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The
sheepshead run is starting to wind down as they finish
their spawn, and will probably be over in about two
more weeks. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking
my clients out on the flats to stalk reds and trout
with light tackle and using top-water plugs and
soft-body jerk shads. If you love top-water fishing in
the early morning; then May and June is your time for
big gator trout. I have to say tossing a Mirr0lure Top
Dog Jr. across the flats is one of my favorite things
to do.
Back
to what’s currently going on in our area fishing
wise. Last week we had a few very breezy days with
winds over 25 knots, which kept me at the dock. The
days I was able to get out we hooked a lot of big
sheepshead, a few short grouper, some nice big redfish
and even a few out of season red snapper. Yesterday my
client Tim landed a nice 17” red snapper on light
tackle and as he was fighting it, I could tell it was
something different than a sheepshead. We took a quick
picture and threw the red snapper back.
Mason
had fun catching sheepshead all day
was off the beaches a few days last week when the
weather was calmer searching for cobia and jacks. I
saw only two Cobia, but they wouldn’t eat, so I
changed plans and began looking for big jack schools
running the sand bar. I didn’t see any so we headed
back in to fish the ledges for more sheepshead.
We’ve
had little rain the past few weeks and the waters are
very clear which makes for perfect sight fishing on
the sand bars. I’ll be out again this week scanning
the waters for ling and jacks. If you want to see if
your tackle is tough, just test it out on a Jack
Crevalle; I call them tackle busters or hour jacks. I’m
using all new Penn Battle and Penn Conquer reels, and
with their HT100 drags and full body construction,
these reels should have no problem handling these big
jacks. They handled the March reds we found off the
beach with no problems; some of the reds topped the
scale over 25 lbs which is a trophy red in anyone’s
book. This week looks to be another great week along
the panhandle. I’ll be running most every day this
week searching out Sheepies on the ledges, and I’m
also going to hit the flats a little to see how the
trout bite is. From what I’ve heard from fellow
fishermen, the trout bite has been very good the past
10 days. The key to catching these spotted critters is
to hit the water early and toss a top-water like a
Mirr0lure Top Dog Jr. or artificial shrimp on a
popping cork. Try Bass Assassin’s Pearl White Shrimp
or their Electric Chicken; these two colors have
worked wonders for me in the past years. Summer is
just around the corner and if you are wanting to have
some great light tackle fishing, give me a shout and I’ll
teach you how to fish for gator trout on the sandy
grass flats and show you the art of sight fishing the
flats of the ICW in Santa Rosa Sound.
Thanks for stopping by.
Till
Next Time.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John
Report April 11th - 2011
The past few
days have been very foggy around the Pensacola area.
It's been so bad, that we had to cut our trip short on
Saturday. Every morning the past three days has opened
with a dense fog advisory from the National Weather
Service, and they have been right on the money each
time.
On Saturday I
took the wife out for a fun day of fishing, and we
went searching along the beach for cobia. We saw two,
but they went down and I didn't get a chance to throw
on them. We only fished for a little while and then
the fog began to roll in, so we headed back to the
pass where we hoped it would let up. We brought live
shrimp to fish for sheepshead, and had kept them in
the live well until we were done cobia hunting. When
we arrived in the pass, we joined up with the other
sheepshead anglers, and maneuvered into position over
the sheepshead hole. We both dropped our live shrimps
into about 60 foot of water, and let them touch
bottom, reeled a few times, then DOUBLE HOOK UP!
 
We continued
to reel a few more in, but then decided to make our
way slowly back to the boat ramp, since the fog was
making us uneasy. FWC was out stopping boats making
sure everyone was minding the rules and regulations,
and they stopped me to check my box of fish and we
chatted for a few minutes about how bad the fog was
getting. Not too long after we left the pass, we saw another boater
that was having trouble navigating in the thick soupy
fog, so we stopped and asked if they had GPS on board.
They did not, so we let them follow us back to their
boat ramp, which was barely visible even close up. Fog
can be very dangerous and if your boat doesn't have
radar, you at least need GPS. I run a Lowrance Combo
unit on my rig and I also have a hand held GPS in case
of power failure.
We made it back safely, and we were actually ready to call it a day
anyway, because we were pooped!
We kept our fingers crossed that all the
boaters made it back safely, and headed home. Our
tally for the day was zero cobia and four sheepshead,
which were delicious by the way!
Report April 5th - 2011
Welcome
to Mega-Bite Inshore Charters.
The past few days we’ve had a few thunderstorms
which have caused some major winds which have also
caused a few small craft advisories keeping me and
other anglers off the water. However, our annual
sheepshead run is in full swing and the bite has been
red hot despite the winds. Along with big sheepshead
being caught in Pensacola Pass we’re hooking big
redfish on the deep water ledges.
Along
the flats in Pensacola Bay, we’re seeing small
schools of big reds, and they will go after a Berkley
Gulp on a jig head thrown into the school. Spanish
Mackerel have started to show up in the pass and off
the beaches of Pensacola. They have also started to
move in towards the bay and the bite is pretty good
and will only get better as the season progresses.
Over
at 3-mile Bridge, I’m hooking white trout on Gulps
with a 1/4oz jig head, and I’m also hooking up some
nice slot redfish from time to time.
On the eastern flats in the ICW, the redfish schools
are starting to move in, and sight fishing has been
the way I’ve been catching these fun fighters.
Along the beaches, the cobia run is in full swing and
it looks like it’s going to be a good season. I
haven’t been out scanning the water for them, yet,
but when the weather cooperates, I’ll be out there
in my tower looking to hook one up.
If
you’re coming to Pensacola for Spring Break or
vacation, look me up and we’ll get
you hooked up on the Mega-Bite.
Tight
Lines.
Capt. John
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