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| July 12, 2010 - Warm Days and Hot Fishing |
Summer weather has firmly established itself along the Space and treasure Coasts out side of Orlando - calm, warm seas in the morning giving way to gentle easterly sea breezes and even warmer condition later in the day with the threat of daily thundershowers in the afternoons. Redfish feed shallow in the calm mornings and move off to the deeper drop-offs and potholes later in the day. And now that normal patterns have finally returned to the area, the fishing caught fire as well. We start our individual reports with a spectacular catch.
Some fellows are born great fisherman and other have the honor thrust upon them. We are not sure which applies to Larry Zimmerman from the Villages near Ocala, Florida but his feats on the water the last two years are becoming legendary. Celebrating his 49th anniversary, and staying on Cocoa Beach last week, Larry joined Capt. Rocky on the Banana River for some laid-back fishing. Redfish were the target de jour and they did not disappoint. While catching nine of bronzed beasts on the half day charter, a giant appeared to turn the day from really good to the stuff of which legends are made. Pictured below are Larry and an unbelievable 58 inch redfish. The monster took a four inch pogy in only two feet of water and spent the next hour and half towing Larry, the guide and 17 foot, 6 inch flats boat up and down the flats. Six times Capt. Rocky had to raise the PowerPole and chase the brute in order to keep enough line on the reels but in the end, it was Larry Zimmerman who emerged the victor thus securing his place among the greats in local fishing lore.
The second day of Larry’s two day charter package was also a titanic success. Changing venues from the Banana River near Cocoa Beach, Larry and Rocky headed for the clear grass flats of the Indian River near Titusville. This time using live and cut mullet, the action started almost immediately with another monster redfish. Instead of chasing the fish from the boat, this time Larry opted to wade after the fish in the shallows. Pictured below is Larry with another trophy redfish. After live releasing the first monster it took less than fifteen minutes for the next one to join the fray. This fish was able to strip the reel bare so quickly that no adjustment could be made. There were other redfish caught on the day along with several fine trout. The end of the half day charter was spent chasing and sight-fishing waking black drum along the grass flats.
The tarpon bite has slowed a little in the past week, mainly due to the lack of rain. However, Brent was able to bring a beautiful fish boat-side on a trip with Capt. Peter for a quick photo before release. Brent was invited on this fishing trip (his first saltwater excursion) by Bill Pesci, and the targets for the day were tarpon and snook. The anglers sight-fished schools of tarpon early in the morning, and were able to get bites on live mullet. When the tarpon bite slowed, Capt. Peter switched over to sight-fishing for snook under docks on the Indian River. Live pogies worked best on the snook, as they turned down everything else. Pictured is Brent with his first tarpon.
Due to the slow tarpon bite, Capt. Peter has been fishing schools of redfish in the Banana River. These schools are in shallow water and make for excellent sight-fishing. These schools of reds have been between 15 to 50 fish in number, and are ranging in size from 25” to 35”.
On Monday of the days this week, Capt. Peter had a trio of fishing fanatics from Georgia aboard his boat. The first couple of hours was spent sight-fishing some larger schools of reds. The anglers got to fish over eight different schools of redfish in the crystal clear water. At one point, there was three different schools within casting range around the boat. When the wind picked up a little and the schools of redfish laid down for the afternoon, Capt. Peter moved into some mangrove coves that produced good numbers of upper to over-slot redfish for the remainder of the trip. Pictured are Jeff and Jake’s double hitter and one of the nice upper slot fish.
Returning the scene of the crime only two days later, Capt. Rocky guided Kim from Titusville and Shawn, his son from Orlando on another half day redfish safari. Despite the overwhelming presence of the reds in the same waters several days before, for some reason, they had completely vacated the area. After searching in shallow, medium and deeper waters it became apparent that no redfish would be spotted on this charter. However, there were still trout and a dozen or more were caught on the day using live shrimp and large poggies cast-netted from several migrating schools in the area. Other fish caught included ladyfish, bluefish and gafftopsail catfish which had been following the poggy schools.
