Chipper and I

Well it felt great to be back on the water again. Sorry folks with the weather and working on the boat lately, it’s been tough to fish. The water is still dirty from the storm. Mostly freshwater from the river’s. The tides have been longer on the outgoing. Tides are unusually high. The weather today was perfect. Sunny and calm. No wind until around 2 p.m.  when it picked up to 10 mph. S.E.
We looked for the Crabs this morning but no luck. Mullet are everywhere. We did fish for the Croakers and they were there, we caught about 2 dozen in 30 minutes. We made our way over to the Inlet. We landed a few nice keeper size Snook. After some Snook action we made our way to another spot. When we got arrived there wasn’t much going on. We fished for a bit and then it just turned on. We caught 3 Reds in the 30″ range, a few Red Snapper just short, 4 Black drum in the 20″ range, 2 Cobia that were around 20lbs. and 1 monster Jack. We also lost some really nice fish. The Cobia was fun Chipper got his first on a croaker. It had a second Cobia trailing, I threw out on it and hooked it up. The Cobia threw the hook and I couldn’t get him to hit again. About an hour later I hooked the same Cobia with a live shrimp and on lighter tackle. That fish was tons of fun. I needed that!….

Jennifer and Matson

  This was gonna be a good day. The weather perfect with no wind and just plain hot. We are in our typical summer weather pattern. Hot with afternoon thunderstorms. The tide in the Sebastian Inlet at 7 a.m. was pretty slack switching to incoming. I had my girlfriend Jennifer and a friend Matson who fishes with me when we both have time. The greenies are still thick just outside the Inlet.

With plenty of bait in the live well, we left and started our search. The schools of Bonita are feeding on the glass minnows.  We made a few casts at them but no luck. Once we got the spot, I threw on a live shrimp and tossed it out behind the boat. I handed off the rod to Jennifer and about 20 seconds later she got a hit. She did a great job of hooking up that fish. It was difficult at first to know what it was, but after a couple of trademark runs I knew it was a big Permit. We got most of the fight on video. It was quite the fight, The permit ended up 20lbs. Jennifer caught it on 10lb. test line. Nice catch!

Jennifer was on fire she couldn’t miss. She caught a nice size Bonita, a small Red Snapper, Barracuda, and a big Jack. 5 species, all good fighting fish on 10lb. test. Matson caught himself a Permit. It was smaller around 7 or 8 lbs. and lots of Barracudas. As for me I caught nothing but a good time. My day was made seeing Jennifer catch that big Permit. That was a great day. Check out the video…..

Justin and Joni

Rich and Dan

I picked them up in the A.M. With some left Baits we left for the Sebastian Inlet. The tide was outgoing. The weather was chilly and is warming up to the 80’s through out the day. Dan lost one nice hit in the Inlet. It was a nice Red. That would end up being the only chance for a big fish.

Rich was getting a little weezy with the boat wakes coming through. We decided to fish the flats. They caught some small trout, a few small Jacks and some small Snapper on live shrimp. The fishing was tough. It seems like that there is no fish in the river right now. Well guys that is fishing some days are better than others.

Tom H.

Tom is from Virginia. Tom wanted to fish a half day. He was just wanting to catch some dinner. The pressure was on. What to do inshore? I figured that we would start off catching bait. Pins were a little hard to catch, but we finished with 2 dozen. The water in the river is crystal clear right now. The tide is low at 11 a.m. The weather is calm and sunny. We headed towards Wabasso and fished the reef for a little. Tom caught a keeper Mangrove Snapper. It was slow so I decided to run a little out and see if we could maybe find a Ray or some weeds for a possible Tripletail.

The ocean was clean I couldn’t find much weed. On the way back to the Inlet We came across a small line of weed. It wasn’t long and we spotted a few Trips. There were 2 or 3 fish and they were small. I kept moving and spotted another Trip worth catching. I set Tom in position for a cast. It took a few casts and then Tom hooked up his first Tripletail. It was exciting, you have to really put the cast on the money in order for success. We landed the first one and it was a keeper. We kept searching and came across another and Tom hooked this one with his first cast, another keeper. We spotted 2 fish over 10lbs. but couldn’t get a cast off in time. Next were 2 fish sitting under the weed. One was good size and the other was small. I threw first in order to let Tom try for the big one. I hooked up the small one but the bigger one spooked. The fish was just keeper size. We looked a little more and had no more luck. We decided to call it good and headed towards Capt. Hiram’s to fillet the catch. Thanks Tom it was a pleasure to meet and fish with you.

