Spotted Seatrout Tips

You want to fish early for trout in summer. Use your favorite top water lure at first light. Trout will move to deeper water soon after sunrise. Move to grass flats that are 2-4 feet in depth and switch to popping corks with live shrimp or pinfish.


Summer Redfishing

I keep three rods rigged for redfish close at hand when fishing the flats. One with a favorite top water lure, one with a gold spoon and one with a root beer grub tail jig. Start with your top water at first light and switch to spoons or jigs as the sun rises.

June 2, 2005
Sarasota Florida Fishing Report
By Capt. Bob Smith


We had some fair action along the beach with Spanish mackerel through the weekend. The action was not fast but it was steady throughout the day. We probably could have picked up the pace by using live pilchards or artificial baits but we were hoping to pickup a cobia or a nice reef fish on the large live shrimp. In with the macks, we had very small bluefish and an occasional school of little tunny running through the baitfish making a lot of noise.

On the bay, we found some keeper trout along Country Club Shores but more shorts than keepers. The action had been better north of Longbar earlier in the week. Some nice redfish had also been caught over the long weekend.

I am sure the Redtide is affecting the fishing to some extent, but no big fish kills that I know of yet. Maybe all this rain will wash it away. We never know what the Redtide will do! May was a slow month for fishing, as Mays go. The month of May can be a very good month for all kinds of fishing. We did have some good days for king mackerel during the first half of May. Let’s hope June will kick-in and make up for May!

Enjoy & Protect
My Website: http//www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com

Flounder Fishing Tip


The 'bigga da bait' the 'BIGGA DA FISH' and when fishing for big doormat flounder this is also true. Big Flounder love long slender flowing strips of squid, cut bait like flounder belly or the side of a croaker(my favorite), and even live baits like spot or pinhead croakers, but these big baits have a downside unless you fish them properly. Your baits may be different depending on your region, but the same similarity in all cases is that the baits are long which causes a problem for many anglers. So many times the flounder will not be hooked because they bite the trailing end of the bait, missing the hook altogether. This has a lot to do with angler patience too as the average angler will feel the bite and their reflexive instinct is to yank back on the rod. This is the worst thing you can do when flounder fishing for the big boys when drifting long baits. The flounder, especially when fishing long or live baits must be given a chance to get the hook in his mouth.
OR another way that I have been using for quite some time is to get a hook in the tail end of your long baits. I have been using a double hook setup where I snell two 5/0 or 6/0 hooks about 4 - 6 inches apart depending on how large or long my bait is. I put this onto my home made fluke killer rigs which are like the store bought ones but 'industrial strength'. The store bought Fluke Killers aren't for doormats and you will find that out the hard way if you use them to fish for big flounder. Anyway once your rig is tied go ahead and use the first hook and bait up how you usually would. If on a live bait you hook thru the mouth on a single hook rig then you would use the front hook and bait up the same way. Now take your other hook with the 5 inch line and hook it in the tail end of your long bait, make sure the bait still looks natural as possible. Now drift, or slow troll (bumping the boat along) until you get your next Big Flounder hit - your odds of hooking him will greatly increase and you will catch more big flounder.


You can also you a smaller hook for the tailend hook if you like. Sometimes too big of a tail hook will affect the bait negatively in the way that it swims or flows through the water. Try to avoid that.

May 21, 2005
Sarasota Florida Fishing Report
By Capt. Bob Smith

King mackerel are still hot on the artificial “M” reefs. King, Spanish, and barracuda have been plentiful using live bait. We have also been able to find plenty of sardines around New Pass and on the reefs. In the same area, a few nice grouper and snapper have been caught on the bottom with live shrimp and pilchards.

The bay has also been producing although the runs have been cold and hot throughout the day. Large trout, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and some pompano are being caught on the grass flats but you need to move around. The DOA shrimp and large live shrimp have both worked well. You can find small snapper, black seabass and small grouper around most of the under water structures. Snook and redfish will be getting thick around the docks and boats. You can net plenty of whitebait at first-light just south of the New Pass sailboats, halfway between the sailboats and Bird Key Park.

Tarpon have started to chew and are being jumped but it could be better. Live crabs are good bait and can be found at most of the bait shops.

