire just off a shallow flat in Clearwater Harbor and rods were cast. This area usually has a variety of action from mackerel, bluefish, trout, redfish, sharks, ladyfish, grouper and jacks. Not to mention lots of so called "trash fish". Russ was able to catch quite a few of these quality fish and even some of the trash species. After fishing a spot awhile, always try relocating several times around the bay to find the hungry fish. They will move daily. Russ did add a nice 19 inch trout to the catch. The tide now was coming in and was high enough to go looking for some redfish. Redfish were hanging around a nearby grassy area in St Joseph Sound the last several weeks and eating live white bait thrown their way. They did not disappoint today. Russ caught five nice 25 to 30 inch fish all on white bait. With some great pictures we ended the day.
Starting in October, redfish will school up together for that spawning thing that happens through November. Locate the schools and follow them as they move around the bay and you can enjoy some of the finest red fishing Tampa Bay has to offer. Or better yet, give me a call.
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