 |
Fishing Report for Homosassa, Florida
Capt. Mike Locklear
September 6, 2001
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing the past week was pretty darn good despite the Florida heat. It was Labor Day weekend and the Euarts and some friends were coming down from Atlanta for some trout/redfishing on Homosassa’s Nature Coast. With full moon approaching, I knew the tides would be excellent for the redfish. I was skeptical about the trout fishing since I had not fished for them since April. Fly fishing for tarpon is all I fish for in May, June and July.
The first day of the two day trip, I fished with John(Dad) and his two sons, Will and the youngest one, Casey, who is quarterback for a high school team up in Georgia. The weather was hot and sultry, however, a breeze kept it from being unbearable. The skies were mostly clear with the sun overhead that seeing redfish in the clear water would be easy from my poling platform. My Ocean Wave sunglasses help me spot them real good.
After I shut off the Mercury Opti-Max we quietly drifted into the mangrove studded key. This particular key has a long shore line dotted with lime rock where redfish come into for anything that resembles food such as crabs or small baitfish. It was Casey who hooked the first keeper of 20 inches; like passing the football for a touchdown to begin an early lead.
A little move was made over to the next key by push pole when I spotted a small school of perhaps 20 redfish in the 20 something inch range. As I let the boat lay next to the island, Will launched a cast like a rocket that reached the other end of the key and he was quickly obliged by a hard pulling oversized redfish. The battle lasted several minutes as they do on the light 10 pound test Daiwa outfit. A measurement of 29 1/2 inches held all day and it remained longest and heaviest fish of the day at about 9 pounds.
Host of the trip, John Euart got connected next with a keeper of about 21 inches. We fished a little more at that spot, but they quit biting and we were soon moving on to the next likely redfish hotel.
We went to a spot that I had not fished all summer and the small key was uninhabited by other boats in the area. A holiday weekend is a challenge to find a place that someone has not already fished.
Casey was the first one who cast out and he instantly hooked up with an nice redfish of about 24 inches. He went into the livewell with the others. What happened after that was we had us a mini-feeding frenzy. It lasted about 25 minutes. We had a couple of fish get off while Casey reeled in 5 more redfish in the 25-26 inch range. Older brother Will was starting to tell Casey he stunk. The fish stopped biting and we moved on.
The last stop produced a nice “right on the line” 27 inch redfish for Will. He won honors for the largest redfish both on the ice and released. But Casey definitely caught the most. At 4:30 we decided to call it a day.
On the second day, Kathleen and her Dad went fishing with me Every now and then I hear about a fisherperson that is exceptional or gifted. Kathleen Euart is that and more. The day before she fished with Capt. Marvin Williams and caught the most trout of the entire clan. Having four brothers could be a reason that she likes fishing so much. Her brother, Will says, “she knows we would give her too much grief if it was any other way.” Kathleen’s Dad, John and his 4 sons have all fished with me over the last several years and they all are very enthusiastic anglers. This would be Kathleens’ first trip with me, so the pressure was on.
We left the dock around 8:30 in the morning and the air was hot and humid. If you like it hot, then it was perfect. Will was fishing with us for a while that morning, too and everyone were reeling in a few nice trout up to 18 inches long. We kept 8 nice trout in which we used for a shore dinner later in the day.
It was mid day and just after a nice meal of fresh trout, hushpuppies, beans and Cole slaw, when we decided to go back out for redfish. The tide was coming in pretty well since the moon was full. The fish should bite! John brought along a business associate and I can’t seem to remember his name, but he was a real nice guy and he could really fish, too!
Anyway, what I wanted to have happen was for Kathleen to catch a big redfish. Would you believe the first spot we went to the rod bent over double for Kathleen and she fought to the boat a redfish that was just a tad bit over 27 inches. After a few quick photographs, we revived the redfish and got back to fishing. I felt better now.
One of the last spots we tried that day, John made about 17 cast and caught 15 redfish. They were not real big, but all redfish fight pretty well. Kathleen caught some of them as well. It was a pretty good day as we landed about 30 redfish and kept three for dinner.
In changing subjects briefly, I spent 3 days with Maurice Blackmon of Colorado trying to guide him to some redfish on the fly. He was here in Homosassa just before the Euarts arrival. The redfish were visible and not hard to locate. The skies were clear and seeing the redfish was pretty easy.
Maurice got the fly into a school of perhaps 70 redfish and the gulf waters were so calm that it was real tough to get a bite. We managed the first day to hook one up for a short tap-tap and had a few more eat the fly but spit it. We worked the same school for several hours with me on the poling platform. It was aggravating me that we could not get them to eat any better.
The next day I took him to another hole and on the crystal clear flats and we saw a small school of perhaps 10 redfish. We made a few cast at them and they were spooky as well and swam off. After some poling we located them again and the fish seemed to be looking for something to eat. Sure enough Maurice cast out and 2 reds were coming in on the fly when the second fish decided to beat the first one to it and then the fight was on.
The fly hooked redfish was very feisty and he ran out several times close to the backing. We weighed him in at 6 1/2 pounds, took a quick pic, then released it. That was it for the day.
The next day we had a hard time seeing the redfish because the visibility was poor for a while. None of the schools were where they were the day before. Is that why they have tails? Finally after a long hot day of poling in the August sun, we found a spot that turned out to be ok.
Maurice cast his fly out and got a bite and reeled in a redfish. The next cast he cast out and hooked another one. Two more bit with two more cast. The fish were rats at about 15 inches each. He was wondering if we could try for the bigger ones a few yards away.
We never found them and after the trip we talked about him coming down to catch some really big fish next year. The Silver King Tarpon! Maurice’s statement was, “If I am only catch one big one, it may as well be a big tarpon. See you next Spring Maurice!
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