Mike and Devin Hinton from Ohio, along with her cousin Aaron Hubbard from Tampa, Florida spent a glorious day of fishing with Capt. Rocky in the Banana River last week. Launching from Ballard Park in Eau Galle, the foursome were making the long trek to the Cocoa Beach/Merritt Island areas when they spotted massive schools of glass minnows being trashed by birds and schools of predatory fish. Over the next hour, trout, ladyfish (later used for redfish as cut bait) and gafftopsail catfish came to boat one after another. Fearing the once ample supply of live poggies would be exhausted in the middle of the river, Capt. Rocky cranked the engine and headed for the shallows in search of redfish and trout. Devin scored first with a fine 26 inch trout (see picture) and Mike boated the first redfish which measured just over the slot. Several redfish and one miss on a huge redfish later the crew decided to concentrate on the bigger, memory-making monsters with the remaining baits. Good decision! Pictured below are Mike and Devin holding a heavy 42 inch brute requiring a group effort to subdue and cousin Aaron with his 41 inch beast which anchored the day … and what a wonderful day it was!
On another trip fishing the schools of redfish in the Banana River, Capt. Peter was joined by Bill Flack and his grandson, Andrew. The purpose of the trip was to fish many different flats and islands within the Banana, and experience the unique types of fishing and scenery. Bill and Andrew landed a sizeable trout and redfish, with most of the reds being over the slot limit. Pictured are Bill with his biggest red to date - a healthy 15lber – and Andrew with a nice over slot red.
Chuck and Mason Theurer recently fished two days with Capt. Peter – with one of the days being spent fishing in the FLFA Junior tournament. The tournament was Mason’s first fishing competition. With Mason on the bow of the boat the whole day, Capt. Peter pushed poled after schools of redfish for the most of the morning. Mason did a fantastic job casting to fish, and landed a handful of redfish…including the largest redfish in the tournament at 33 inches, and the second largest fish in the event. Mason also made some casts count, when schools of trout and ladyfish started crashing schools of glass minnows on the surface, where he quickly landed both species. Mason’s dad, Chuck, took video of most of the tournament, and caught some really awesome footage (the first cast to a tailing school of 50 redfish in 1 foot of clear, glassy water will get your heart pumping every time).
The second trip, was spent chasing schools of redfish early in the morning, and then fishing shallow water docks later on. The schools of reds were cooperative in the morning, with Capt. Peter fishing two schools (one school had a couple of dozen 26” fish, and the other school was much larger with at least 50 fish ranging from 25” – 35”). Both chuck and mason were on the bow this time, and they sight-fished the entire day. They left the schools to sigh-fish some shallow water docks near Cocoa Beach around 10am, and were able to entice a couple fat redfish into biting. The docks tend not to hold schooling fish, but singles here and there. This is a different style of fishing than that of chasing schools, but is equally as fun. Pictured are Mason posing with his biggest tournament redfish and Mason with a fish that came off of a dock.
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| June 18, 2010 - Fisherman's Paradise |
Ah, summertime fishing along the Space and Treasure Coasts is so much fun! Quality, quantity and variety … everywhere … a true fisherman’s paradise.
Our first individual report features Capt. Peter along with his good friends Bob and Robert Rohmann of Satellite Beach. Taking advantage of the slick calm offshore seas, the trio slipped out Sebastian Inlet earlier this week to do a little tarpon and shark fishing. They did catch several of the large poons and black tip sharks roaming just offshore which would have made for a fine trip on any other day ... however 'fine' went to 'fantastic' when a rare beachside SAILFISH was spotted, stalked, stuck, landed and released. Pictured below are Bob and Capt. Peter with this beautiful billfish.
Capt. Roland, with dreams of leaping billfish dancing through his head, took fellow captain Chuck Lloyd and son Charlie out the inlet on the next day. Pulling along side of the first massive bait pod Oceanside, they found three rolling tarpon feeding just in front of their boat. Still without live bait, they tried tossing plugs to the huge silver kings before parting company. Returning to catching bait, the trio next discovered other competition within the pods, toothy competition from sharks and Bonita. Pictured below is Capt. Chuck with one of the two sharks caught by his young son Charlie.
Our next report moves from offshore/nearshore action to the Indian River in Titusville. This is a favorite stretch of water for Native Sons guides and clients during the summer months. After months of murky water and few fish we can finally report big numbers of reds, trout and drum residing in the now clear, shallow, grassy flats. Capt. Rocky was up there three times this week with each of his charters scoring well into double digits. The smallest red of the week was 24 inches while the largest measured a hefty 42. The fish are aggressively eating anything thrown to them, except, of course, for foul tasting sprigs of broccoli. We’ll have more reports from Titusville in a special follow-up segment.
