Fish Logs

Stealing my partners line from our TV and Radio show here but very fitting. This is by far the best time to take a kid fishing. Kids need steady action and that is what we have right now.

Bluefish, Spanish mackerel, Trout, Jack Crevalle and small Black tip Sharks are all easy to catch right now in good numbers. All you need is moving water, a live well full of Pilchards and some long shank hooks. Use a map to locate the nearest spoil areas in the bay, anchor up, throw a bat of chum out and hang on. Almost every spoil area is covered in fish right now. We are still catching good numbers of Snook and Redfish right now. The Snook are pushing towards the passes as spawn quickly approaches. This is one of the best times of the year to catch that 40 inch fish. Remember thought that fish is probably a female so take care when releasing as these fish are still coming back from the freeze of a couple of years ago. 

If Kingfish are your thing the bite is still very strong although this week was tough with high west winds keeping us inshore for the most part. 

Our Tarpon bite is picking up as well with a big push of fish coming into the bay on this week’s new moon. Crabs were the bait of choice this week but will change to Threadfin Herring for next week. The beaches in front of Anna Maria Island and St. Pete beach will load up over the next two weeks and should offer some world class opportunities on spinning or Fly tackle. Remember to let the fish come to you and always keep the noise to a minimum. Tarpon fishing is all about patience and presentation. 

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 8:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Seems like everything we did this week just kind of worked. Inshore, nearshore and offshore all produced good fish.

Inshore we scored keeper Redfish almost everyday. We caught big Snook which are so good to see and we caught lots of big Trout. Low incoming water was by far our best bite with most fish coming on medium sized pilchards with their tails cut off to slow them down. Nearshore the Kingfish, Spanish mackerel and Spinner Sharks kept us very busy and entertained. We didn’t get any big Kings but lots of 10 to 12 pound fish that are great on light tackle. We even managed to catch some nice Grouper over the Kingfish grounds this week. One of our Gag Grouper came in at just over 29 inches. Again great fish on light tackle. When we ran deep we caught nice big Amber Jack, Cobia and even more Kingfish. A live well full of big Pilchards and a few Blue Runners could score you just about anything this month. You might want to grab a few small crabs as well to free line out across wrecks or reefs in hopes of sticking a tasty Permit. April and May are by far my 2 favorite months of the year to fish as almost everything is possible right now from Permit offshore to big Tarpon inshore and everything in between. So grab your family and just go fishing!

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 8:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Our annual spring Redfish run seemed to kick into high gear this past week. Almost everywhere we went we caught or at least saw schools of Reds. Mullet where the key. Find the Mullet schools and we were on the Redfish. We started our week in Sarasota throwing artificial baits with my good friend and Redfish tourney Pro Travis Tucker. Every flat we visited produced big Trout or big Redfish. The Strike King KVD Swimmin Caffeine Shad in watermelon red glitter fished on a 1/8 ounce jig heads worked really well as did the Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg top water plug in Chartreuse Sexy Shad color. The Trout were some of the biggest west coast Trout I have ever caught on artificial baits. We both caught fish pushing 30 inches which has become more of the norm this spring. The areas around Fort DeSoto, Wheedon Island, Joe’s Island and Miguel Bay are all holding school’s of fish.

If your looking for steady action for the kids the Spanish Mackerel, Blue Fish and Trout bites have been very good this week over the deeper grass areas with good water flow. Start your search in about 6 to 8 feet of water for best results. We started to see some Tarpon this week as well so be sure to bring a little heavier gear with you as you never know when this years Tarpon season will fire off!

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 8:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

After 2 weeks of colder air temps, we needed to change it up a little this week. The fish that had been holding up in the shallows moved off the edges of the flats and into deeper water. We found good numbers of Trout, Flounder and Snook holed up in the residential canals. Start your search in canals with dark bottoms. These seem to draw the sun more and heat up rather quickly. We had good luck with live Pilchards early in the week but as the water temps dipped the Pilchards got harder to get. Switching to live Shrimp seemed to be the work well as the week progressed.

You will also find artificial baits working well in the cooler waters. Just be sure to work them slowly as the energy levels will drop for some species in cooler waters. The KVD Swimmin Caffeine Shad continues to be this years go to bait for me. Worked slowly near the bottom the Flounder couldn’t leave it alone this week. I also caught fish on the Strike King Glass Minnows and the big Black Drum which are cruising the Pinellas Pointe flats couldn’t turn down the Strike King Rage Tail Shrimp and Crabs. The more Rage Tail sauce you put on them the better. Use a ¼ to ½ ounce jig and place your baits just in front of the approaching school and hang on. These big beasts are great for the kids as well.

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 8:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Man, I thought that we were on our way to summer and old man winter will just not go away.  The temperatures are supposed to warm up in the coming week, we can only pray.  The trout bite remains to be one for the record books.  Trout this year have been plentiful and large.  The problem remains finding fish under the twenty inch mark to make up a stringer.  The redfish are hanging in there as well.  I guess the exciting thing for me is that the snook are bouncing back from that notorious freeze we experienced a few years ago.  It seems that we have a lot of large breeder fish, just no so many smaller fish.  The slot size and smaller fish we are catching though are strong and tough.  You can tell that these fish were bread from good stock, and the gene pool is very healthy.  We just need to keep the season close a couple of more years to make sure that we have good numbers in all the year classes.

Offshore, the catch and release grouper is spectacular.  It’s so good it makes anyone with a brain ask why are they closed, it’s the strongest fishery that this 25 year veteran has ever seen.  The amberjack, one of my favorites on light tackle are on fire with large fish being taken when weather will allow for the runs to the farther wrecks.  Mangrove snapper remain to be high on the hit list with fish in the 7-8 pound range being the norm.  Before the cold snap king mackerel and yes blackfin tuna were starting to show up in decent numbers. The key weather inshore or offshore is bait and thank goodness there is still an abundance of that and it’s still relatively easy, as well.

Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:00 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday.  Call in on Saturday’s to WFLA 970 for Reel Animal’s Saturday and Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am.  Also visit our website @ www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com and friend us on facebook or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’."