John and Nancy

The weather is a little overcast, the wind was light NE. The ocean is building and today is the last day of fishing for a few days. I had bait ready for John and Nancy, we met up at 8 a.m. at the dock. The ocean was just manageable. After a few moments the bait turned on, Redfish after Redfish. John caught 7 or 8 Reds and lost a couple. Nancy caught 2 Reds and that was enough for her. John lost two big fish that we never seen, they were big fish.

John hooked up and was a fighting fish, I thought it was another redfish and as I did a double take I noticed it was a Snapper. I could not believe it, but It made sense with some of the bites we were getting. John had a few Snook on but lost them and I caught one that was 37″. Capt. Mike M. and his party,next to me caught 2. 20lbs. and 13 lbs. That was quite the site a 20lb. Snapper. It was a great trip we caught lots of fish and took some great photos. Thanks John and Nancy.

The weather was perfect, clear and calm and my friend Kevin was in town after 10 years. Well Me, Kevin, and John Headed out. We stopped at the buoy and caught our sardines. Bait was thick and plentiful. We were gonna try a little bottom. I quickly caught a few Sea-bass and a grouper that was just short. I did catch a nice Mangrove Snapper. We managed to catch a few small kings on the surface. Kevin hooked up with a big fish and just couldn’t get the fish up, After few minutes it broke. I also hooked up with a big shark and it whipped my butt.

Well it was time to go drag some baits. We came across a nice weed-line in 150 ft. We lost a nice big Dolphin, I saw it when it hit. That fish hit that bait hard and my line broke. My drag was way too tight, my fault. I know better, always check the drag!! That was a big one too!! Well Kevin hooked up with a Wahoo and we put it in the boat, he was stoked. That was Kevin’s first hoo. We headed back to do some more bottom fishing but had no luck. The day was full of action we caught a lot of fish just only a few worth keeping. Thanks Kevin and John.

Mike S., Tara, and Blaze..Mike is a good friend that lives in Vail,Colorado.This year he brought his girlfriend, Tara. Mike comes to visit once a year when ski season is over for the mountain. Blaze is a dock-master at Capt. Hiram’s. The weather was perfect and we were headed off-shore. We stopped and got our Sardines, The bait was thick we were in and out. Then it was time to go drop some baits.

The fishing on the bottom was slow, so we headed out to troll. Well That was slow too. I decided to go back in and try some more bottom. Running in we stopped at 125 ft. and put out some live baits. Blaze quickly hooked up with a 8lb. Dolphin. We managed to catch 3 more small ones. We eventually made it back to drop on the bottom. The action was steady we caught several Sea-Bass and some small Snapper. Then Mike hooked up with the fish of the day. Mike had his hands full, it was quite the sight to see him fighting that fish. Well after some hard tug of war Mike eventually won. The fish was a big Gray-Grouper, 30lb. Well needless to say Mike saved the day. That was a memorable moment, after some high-fives, hugs and some hooting we headed home. Thanks Mike and Tara for coming fishing, Mike just think, you almost didn’t come that day!!! Well Thanks again buddy!!!! Check out the pic.!!!!!

Me, Matson and Johnny Atwater. The weather was perfect,its been calm for a few days.My boat was getting serviced yesterday(another perfect day). We headed out to troll for some dolphin we caught 2,10 and 15. Jon lost a nice fish that hit the downrigger, we saw it ,it jumped few times ..(20 or so…) well after that we were on a beautiful rip and weed line but nothing..We decided to head to bethel to get bait!! sardines were there! Capt. Bill Stewart from the Rogue Wave charter boat informed us of a Mangrove Snapper bite!! Thanks Bill!!! well we ended up with 6 nice mangroves.. a short cobia,a couple of chickens,,wish we would could of got the couple that we missed..but what alot of fun..Oh yeah i almost forgot the 40 + lb. king, I hooked it up on my calcutta 400s(15lb test) ,man that was fun..Smoke fish its on its way..it was a full day

..alot of action..That was a definite
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT !!!