Manatee River, Tera Ceia Bay

March 11th, 2008

Bring it on! Wow!!!

If the fishing last week is any sign of how the fishing is going to be this year… BRING IT ON! I have seen some things happen that I thought I would never see happen and I have pictures to prove it. To a certain extent, we're ahead of the last few years as far as the fish that have shown up all ready. That in itself is a good sign of what's to come in the future. Personally, I think the big fish are a little behind schedule. Well, that is except for a few here and there, and then some of the different species. Some species of fish are really big this year. Take for example the tarpon and the trout. There are many nice fish around. Over the next month snook and redfish will start getting bigger and we will start catching some of those bigger fish.

Snook season has officially opened and we have caught some great fish. When we have been able to spend some time fishing for snook, we have been able to catch some keeper fish. We won't see many of the bigger snook until the weather warms up a bit. Unfortunately, the water temperature keeps jumping up and down. It is literally all over the place, which makes the big fish not want to feed well. However, over the next couple of weeks this will change. When that water temperature rises up to roughly 70 degrees, the snook bite will certainly kick off. The water temperature did manage to get up to 70 degrees a few times this spring, but about the time it got there, another cold front swept through the area. You've just got to love this unpredictable Florida weather!

Redfishing hasn't been as good lately as in the past. We have managed to catch a few redfish here and there, but for the most part, the fish have been on the move. We did find a few big schools fish, chummed them into the boat, caught a few, and then they took off on move. When the water temperature gets below 70 degrees, the fish are hard to chum up and keep in the chum. The fish will swim into the chum and eat a few baits, and if you're lucky enough, it will be your bait but then just as quickly they are gone. We did catch some great redfish last week, just not a lot of them.

The tarpon are here and they're feeding like crazy! Yes, I said the tarpon are here. It's a bit early for tarpon to be here and feeding so well, but they are definitely here and feeding well. I've never seen tarpon here so early. Again, as with all the other species of fish, the water temperature is a big factor in these fish being around and feeding. The water temperature got up to 71 degrees recently and that is what made me go tarpon fishing in the first place. We hooked so many fish the first day that if I told you how many, you wouldn't believe me. I will tell you, however, that we did go fishing the other day when it was very cold and I thought that we would not have a chance of hooking a tarpon, but not only did we hook a fish, we hooked five fish and landed them too. The first fish we hooked was around 100 lbs the others were about 150lbs. I have never seen anything like I saw last week and I hope to keep seeing it in the future. We fished some unbelievably rough days lately and we still managed to hook and boat a number of fish. Just take a look at the pictures, they say it all!!! Please visit  www.castawaychartersinc.com and book a trip today!