Fishing Florida Flats

Book Your Trip Scalloping season will soon open in Pasco County for the first time in many years. This year, the season will run from July 20 th – 29 th , 2018. The daily bag limit consists of 2 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell, or 1 pint of bay scallop meat per person. There is a maximum of 10 gallons of whole bay scallops in the shell, or 1/2-gallon bay scallop meat per vessel. Before you head out to look for these delicious delicates, you need to know where to find them, what they look like, and what you will need. Bay scallops live in shallow waters, generally between 4 – 9 feet of water. Normally you will find them nestled in the grass flats. Scallop shells are approximately 3 inches in width and the shell colors can be a sand color to a darker brown, which helps blend in with the gulf floor, a green tint which help them blend with the grass flats, to the lucky orange color. Scallops can also be identified by their blue eyes, that can be seen when the shells a...

Fishing Report 4/10/18 - 4/18/2018 Cobia are here!   We have been doing a great deal of Cobia fishing within the last week.   It felt like within a day they all came back!   Last week we went out and didn’t see any. This week we caught 7 in two hours.   One was 33 inches long. The bait has been hard to find, but there is plenty just south of Tarpon.   I think that will change soon and they will be showing up further north within the next few days.   Snook and Reds are around, but Reds are biting better on live bait.   Seatrout are now in, you can find them on the open flats.   They seem to be still hooked on eating shrimp more so than Greenbacks.   We have also landed a few flounder.   We were not targeting them, but while drift fishing and bouncing a jig off the sand pockets we’ve been hitting them.   Mangrove snappers have been in 10 feet of water over rocks and in the backwaters.   They seem to like just shrimp. ...

Fishing Report Week Of April 5 th , 2018 Fishing is back, water temperature is up, bait is everywhere life is back to normal. The fishing has been hit or miss for a while, but I think the ups & downs are over and we are going into the best months of fishing. The Red fishing and Snook are eating again, and they came out of the back waters. Seatrout are on the open flats in about 6 feet of water over grass. Mangrove snapper over rock plies with nice size Sheepsheads and we are starting to see a lot of Spanish Mackerel in the same spots. Cobia seem to be starting also they are still offshore about 8 miles out but have not seen any good size ones yet at least in Pasco county. The one thing I would say, fishing has been better in an outgoing tide and does shut off during the slack tide (No moving water between High & Low Tides). Catching bait is better at first light as the day goes on bait is harder to find.   Conclusion fishing has been good so go have fun and be safe....

Fishing Report March 23 rd , 2018 Fishing has been up and down what I mean by that is one day you would limit out on Seatrout Even Pompano and lots of Sheepshead and the next day you go back to the same spot and they are gone. The weather is going from warm to cold back to warm, so the water temperature is swinging up to 10 degrees and the fish do not know if they should stay in the backwaters or head onto the flats. The advice I have this week is to fish both start on a spring because the water is warmer and go down shallow water canals fish docks and Mangrove lines if the fish are not there then go to the mouth of the backwater location incase they moved out but not far out,  and if you still do not find them go into the open flats fish in about 4 to 6 feet of water over grass, I recommend drift fishing so you can cover more ground. Seatrout are biting Shrimp and white bait if you can find it. In the backwater you will see plenty of reds & Snook but getting them to eat i...

Weekly Fishing Report week of 3/5/2018 Seatrout is the fish of the week. A new cold front just moved in and dropped the water temperature a good 10 degrees from 77 to 67 degrees. The Red Fish and Snook bite was on fire just before this last front, but for now they do not want to eat but you will see plenty of them.   We tried everything from Greenback, Shrimp and pinfish and nothing.   These fish really do not like dramatic temperature change, but I am sure they will be in the mood in the next few days. The good news is the Seatrout & Mangrove Snapper are in the mood to eat and plenty of them all over the place, look for Seatrout in shallow grass beds 2 to 3 feet of water and the Mangrove Snapper near shallow water rock piles and oyster beds. The other good news is we have seen our third Cobia, so just give it a couple more weeks and with one more warm front we are good to go. We are still running into Sheepshead about 4 to 5 miles offshore on shallow rock piles in a...

Fishing Report Week Of 2/20/2018 Red fishing is back and strong, Thanks to the warm weather it looks like the Red are in the mood to eat. I want to thank Captain Mike of Nature Coast Inshore Charters for taking me out on his boat, Captain Mike landed a nice Red, photo below on his first cast of the day, we were fishing only 2 feet of water near a dock in Tarpon Springs after that many more were landed all the way up to Hudson Florida. Look for Reds out in the open now they have moved almost all the way out from the backwaters. Here is some more good news white bait is back, we been finding white bait from Tarpon Springs to Hudson on the low-lying grass flats just a little chum and they will come but mostly early in the morning later in the day is a little harder to find them but not impossible. This week the best fish to target would be Reds, Seatrout and Sheepshead. On one of my charters this week we ran into the first Cobia for 2018 season which is my favorite fish to Target. I...

Fishing report week of February 7 th 2018 Things are looking up after a lot of cold fronts the warm weather is here, at least for now. We are starting to see the fish coming out of the backwater like Snook, Red Fish and even Seatrout. Think about it just 10 days ago the water temperature was in the low 50’s as of today we were marking in some spots 68 degrees. If you are going out now look to go to the spoil islands, sand bars with pockets of deeper water and springs are still pretty good.  We have been targeting allot of Sheepshead because they seam to like the cold water, we are fishing the canals and rock piles. Using live shrimp or crab they do make great meals. Seatrout, look for grass beds near the mouths of the channels Snook and Reds look for the mullet in some warmer spots and you should see them piled up but they have not been to happy with live shrimp not sure why, but they seem to be killing the artificial bait. The biggest thing I can recommend this week is take...