Traveling south down the Indian River Lagoon system from Titusville to Merritt Island, our next report comes from this past Monday. Capt. Rocky guided good friend Joe Schneider, his nephew Tom and his son Joseph Schmitz from Denver, Colorado. Launching from Kiwanis Park in Merritt Island, the foursome fished the Sykes Creek stretch of the Banana River in order to stay close to home because of a lousy weather forecast. The rain held off long enough for the crew to catch nine redfish and a rare Merritt Island snook. Most of the fish measured well over the 27 inch slot limited. Since finger mullet have been almost impossible to find, poggies were used as the bait for the charter. Pictured below are Tom and ‘Little’ Joe with one of their bigger reds followed by a photo of Joe holding his snook.
We stay in the Banana River of Merritt Island for our next report. Mike Foytek from Orlando teamed with Capt. Rocky to form Team Got Milk for the recent Riverside Café Inshore Fishing Classic held in Vero Beach. Making the long run back to the Banana River in Merritt Island, Team Got Milk weighed a solid redfish (5.99 lbs) and trout (4.89 lbs) to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Ironically, their two fish ‘slam’ wound up being bumped out of first place by Native Sons’ Capt. Peter and Capt. Robert Rohmann who regularly fish the Florida Flatsfishing Association circuit. Team Got Milk also caught several redfish just over-sized on the day. Pictured below is Mike holding twin 31 inch redfish which were released back into the wild.
Heading south again, we travel to the Melbourne Beach stretch of the Indian River for our next stop. This time the guide is Capt. Roland and his client is Prof. Ralph Cummings who returned to the area for a visit and some fishing. Launching from Front Street Ramp in Melbourne, the charter started with an intent to sight-fish snook on the flats. And although the big linesiders were there every time a bait was cast near them a more aggressive gator trout bolted in and ate it. After several trout over 25 inches were landed and released the duo decided to switch to targets to schooling black drum. Several drums were beaten before the charter concluded by chasing tarpon in one of the creek tributaries to the IR. The picture below is Prof. Ralph holding a nice 40 inch fish caught using 10lb test spinning tackle. It was a great end to a fun trip.
Our final report concerns a charter which covered over 200 miles on the day – a Native Sons record incidentally. The trip involved Capt. Rocky and his good friend Tom Seaman of Melbourne. Fishing the Strike Zone Inshore Tournament last Saturday, the duo decided to target the giant trout of Ft. Pierce to start the day. After spending and hour and half unsuccessfully stalking the big trout at dawn, the team opted to radically alter strategies and locations by making a long run to Merritt Island. The strategy worked as Tom pulled four redfish, one with four spots, and a big black drum off a dock on the Indian River (Tom and the drum are pictured below). Rushing back to Grant to weigh the fish added another 40 miles to the odometer. The day ended with Tom and Rocky chasing tarpon up Crane Creek … from predawn in Ballard Park of Eua Galle to Ft. Pierce to Merritt Island to Grant to Crane Creek in Melbourne/Palm Bay, that’s a long day of fishing … that’s a fantastic day of fishing!
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| June 3, 2010 - Summertime and Super Times |
Summer has finally arrived along the Space Coast and the fishing has gotten downright ridiculously hot as a result. Giant snook, tarpon, redfish, black drum, jacks and other inshore species have settled into their summer patterns and we’re seeing some super catches over the past few weeks … read on for the details.
Capt. Peter recently guided Justin Stumpfhauser to a huge 45 inch snook. Justin treated himself to a day of fishing for his birthday, and was rewarded with a fish of a lifetime. Fishing back into mangrove creeks, Justin jumped several tarpon up to 30 pounds in the first hour of the trip but the silver kings shook the hooks before any pics could be taken. Switching to a different strategy, trying to get a better hook-set on the ‘poons, the 45 inch monster snook pounded the tarpon bait (an 8” mullet live mullet). With some serious effort and skill, Justin brought the fish boatside for a couple quick photos before releasing her back into the cool, clear water under the mangrove roots. After fishing the creeks, Capt. Peter moved out onto the grass flats, where Justin sight-fished the rest of the day catching redfish, crevalle, and ladyfish.
During another birthday celebration, Capt. Peter guided Paul, Kelly, and Trent Hunter to a day of backcreek fishing for Trent’s birthday in Melbourne. The goal of the trip was tarpon, but due to a lack of water flow the tarpon were pretty lethargic. Fishing a school of 30 or so rolling tarpon first thing in the morning, Paul was able to capitalize on one of the few tarpon bites and pulled a beautiful fish boatside for a quick photo before releasing. The tarpon bit 6” live mullet early, and later in the day they preferred pogies. The rest of the trip was spent sightfishing tarpon and black drum. Some of the schools of black drum they fished are in excess of 50 fish, and are just a blast to sight-fish.
Florida in late spring can bring some surprises, weather-wise and angling-wise. The weather for Greg Stever from Missouri, his two sons Tanner and Trenton, and Captain Rocky could not have been more surprising. Firstly, an unseasonal tropical system developed over the Atlantic during the night before their charter and threw early morning squalls and unseasonably low pressure upon central Florida delaying the start of their charter, Then the fish decided to play with baits rather than aggressively attack them as had been their pattern in the preceding weeks. Despite continuous hits, we were only able to set hooks in a couple of reds and trout before a late morning rain drenched us and chased us off the river. After the rain stopped we tried fishing again but were only able to stick one more redfish, although it was a dandy. Pictured below is Trent with his 32 inch Banana River Red.
Brian Baney and oldest son Nick fished a half day with Capt Roland in the Melbourne area. They started off trout fishing and landed some really nice ones. The fish ranged from 20 - 23 inches. When the river grew too rough they slipped back into Crane Creek for a shot at some tarpon. Although They didn’t land any one was jumped and a really nice jack was landed.
Visiting from Atlanta for some fun in the sun, Kim and John (the husband and wife fishing machine) joined Capt. Peter for a morning of flats fishing in the Banana River. Being friends of Capt. Peter and his family, Kim invited Christa to come along and boy is Christa happy she did. Fishing both islands and up on top of grass flats, the anglers had a blast hunting and catching redfish. With double headers and even a triple header, you could probably hear the laughs in the other river. Croakers and pinfish were the bait of choice. The two biggest fish went 48 and 44 inches….
Will, Jacob, and Wendell from Youngstown, Ohio fished with Roland for two days. The first day tarpon and trout were the targets. Even though the tarpon were not in the mood to eat Wendell landed a giant gar while Will added a big jack from a school of 30. Moving out into the river, the trio sight-fished for snook and trout and Will scored with a gator. On day two, Team Buckeye moved off the beach for a mixed bag of fish. The fish were picky but a few were landed – shark, kingfish, and bonita all made it to the boat while the tarpon and cobia teased the crew.
Mason and his dad, Chuck, joined Capt. Peter for another adventure on the Indian River Lagoon….In search of Mason’s first tarpon. Mason had jumped many tarpon in the past, but had yet to land one, so the purpose of the day was to get rid of that skunk. Fishing one of Peter’s schools of tarpon first thing in the morning, the anglers hooked at least 5 ‘poons with Mason bringing one of them boatside for a quick release, and his first silver king! Capt. Peter reports having a blast on the water sight-fishing many different tarpon schools, two big schools of black drum, sharks, crevalle, snook, and even sight-fishing five foot gar on fly. Mason caught so many black drum, that at times, the anglers found themselves just watching the school of drum just swim around the boat. “We lost a lot of fish and caught a lot of fish (lost count of how many drum we caught), but the best part was that we got to watch almost every fish eat the bait”. Mason is a fantastic angler, and his quest for trophy fish has definitely rewarded him with some awesome catches.
Finally, the Turner family joined Capt. Roland in the Melbourne area for some sight-seeing and fishing. The three young Turner boys were quite the hand full and made enough noise to send most of the fish running for the hills, however, they did manage to land a few redfish who, evidently, were hard of hearing. Seven year old Hayden struck first with a nice slot red which was his first and biggest ever. Four year old Carson was not to be out done and soon followed with a bigger one. Pictured below are Carson and his red.
