April Catches Pretty Good in Homosassa!
Capt. Mike Locklear
April 17, 2008
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
If you don't count several days of windy and cold weather, this month should finish strong in catching fish such as trout, redfish, cobia and grouper. Plenty of mackerel are around as well.
Going back to April 2 where I left off reporting about a pretty young lady, daughter of Guy Schiller of Illinois tore up the macks as well. Also plenty of action from gags grouper. Guy's first mackerel took some doing. Later the action picked up and everyone onboard landed some fun fish. A few were kept for dinner.
Also, 91-year old Josh Dickinson of Gainesville and his son Josh Jr. went mackerel fishing with me and they flat tore them up. If you love action whether it is on the fly or spinning this is a lot of fun! The macks were really turned on as we saw numerous hits close to the boat and while the fly was sinking and fluttering. Clouser Minnows worked for them.
On April 3, Roger Shorthill caught the only keeper redfish on this 6-hour trip donated by the Childrens Home of Tampa, Florida. I wished some of the kids from the home were fishing with us as Ben Cochran must have had a banana onboard. His bad luck made me suffer. The fact he knew more than me did not go over well either. I knew it was over when he asked me to move the boat a little further up, acting like he was in charge. I sucked it up and laughed when all he caught was a stinking catfish. Oh well, win some and lose some.
April 4 started off slow but when the tide turned in, both trout and redfish action was very good for Kirk Wilson of Green Tractor in Brooksville and Kenny Mitchum, his sales representative. We landed the trout in about 4-feet offshore of Ozello.
April 5 was one of the roughest seas; I fished in a long time. A money tournament will put crazy ideas if not stupid. The Florida Dental Lab sponsored the event as Capt. Jim Long and the Homosassa Guides Association were the host. Our boat got hammered as we went out in 20 mph winds mackerel fishing.
Only one mackerel was caught by our team. Here is a reminder; don't try to catch mackerel if the water is muddy from the wind. Later we went inshore and one angler came in tied for 1st place for largest redfish. Capt. Jim Long won his own event with most trout. The main gig was not the fishing trip, but the fish fry prepared by the guides for the crew of FDL.
The back side of the front has passed and this weekend looks great for fishing conditions to be perfect. Good luck and good fishing.
Capt. Mike
Homosassa Fishing Forecast:
Beautiful sea conditions are expected through this weekend with big incoming tides to get inside to where redfish will be hanging around the creeks near the edge of the Gulf.
The warming trend should improve the bite.
Target Species:
Redfish - Trout- Cobia - Tarpon
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