Tampa Bay, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater & St. Petersburg

Capt. Clay Eavenson
November 1, 2007
Tarpon Springs - Saltwater Fishing Report

Fish are harder to keep on the hook when it's windy.

Well... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, Rob from Alberta, Canada called me about going on a Clearwater fishing charter. They wanted to use all artificial lures and target some redfish and snook. I was excited because artificial lure fishing for those two feisty game fish is my passion. We were supposed to go yesterday but I asked if they could reschedule the trip to today in hopes that the wind would lay down. It didn't. I asked them to meet me at 10:30am this morning in order to give us a chance to hit one of my favorite low water spots at the last of the leaving tide, as well as the first of the incoming tide, and they obliged. I left the house early to head to the ramp so I could say hey to Terry, who works at the bait house at the Seminole Boat ramp. When I got there I only saw one other boat at the ramp. The high winds (20+ knots out of the North) had kept everybody home I guess. So I talked to Terry for a little while and put my boat in as Rob and his brother Jim arrived. We loaded the boat and off we went. Rob and Jim are accomplished anglers and their ability to cast a light lure in the wind was needed today. The plan was to hit shorelines that were out of the wind. The only problem was the wind was blowing so hard that it seemed to just cut right through the mangroves, even on the lee side of any shoreline we were on. My hopes for the chop on the water being knocked down by foliage didn't come to be. Though any hope of sight fishing was obviously out, we did see a couple of snook pretty quickly at the first spot. They were close to the boat and spooked by the time we saw them but at least I knew there were some fish around. The tide was low and getting lower, just as I had hoped. Mullet were everywhere and a few were getting crashed by snook. So things were looking good. We worked the edge of a now dry flat by blind casting Berkley Gulp Shrimp and Shad on Mustad weedless weighted hooks. About 20 minutes into the trip, Jim said, "fish on!" Two seconds after his exclamation, Rob said, "I've got one too!" I'm thinking "sweet, double hookup! This is gonna' rock!". Jim lands his lower slot redfish and halfway through Robs fight, his snook wore through the leader. Oh well, we had a double hook up early in the day. It was a great sign. We continued to work the flat and managed a couple of keeper sized trout. It wasn't what we were looking for but we couldn't really just pick up and go because the wind kind of had us hemmed in. We saw a couple of more snook so we knew there were fish around so we were just going to have to keep working the area hard to get more bites. A couple of hours later rob hooks up again and this time it was a nice upper slot redfish. The fish seemed well in hand when all of a sudden, within 5 feet of the boat, he just comes unbuttoned. Dang it. Another thirty minutes go by without a bite and I decided that we need to get on the other side of the flat and into the trough that runs along the shoreline. In the first 10 minutes of working this new water I see a few wakes and two tailing redfish. They were super shallow and the wind was making it hard to make a good presentation but Jim laid one in there just right and hooked up. Another lower slot fish makes it to the boat. But just after that fish was released, the few other fish that were hanging around seemed to disappear. We didn't get another bite in that area. Plan B time. I told the guys that we might get wet but we need to try to run to another spot. I'll save you some reading time though by cutting to the chase and letting you know that the next spot, a spoil island South of the Bellaire bridge as well as the spot after that, Sutherland Bayou, didn't produce anything but a couple of very small trout. Between the wind today and the two biggest fish of the day coming unbuttoned, it was tough out there for lure fishing. We did our best though and didn't come away with a blank. Flying a kite today would have been a whole lot easier but Rob and Jim did great (I think) by hooking two snook, 3 redfish, and 5-6 trout. Not bad at all today considering today considering the tough conditions.

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Clay Eavenson
• Tarpon Springs Fishing Reports
• West Florida (Englewood to Cedar Key) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports