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Fishing Report for Homosassa, Florida
Capt. Mike Locklear
July 28, 2005
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
Summer Fishing Northwest Florida
For the west coast of Florida, quite a bit of fishing has been done since my last report. My new side job is with the Chevy Florida Fishing Report and I now TRY to cover a lot of shoreline and not just about Homosassa. We are in week 18 of 26 and there is not a lot going on since Hurricane Dennis came through and tried to rip me a new one while I was at Bald Point.
After the Brand brothers departure on Friday night I left ahead of schedule and came back home to try some trout fishing with David and Royal Robbins from St. Louis. The hurricane came through on Sunday and flooded the Big Bend with a 10 foot storm surge. Off Homosassa the seas were smooth but stirred of course.
After watching two private recreational anglers humble us with their fishing abilities landing their limits of nice trout and redfish on the spoil banks, they offered us their spot and some of their precious scaled sardines alive of course. To no avail we were had and struck out. With tail curled underneath me, I cranked up the big motor to stir up a little air as we were almost gasping for a fresh breeze, it was so calm.
20 miles to the south and in about 10 feet of water west of Pine Island Beach, I shut off the loaned Pro-Line 25 Sport Walk Around. What a nice boat to captain! We began catching trout and ended up with a dozen keepers. I felt better.
The next day we decided to try for some grouper and went offshore and caught a nice mess of grunts and one keeper. Also some assorted sharks. Serena landed her first and the only keeper and her Dad had to take it on the chin. Nelson Wainwright was aboard and he had a whopper of a grouper only to get rocked and we lost it. We could not venture out beyond the 9 mile limit because of special rules that apply to charter captains.
Seems to be that grouper are in danger of over fishing; and that is highly unlikely. None the less, a temporary rule is to go into effect August 2, 2005 to limit the gag grouper to 3 with one being a red grouper. Letters and e-mails are flying into the Feds and the state's biologists don’t believe things are bad as the Feds say. If you want to read up or write a letter, the information can be found on the Gulf Council or the Coastal Conservation Association web site.
On July 15, Buzz Randall and friend Glenn came out with me to look for a tarpon. It was calm and plan B was to redfish. We tossed spoons and live bait for 30 plus redfish none of which were big, but some nice eating ones were taken for dinner. We fished the keys north of Homosassa on the incoming tide. All the reds were caught in a span of an hour or two. We hunted and fished blindly for the tarpon but no cigar.
Matthew Holeman of Orlando came out and fished with me on the 16th and tore up the redfish. All on gold spoons. It was a great day for him. The next day he went fishing with king grouper guide, Capt. Phil Muldrow of Cedar Key.
On July 17, I drove up to Bald Point and met Roger Hanger and Dr. Robert Hines from Tennessee to do some fly-fishing for tarpon. It was awful—the hurricane really stirred up the bay and millions or billions of gallons of rain water and all sorts of crap was stinking up the water.
A day later the water was surprising clear with a weak tea color stain. We saw perhaps 3 tarpon three out of the four days. One day we saw nada. They were truly dedicated poon hunters and knew what they were facing before leaving their home, but dutifully fulfilled their time with me.
We still had a barrel of fun and ate our limits in Oreos. With Angelos' being flooded and Julia Mae’s torn down to make room for growth, we found a little known secret at the end of Spring Creek Road. The Lovels’ “Spring Creek Restaurant” is a true find in down home cooking of mullet, grouper throats and crab cakes that are world class and second to none. Clay Lovel we met and he is quite the artist previously attending FSU and is commissioning his art work out to area businesses as well as displaying a small art gallery inside the restaurant. His wife Bree, was a fantastic host to us. Give it a try in if you are in the area of Crawfordville. It is located at the end of Spring Creek Road south of US 98.
Monster Homosassa tarpon hooker, Chance Cole was scheduled to fish with me along with carpet man, Adam Adams for the weekend of July 22-24 but we decided to mutually agree to postpone our trip until the water clears up and the tarpon return to our little spot in paradise.
My family came up and we enjoyed the cool waters of the Wakulla Springs State Park. We commenced to perform a picnic on one of the state’s fine picnic benches under the Cypress and Pine trees that are as tall as they can get. In Florida there is nothing better than relaxing along the shores of the Wakulla head waters early in the morning. The constant 68-70 degree water temperature is a fresh cool feeling. Later when it gets hot we dip into the river and that my friends, makes you feel refreshingly alive.
Returning to the Homosassa flats, Barry Kaplan and sons Daniel and Nicky went scalloping with me and we loaded the cooler with nearly our limit. We got all we wanted, about 5 gallons just north two miles north of Marker 6, two in about 4 to 5 feet of water. Try going on low tide to benefit the ease in collecting these Easter egg type morsels. Remember to ice those babies down and pull the drain. They will open up for you to easy clean. My little Sears shop vacuum is the tool of choice to suck all the guts from around the tasty little morsels with blinding speed.
We loaded up the next day again in the Pro-Line and ended up with 22 nice Key West Grunts. Daniel is only 6 years old and he is a good fisherman. His older brother Nicky is a seasoned angler at about 10 years old? He was the grunt master.
Well if you get the Sun Sports TV channel tune in tonight at 7 pm for a great show. Look for the big redfish to move in this coming new moon and book your trips early for a prime tide to catch some of these bruisers.
Remember if you are too busy to go fishing, well you are just too busy!
Capt. Mike
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