Enjoy & Protect
My Website: http//www.sarasota-fla-fishing.com

Mosquito Coast Fishing Charters

For the past week, fishing conditions on the Lagoon coast of Florida have remained tough. Blustery breezes and overcast rainy skies have prevailed, making inshore sight fishing difficult. Although my lead into this report may sound ominous, four of my five charters this past week produced quality fish.

On Saturday April 30th, I had the pleasure of fishing with Ed Baldind and his fishing buddy Walt from Deland. Faced with a 15 to 20 knot south wind we departing the ramp before sunrise with hopes of beating the weekend crowd to the fish. As civil twilight appeared, we found a tight ball of large tailing reds on the leeward side of the causeway, but we managed only a few good shots before the school was dispersed by seven different boats motoring in on us. We spent the remainder of the charter looking for fish, and ended the day with one 24" redfish caught on the new Red- Red Ripper Spoon, and a 20" sea trout on live finger mullet.

On Sunday May 1st, I was scheduled to fish the Mosquito Lagoon with Quilhan Spearman from Ormond Beach, but we elected to reschedule due to adverse weather in the area.

On Wednesday May 4th, I honored a half-day charter donated to CCA Florida, and was privileged to fish with David Scudder of Winter Springs, Florida. Again we were faced with overcast skies and a strong northeast winds, and we found locating fish difficult. With a little luck and a lot of work, we were granted a brief shot at a school of large reds, and David managed to pull nice 38" copper queen from the school on live shrimp for a brief photo. With David's trophy to the boat, we opted leave the school and target sea trout. As we drifted off of the flat into deeper water, we found an abundance of small trout willing to play with ¼ ounce Rip-Tide Jigs with Riptide Realistic Shrimp with Woodies Rattle inserts.

On Friday May 6th, I spent the morning scouting fish, and again conditions were windy and rainy. I never found any significant fish, but I did manage 5 sea trout up to 3 pounds on a red and white Skitter Walk. Later in the afternoon, Doc Thurston and his cameraman Pat from Dream Factory Productions Joined me for a few hours of reality fishing, and it was as real as it gets. We started out in late afternoon facing extreme northeast winds and heavy overcast skies, and we never but a fish in the boat.

On Saturday May 7th, I had the pleasure of fishing with Roger Mowray and his son Jay from Longwood, and although the wind was still blowing hard, the sun was shining. Our charter started slow, but we ended the day on a significant school of redfish. Roger was the first to strike with a nice 39" copper queen, and Jay soon followed with two nice 38" reds. All fish were taken on live shrimp and cut ladyfish.

In closing, I would like to invite you to a free seminar on the "Top Ten Soft Plastic for Inshore Saltwater Applications", to be held at Boaters World in Altamonte on May 12th at 6:30 PM. If you recall, many of you responded to a survey I conducted on the topic, and the results were published in Coastal Angler Magazine last January. Also, free samples of soft plastic baits will be available while they last.

As always, if you need information or have any questions, please contact me.
Good luck and good fishing,
Captain Tom Van Horn
www.irl-fishing.com
407-366-8085 office
407-416-1187 on the water
866-790-8081 toll free

Email Capt. Butch Foster Saltwater Fishing

4-25-05 As if you already didn't know, I am thinking of changing my fishing report page to a wind summary page! Right now you would get a lot more information. I would like to apologize to all the gulf stream fishermen that has had trips booked and we have had to cancel. Can't do anything about the weather, we just have to accept it and move on! But hey, it ain't over yet, if it lays down there is still another month and as late as things are running possibly a lot longer. I am hoping this cold snap and low pressure is going to open the door to a spring season and things will start to get more normal. The fish are there, we just have decent weather (WINDS) so we can get to them!! The other fishing is shaping up good with good king mackeral fishing in the tower area and bottom fishing is good also in the same area!! The atlantic bonito should be here, been too rough to get out to see, and the spanish mackeral fishing will be starting soon. Reports of some small flounder being caught on the black mud bottoms with an occasional keeper. Some whiting are being caught although didn't hear where, I figure off the piers and in the cape fear river. If you are intrested in a fishing trip we have a FEW weekend days left, and a few more weekdays, but they are filling fast. Call to reserve a day, when they are all booked. you'll have to wait till next year to get one. Only so many fishing days in a year, when gone, they are gone!!!! I know it was a long winter, be patient a little longer, and mabey the wind will settle. Whoever did the wind dance a few days last week needs to do it again!!!!!!! Till next time, FISH ON!!!! Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster. Yeah Right Sportfishing Charters, Southport,NC. (910) 845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com

4-19-05, The winds finally died enough we were able to get to the stream. The cooler weather and winds have slowed the action down, but with this weeks weather predicting warm and light winds, it wont be slow long. My guess is in a few days things will be wide open again. We had 5 solid hook up's with screaming drags but as in fishing, half way to the boat they decided to pull the hooks. We did manage to boat 3 black fin tunas. We left there after a few hours and stopped by the frying pan tower on the way back and went to the bottom to finish out the day. There we were greeted with many hungry nice sized black sea bass, silver snapper, sharks, and some very large white grunts. I don't figure anyone had any trouble going to sleep last night, I know I didn't. Keep in touch, if the weather holds, we will be back in the stream for four days straight towards end of the week. Will let you know how it's progressing. Till next time, FISH ON!!!! Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster, Yeah Right Sportfishing Charters, Southport, NC. (910)845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com Check the pic's out on our site.

4-11-05, Well as we all know the winds are still not wanting to lay down yet and we are having to cancel trips nearly every day. It's aggravating to everyone, especially to the people who drive down to Southport after hearing a good weather report only to find the forcasters have missed it again,and, we get blown out. For this I apologize, but the weather no one can control. Trust me if we could charter boat owners would!!!!! So, off Capt. Chris and I went to Cape Fear Lock #1 to do some shad fishing. You could see schools coming through but they were reluctant to bite. I would call it slow, real slow,we caught only three in six hours. If I figure right that's one every two hours!!!! Pretty slow. Be sure to check that your registrations are up to date, If you don't, someone else will and if they are not it is rather expensive. Not going to tell you how I know that, just trust me, I know what I'm talking about!!! The weather IS going to give us a break soon. And when it does, I'm sure the fish will be in the stream just waiting. The temp. breaks are getting into perfect locations at all the gulf stream hot spots. Keep in touch, we have many stream charters booked and as soon as the winds will allow, we will be posting the results. Hang in there, it won't be long now!!!!! Till next time, FISH ON!!! Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster. Yeah Right Sportfishing Charters, Southport, NC (910) 845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com

On 4-5-05 Dave Germain, pictured on left, and Dale Westall of Southport went fishing with me on a 1/2 day trip. I will have to admit, this was one of the toughest days of fishing I believe I have had in years. The winds have "HOWELED" for weeks now and it has dirtied up the water as well as blowing in some cold water. The other fishermen, with full day and gulfstream trips, and the guys that had gone out to king mackeral commercial fishing were reporting that NO kings could be found anywhere, did not hear of one being caught. The gulf stream had only given up a couple small wahoo, with most fishermen drawing a blank. (HEY, don't dispair, it does this nearly every year, it WILL get better, SOON!!!) These guys were lucky though, they were in the good bottom fishing waters and here I was stuck inshore with dirty, cold water with a tide rip that an 8oz. sinker would barely hold the bottom and almost a slack tide. Now in my fishing experience, things can't get much worse for fishing. We stopped on every hump and ridge, rock, live bottom area and all we had to show for it was about 5 fish. But, just to show you, "never give up", We went to a ledge I had marked several years ago and have never found much on it, but with the rip flowing the way it was, is served as a current break and tucked down behind it was a good school of black bass.We hunted for fish for 4 hours then BAM, they limited out in nearly 30 minutes catch them 2 at a time as fast as they could drop down keeping only the better sized ones. I could have easily give up, perserverance will usually prevail. YOU CAN GIVE OUT, BUT, DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!! You can check out the pic's on my site. Feel free to up load them to other sites, I don't know how yet!!!! Till next time, FISH ON!!!!! Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster. Yeah Right Sportfishing Charters, Southport, NC (910) 845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com