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| May 12, 2010 – Waiting for the Spring Mullet Run |
There are some terrific fish being caught along the Space and Treasure Coasts although the continued effects of high winds on our inshore fisheries have been presenting us some challenges. Typically mid-May gives us more moderate winds and temperatures along with the annual spring mullet migration combining to set our snook, redfish, tarpon and other species on torrid feeding binges. Even though this has not happened yet the fishing has still been really good. Finding clean, calm waters with good baitfish has been the key to successful charters for us the past several weeks. Here are our most recent reports
Now an old angling adage holds that a few great fish will trump a bunch of mediocre ones any day of the week. Last Saturday this proverb proved so true for the Bullingtons from Chicago. Guided by Capt. Rocky and Capt. Roland, Jerry, his sister Judy, witnessed nephew Austin catch two fish that will not soon be forgotten, a monster 43 inch, 30 pound snook and Austin’s very first redfish which gave him and impressive inshore slam during his first Florida fishing weekend. The Melbourne Beach stretch of the Indian River was our location and a combination of live threadfin herrings and small poggys were our bait.
On Friday Jason and Kaden Tacker from Arkansas had the rare treat of catching their first redfish and watching their first shuttle launch from just off the NASA property along the Indian River near Titusville. It will interesting to see which experience the two will remember longer. By the way, they caught several nice reds and trout using live finger mullet under ideal weather conditions. Capt. Rocky was the guide for the charter.
The previous Wednesday Jerry Bullington and his nephew Austin joined Capt. Rocky for a day of fishing on the Banana River. After having to wait for a low pressure system with accompanying storms to clear the area, our trip begin late morning under still heavy cloud coverage and lingering stiff winds. Finding sheltered and clear water along a narrow stretch of the Banana River the Bullingtons tied into redfish, trout, and sheepshead. Austin caught the best fish of the day, a monstrous 31 inch trout.
Capt. Peter reports that he had two fantastic and tough anglers aboard my boat on Saturday. These two lady anglers, Mary and Jeanine, have traveled the globe in search of unique and large fish. Saturday’s weather was a little on the extreme side, with wind gusts up to 30mph blowing down the Indian River Lagoon. These anglers said no big deal to the forecast, so we set out extra early in order to fish a grass flats holding some schools of gator trout before the wind reached its max. We hammered the trout in the morning, as they were absolutely smashing our live mullet out of the water – those big trout gave some really cool strikes when they launched out of the water from underneath our fluttering baits that were on the surface. We went through at least two dozen live mullet in the first hour as the trout just inhaled them. The trout varied in size from twenty to twenty-five inches. Once the wind really started gusting, we moved up into canals and sheltered creeks protected from the wind and live-baited around docks and mangroves. We tried to do some fly-fishing, but the wind really inhibited where we could fish, and greatly affected the ability to cast – Mary, however, was able to entice a couple of gar into biting her fly back in one creek. Back in the canals and creeks we had a blast throwing eight inch live mullet to schooling Jack Crevalle. These jacks were ten to twenty pounds, and were just demolishing the baits with a huge splash of white-water. Throwing live bait to a 20 pound crevalle is one of the most aggressive strikes you will get anywhere – it will make your heart skip a beat!
The charter with Bob Hill and his good friend Sam, both from Jacksonville, could not have experienced a wider range of weather. A severe front pushed through the region in the early morning hours causing us to delay our departure several hours. Under still heavy clouds, we ventured forth on the Banana River is search of reds. Sam scored quickly with two 30 inch fish at our first stop. Noticing tailing fish further down the grass flat, we change ventures and tactics to sight fishing. As the cloud coverage started to break numerous reds were spotted tailing and pushing wakes in water too skinny to cover their wide frames. As morning gave way to noontime the fish settled down to rest in potholes and our challenge was to present baits to them without startling them from their mid-day slumber under full sun skies. Finally, the afternoon brought increasing winds to near 30 mph churning the river into a muddy mess. All in all, it was a day that provided us with plenty of action and striking contrasts. (Capt. Rocky was the guide.)
On Thursday and Friday, Capt. Peter had the privilege of fishing with long time client and friend, Howell Riggs of Alabama. Howell is one of those guys you could have a great day on the water with, even if the fish are not cooperating. But that was not the case…. They fished different times of day, targeted a bunch of different species, and fished in many different areas (clear grass flats, brackish mangrove creeks, and canals and trenches) – in order to fully enjoy all that the space coast offers this time of year. Howell caught giant trout (a bunch of 23 inchers up to 28 inches), big redfish, a handful of really nice black drum, snook, crevalles, huge gar, and jumped some tarpon…...sometimes a couple of jumps are all you want from a tarpon after a long day of pulling on fish.
