We started out in Hillsborough Bay with some snook and snapper, but the bite did not fire off for long. The guys wanted some bend in their rods, so we went to the middle bay for some mackrel.

While boating some nice Macks for the grill, we were suprised by several nice by-catch fish.  John started things off by jumping a nice 100 lb class tarpon. Philippe was next, boating a bonita, far from bonita waters. John jumped back in with a drag screaming 5 foot spinner shark, and a fiesty black tip.

They ended the day catching 9 species, to go with a little sun burn!

Ernie and Barbie were kept busy with a nice variety of fish throughout the day, with snook, redfish, jacks, snapper, ladyfish.  They were planning a fish fry later that evening, so they harvested a nice slot redfish and four plump mangrove snapper for dinner.

Today, Dave settled for bronze, as he boated three tripletail that measured 17, 19, and 28 inches.                

Triona landed an assortment of ladyfish, jack crevalle, and mackrel, as did Dave, and we had our shots at some very nice cobia, but they would not eat. One of these fish was swimming around with a medal of it’s own. It was towing a fishing float and about 3 feet of leader it took from some unlucky angler!

Dave started the day with a gator trout that was just under the max slot size, and we put him in the well to save for dinner. After boating some nice snapper, and several under slot snook, Susie brought a 28″ snook to the boat, and he joined the trout as dinner guests.

We endured the wind, and Dave and Susie ended up with their filets. Not a bad day under the windy circumstances.

Lou Kapp hosted me this morning since my boat is in for service.
We met at 6:00 and headed out on our adventure on Hillsborough Bay. After we found some usable bait, we went to one of those spots that 100′s of boats pass each week on the way to try their luck elsewhere.

One of Lou’s first casts hooked up with a small submarine sized fish. The beast ran wide right, and then wider left, and then….poof, cut leader (shaved curly by the gill plates of the Leviathan).

After a short mental health counseling session to help him through his grief,
we went back to fishing.

A short time later, Lou hooks another nice snook. This fish has no intention of going east-west, but heads straight down field towards the mangrove roots.
With Lou using the rod as leverage, along with me creating distance with the trolling motor, Lou won the fierce battle and became intimate with this nice 35″ lady.

Several smaller snook up to 28″ were brought to the boat, but the big one made the day!

Good job Chris!

We stayed in Hillsborough bay all day, and they caught snapper, trout, sharks, ladyfish, kittys, and some very nice snook.

The pics tell the rest of the story…

Craig and his 27″ snook started the hawg hunt

Next, Dave got a fat 38″ snook

Then Chris and his dad, Doug, Doubled up. Chris with a 36″ and Doug with a 42″ very heavy girl.

ALL OF these were their very first snook!!

On board with me yesterday were Andre, Marco, Carmine and Bob. We started our search for snook and redfish near the Alafia river, using threadfins for bait. We were well north of the Alafia when we found a concentration of snook, and the guys entertained themselves for a few hours with fast paced snook action. Soon after the snook bite started, we were swarmed by 2-3 foot blacktip and bonnethead sharks. These little guys seemed to cut off everyone but Marco, who had the knack for shark catching (he was referred to as Sharkman before the day was over). They ended the day boating 20+ snook, and 10+ sharks. Those numbers would have doubled, but the snook seemed practiced at parting the leader that day.