Fishing in the Tampa Bay area is starting to heat up. Even though the Gag Grouper closure remains in effect, catch-and-release fishing for these beautiful creatures has been off the chain! And Spanish mackerel, let's just say that Wednesday's 6-hour fishing charter was more like collecting mackerel than it was fishing for them. We rounded up almost 70 'macks' in about 2 hours. It sure does help to have a good first-mate when the fishing gets this crazy....thanks John!
I was able to play host to some good friends for this charter. Margaret and Annie, creators of St.Pete Heat hot sauces, brought along neighbors Dave, Can, Al(local crabber extraordinaire) and Margaret's Aunt Maureen. Maureen was in town from the cold Northeast and wanted to have some fun in the sun. What better way to accomplish this than go fishing?
Like I mentioned before, the mackerel seem to be in full effect. Heading down to the Egmont shipping channel proved to be the right place to start. As soon as we got lines in the water we had a fish on, and as the sun got higher the bite got stronger. But after a couple of hours of driving around in circles and bringing in Spanish mackerel 2 and 3 at a time, my charter was ready for a little bit of bottom fishing, or in this case, Grunt collecting!
I knew right where to go for the grunts, and of course some catch-and-release grouper fishing. 42 feet of water seems to be a good depth right now for the big grunts and there are allot of them. These guys must have been having one heck of a fish-fry because they kept 120 of these tasty little snappers. Again, thanks to John for his awesome fish cleaning skills...and patience. Of course lots of short Red Grouper were caught and even a few nice Gags. Check out my good friend, Margaret, with a nice Gag Grouper. (above pic)
Take advantage of the Tampa Bay area and all of her surroundings. There is no better time to get out and enjoy the awesome weather with good friends, fishing. Call Jawbreaker fishing charters today and do like Margaret did...take a friend fishing! Happy fishing to ya, Capt. Dan