Finally, Mike Foytek from Orlando was Capt. Rocky’s guest on the Banana River on Friday week. Scarce bait, dirty water, and an outbreak of blue/green algae have combined to make our north and mid-county fishing difficult. After visiting several spots that produced well on Wednesday and being blanked, we opted for a radical change in venue and tactics by mid-morning. The changes worked temporarily as we quickly boated a 29 inch redfish and missed a monster fish within a thirty minute span. The rest of day however, although beautiful from a weather condition standout, an oddity over the past month, proved to be frustrating for a pair of hardcore anglers. And after running out of our few precious finger mullet, we finally agreed to postpone the remainder of our charter until early June.
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| April 29, 2010 – Spectacular Spring Fishing Report |
The past couple of weeks have offered up some great fishing, strong winds and all. Moreover, there has been a great variety of fish in our waters right now. Applying different techniques by sight-fishing on the flats and in the creeks and canals has been a ton of fun and very productive. The following accounts are from the past several weeks.
On an afternoon trip, accompanied by CJ Hobgood, Capt. Peter fished back into some mangrove lined creeks in search of tarpon and snook. This was a really fun trip because CJ is a blast to fish with and is pretty darn skilled when it comes to battling big tarpon. They caught some really nice tarpon and some snook from 32 to 40 inches in the four hour trip. They also jumped a bunch of 30-50 pound tarpon, but were only able to get one boat-side. A cool picture of one of the fish making his grand leap out of the water turned out pretty good. Live baitfish was the bait of choice, and they were sucking ‘em down.
Dennis Gast, wife Samantha and 6 yr. old daughter Harmony from Wis. Fished ½ day charter with Capt. Rocky on the Banana River. Partly cloudy skies turned to rain by early afternoon. Caught 2 reds to 18 lbs and 2 trout to 26 inches. Saw manatees, dolphins, and all kinds of waterfowl including rosette spoonbills, snowy egrets, blue herons, ibis, pelicans and ospreys. One osprey kept threatening our baits and finally took a finger mullet only ten feet from the boat. Family had enjoyed Sea World in Orlando the previous day but I doubt it could have compared to all the water creatures seen on the day.
Capt. Peter had another great day of fishing recently this time with Bill Pesci. Accompanying Bill was a friend of his visiting from Georgia. They fished in the Banana River, and were blessed with a beautiful breezy day. They started off sight-fishing snook that were sunning on the surface holding over some six foot deep structure; both man and tackle were tested. Pulling upper thirty to forty inch snook from barnacle encrusted wood with light tackle can be challenging but these two guys put it to them. After tugging on the snooks, they played on the flats for a little, and then fished a school of big black drum and redfish that were holding on the shallow side of a five foot deep trench. This dynamic duo put the hurt on the fish, landing over eight solid black drum, some good fifteen pound plus reds, and a handful of beautiful snook up to thirty-eight inches (with one 40 inch plus snook “released” next to the boat – would have been nice to get a picture of her).
Dave and Maritza from Pennsylvania spending a week in west Melbourne fished with Capt. Rocky on a perfect morning. The glassy conditions and clear water made a stealthy approach mandatory for the spooky fish. Using both live finger mullet and four inch shiners, Dave slammed catching redfish, trout, flounder and jack among the dozen or so fish caught on the half day charter. They had numerous shots at monster snookers cruising the shallow shorelines but could not entice them to bite. These huge fish were sight-fished. They also had a shot at a fifty pound tarpon, one of the first tarpons spotted in the river this spring. (We’ll post photos at a later date.)
One other trip that sticks out in Capt. Peter’s mind was one with a group of very skilled anglers who were visiting Cocoa Beach on business – and the wind was blowing pretty good! They were forced to seek shelter behind islands and in protected mangrove coves the entire day in order to fish calm quiet waters. They chased schools of reds around all morning, and had a blast.
Finally, Capt. Peter wishes to say congratulation to his little sister Christa Deeks for her 1st place finish in the Hunt for Reds tournament this several weeks ago. The pro-team on his boat that day consisted of Brian and Matt Holmes, along with Christa. The team worked hard all day culling through reds trying to find the magic multi-spotter. They caught other multi-spot fish on tournament day, but were just too big. Peter warns we need to look out for Matt Holmes – he’s fired up on these tournaments, and is a real competitor!
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| April 12, 2010 – Happy Days Are Here Again |
The weather has improved steadily over the past several weeks and so has the fishing. With the warmer temperatures and more moderate winds, hungry gamefish have returned to the shallows in big numbers. Indeed, happy days are here again as evidenced by the following summaries from our most recent charters.
Art and his neighbor Al from Melbourne Beach fished last week with Capt. Roland in the Sebastian area of the Indian River. The morning started slow for the duo with strong northwest winds, but we stuck with the game plan. We finally got the winds to shift to the east and boy did the fish respond. In a 2 hour span we landed 12 trout from 22 to 28 inches. Pictured below is Art with his personal best trout of 28 inches followed by Al with another gator trout.
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Capt. Peter was blessed with perfect weather on his charter with an old friend Bob and kayaking phenom and Olympian, Andrew. Taking advantage of the beautiful conditions, the day was spent poling around in the clear, shallow water and sight-fishing redfish. Among the many caught was the following being held by Andrew.
The next day was equally gorgeous weather-wise. There was a nice breeze coming off of the ocean, clear and calm water, and an almost cloudless sky. Capt. Peter reports the charter was split between fishing docks early, and then pushing a school of redfish later in the morning. We landed 19 redfish during this half day trip, with quite a few “tournament winners”, and some really nice “over-slot” fish – including the beauty pictured below.
Good Friday found Capt. Roland on the river again with Michael Cutbirth, his wife Michelle and their sons Josh age 7 and Jacob age 11 who was celebrating his birthday with the boys first ever fishing trip. The fishing was fantastic as we started catching redfish from the very first cast and it never stopped until we headed in. This group caught 20 reds and lost another handful as the fish were found under some docks and knew right where to go after being hooked. Jacob was heard to say "What a great Birthday". Pictured below are the boys with Roland during a double hook-up followed by Joshua with one of the many reds landed during the outing.
Ginna and Doug Edwards from Raleigh, North Carolina caught one of our less desirable days from a weather standpoint on their short visit to the Space Coast. The clouds were heavy and threatening while the winds blew a stiff 25 mph from the southeast. Another front was rapidly approaching from the north. However, Capt. Rocky and crew took advantage of the sheltered western shoreline of islands in the Grant area of the Indian River and found calm water and hungry gator trout. Doug and Ginna caught a half dozen big trout in an hour and half including the monster pictured below.
Mike and Michael Rimkus were joined by their good friend Alex from Denver on Sat. to fish with Capt. Roland in the grant area of the Indian River. The weather was gorgeous as Spring has finally arrived in full force with temps around 79 and light winds and sunny skies. The fishing was good with many hits but we just weren't hooking them good. That is until Alex got this monster 20 lb. redfish. Alex had quite a fight on his hands with the 10 lb line. The fish had almost emptied the reel of line before we finally gave chase with the trolling motor. After getting most of the line back, the fish wrapped the line around a clam lease pvc pipe full of sharp barnacles threatening to cut the line. We managed to unwrap the line and resume the fight for another 15 minutes. It was a great ending to a great charter.
The next day we took Mike's kids, Jenna 6 yrs old and Jacob 8 yrs old along with Alex's son, Trey 10 yrs old, with us for a kids day of fishing. With an approaching cold front on the way we decided to fish the canals of Honest Johns, just north of Sebastian Inlet. The bite was on as all the kids caught fish from sheephead, redfish, trout, snapper, and jacks. We boated 20 plus fish during the 4 hours and had smiles all around. Pictured below is our trio of kiddos with 1 of the many reds.
Another recent kids trip was guided by Capt. Peter and starred good friends Ed Wegerif, his son Luke, and his daughters Mulan, Jeili, and Anlu. They spent the morning near Cocoa Beach chasing schooling redfish. Even though they targeted just redfish, they varied their methods of fishing for them. They sight-fished the day away under mangroves, in potholes, and under docks. These great anglers landed around 20 reds, a couple of sheepshead, and a very nice trout…and dip-netted more jellyfish than anyone could count.
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