On thursday, 3-31-05,I met up with Lou Duke, Greg and Beth White and their three children, Gavin, Tess, and Garrett. We didn't have a real long time to fish but I will tell you this, those kids were three of the best fishermen and fisherwomen I have ever had the honor to fish with. We went for some king mackeral, then the plans were to head on offshore and get a few bottom fish. The inside waters are still cold and dirty so even though we were limited to our fishing time, I figured a few hours fishing in productive waters would be better than more hours fishing in non-productive waters. At the end of the day, I believe everyone was in agreement. We only had approximately one hour to bottomfish. That included finding the fish and getting anchored, which left about 45 minutes to fish. And in 45 minutes, those kids kept me busy. Lou, Greg, and Beth also caught fish, with Beth landing the biggest black bass of the day. But as for shear numbers and fishing ability, mabey if Grandpa Lou and mom and dad Greg and Beth ask real nice, Gavin, Tess, and Garrett will give them some tips so mabey next time they can keep up . Gavin, Tess, and Garrett, I want you to know this was one of the most enjoyable fishing trips I have ever been on!!!!!! You guys handled those King Mackeral and bottom fish like seasoned pros!!! Be sure to check out their pic's on my site!! Till next time, FISH ON!!!! Capt. Butch. Yeah Right Sportfishing Charters, Southport, NC (910) 845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com

Kona Hawaii fishing report – March ’05 -

Kona is having the blues. If I was speaking of blue marlin that would be a good thing but this time I`m not. March was packed with storms, rough seas and few fish. As in last months report, “rubber hook syndrome” is still in effect here with the billfish acting less aggressively than normal. Blues, stripes, spearfish and even some sailfish are being brought in or tagged and released but not in the numbers we`re used to.
Ono tops the list as the most common catch right now followed closely by mahi mahi and then spearfish. The shibi are pretty much gone. The baitfish schools are scarce to nonexistent. This should change soon (I hope) as I`ve been marking huge shrimp schools all along the coast at 200 to 300 fathoms. When the baitfishes find these schools, it should start the whole food chain going again.

The bottom bite has been slow but, as usual, it’s the best bet for making sure you don’t come home empty handed. The currents are still inconsistent and there’s no live bait to be had so I’ve been paying retail for fish from the market. One of them I bought called sama, looks very similar to our frigate mackerel (the best bait) so it seemed like the best choice. At a cost of $5 each I bought 10 of them only to find out that the fish (not even sharks) will touch `em. These are strange fish. Even when they get old, they have almost no smell to `em. I guess the old adage still rings true. It’s not the looks but what`s on the inside that counts!

See `ya on the water,
Capt. Jeff Rogers ,
Kona Hawaii fishing

On saturday,3-26-05 we were booked with two half day trips. The morning trip was greeted with a stiff NE wind wind that made us abort our offshore plans and turn to a southwesterly trip to a spot not far offshore to a live bottom area. Although this spot has been a good producer for us for years, I was concerned that it was just a little early in the year for this place to produce, but due to the sea conditions, it was the best plan I could come up with on such short notice. The fish were there, but very scattered. There were some other boats not far from us reporting that they could not get the fish to bite. That made me start looking for more concentrated schools, that was the ticket. The first pictures on the left was our first trip. The fishermen were Jon Anderson and his fiance' Rhonda Tomlinson, Mike Anderson, and Steven Anderson. Although the morning waves held us at bay, we ended up with several tasty meals of black bass and sharks for the grill.......

We met up with Tim Pierce, Preston Pierce,Trever Pierce,Dan Cywinski, Luke Farrel,and Casey Farrel For the second session of todays fishing. I guess you can call it the "luck of the draw", but by this time the winds had shifted and the seas had layed down to 2 to 3 feet. So we took off to offshore grounds. As we were crossing Frying Pan Shoals, the seas were building, they built to 3 to 5 feet. But we had already crossed the shoals, and knowing the direction they were from, I was hoping if we went around the shoals coming back, it would be layed down. IT WAS!! We were after king mackeral, it was tough fishing in the rough conditions, but we prevailed. Preston's dad Tim told us going out that if a big fish was caught, Preston would catch one, he said Preston could catch a fish out of a mud puddle!!! Who am I to argue with him, yeah ,you've most likely figured it out. The guy in the yellow shirt behind the two holding his BIG king is PRESTON, HIS FIRST KING MACKERAL, A 471/2 POUNDER. This fish also got him a North Carolina Citation to put on his wall to prove to non-believers up there in Erie, PA. Now don't go getting any ideas, I have already contracted him to fish with me in king mackeral tournaments. All these guys and gals on both these trips were the greatest, Rhonda, Capt. Chris and I are sorry your fishing was cut short, so we have decided to make you HONORARY MATE of the day!! Click on the pictures on my site to get a larger view. Till next time, FISH ON!!! Capt. Butch and Capt. Chris Foster. YEAH RIGHT SPORTFISHING CHARTERS, Southport,NC. (910)845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com