With the summer time weather pattern setting in early this year, avoiding storms has proven more difficult than catching the fish. The speckled trout bite has been great, and not having to travel very far to get them. Most of these fish are caught in sight of the marina. The bite is really heating up, and days are booking fast, so get in on this action while they are here and hungry!

I just cant say enough about the trout bite lately, come get in on this action while we still have a couple spots available. Late afternoon have been producing bull redfish and trout.

This is my absolute favorite, fishing the rips on the beach. Trout will gather in large numbers at certain times on the beach front. We mainly fish them with live croakers under a cork. Sometimes we have to free line the baits, which means you only have a hook on your line, no lead, no cork, no swivel, just a hook and your bait. Although the cork is my favorite, sometimes you just have to get the bait a bit deeper. Its best to fish late evening on an outgoing tide, or first thing in the morning, with the late afternoon being my preferred. When fishing the afternoon on an outgoing tide, there is also an opportunity to drift for bull redfish on and around Dixie Bar or Sand Island Light House. Yesterdays trips were a prime example of what the beach has to offer, plenty of action, and good times had by all. The first trip was a catch and release trip, they just wanted some fast action. So I figured we could just take the kids to chase schools of spanish mackerel and ladyfish. They bite really fast, and you can see large schools breaking the surface, which the kids love, cause they can actually see what they are casting at. After letting them play with those for a while, we decided to see if we could catch some larger fish. It didn't take but one drift to find the bulls, and after a few drifts, with plenty of pictures, and memories made, we headed back. After picking up an early dinner, I went to get the late evening trip. Since I had left the bulls just a half hour earlier, I thought it would be wise to make my first stop there. The limit on redfish is 3 per person, with one fish allowed over size, slot size being 16-26 inches. With only two people, it only took one drift and we had our limit plus one on bulls. We still had 98% of the trip left to go, so I advised them that maybe we should try to pick through the larger fish and try to find some smaller fish. We spent about an hour doing this and did manage to find three more slot size fish, with numerous bulls caught in the process. With three hours left to go, we idled down the beach looking for a nice rip. We set up on the first one we come to. First bait that hit the water was a ladyfish, next bait lady fish, and so on. They started to get anxious to catch a trout, so I explained to them that we are just waiting on the school to swim out in rip, then we have to keep them there by keeping baits in front of them. No matter if you have to take a couple baits and just have somebody throw them out, keep some bait in the water! Sure enough, a few minutes later, they came out, and let me just say, that couple came to fish! They went to work on those trout, and in no time had their limit. We had a good bit of time left at that time, but they said they were satisfied and ready to go, so we idled our way back so they could get plenty of good pictures of dolphins, various birds, and even a turtle came up for a quick pic.

We left at 5:30 to pull the shrimp trawl, we made a 5 minute pull, and to our surprise, the bag was filled with shrimp and some bait fish as well. We picked out enough for bait, and they filled two gallon ziplocks with shrimp. We took a little bit to take in the scenery around us, and then it was off to stretch the string! We started the morning trout fishing, we picked up a few good ones at each stop with some throwbacks as well. We caught enought trout to eat, and then switched our focus to redfish. These proved to be a little harder to find. We finally came across a spot with a few fish, caught a couple, missed a few more. We decided that was plenty to eat and head back for some lunch. Next trip left at 1 PM, it was a very slow start, but we found some smaller trout, just a couple keepers, but plenty of action. So we hung out there for a minute and put a few fish in the box. The tide was falling fast, and add that to a light south wind, and you got yourself a recipe for entertainment. We traveled around to the beach side, and the big females were there and they were hungry. We only kept a couple to help preserve an awesome fishery, and released the rest. On the way back we found a nice rip current directly on the beach, prime real esate for bull redfish. So we made a couple drifts, hooked a few fish, and decided that was plenty. They said they had plenty, so away we went.

It's been an absolute awesome week to be on the water. I would expect this trend to continue for the next couple of months. Red snapper and mackerel near shore, and speckled trout and redfish inshore. The close in snapper will become increasingly difficult to catch as the season progresses. The redfish will hang around for another month maybe, but timing is everything on those. Must fish those on high tide. Trout can generally be found somewhere in the bay until mid to late August.

This mornings trip was a 3 person 4 hour trip. We started the morning by pulling the shrimp trawl to catch bait. We caught plenty of bait fish, but few shrimp. So after picking out what baits we wanted, we stopped by marina to pick up some more shrimp, and we were on our way. It was blowing 15-20 mph, not exactly ideal, but we managed to find a good bunch of fish out of the wind, and went to work. We fished live shrimp and live croakers 2 foot under a cork. It was pretty consistent action, with various size fish caught. Every fish caught was a trout, with the exception of one gaff top catfish, which they decided would go in the box too. A good many smaller trout, but we culled through the smaller ones and were able to put together a nice mess of fish. The bite is only going to get better over the next couple of months. These fish hang around all summer, but can be found in larger numbers in May and June. Speckled trout are great fun and also very delicious.