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I had a 1 day trip to Tampa yesterday for work and had to take the opportunity to do some fishing. I arrived in Tampa around lunch time, got the work stuff out of the way and headed off to Longboat key around 4:30 to meet Capt. Jason Stock of JMSnooky Kayak Charters.
I arrived at Longboat key just as the sun was setting and by the time we got on the water it was fully dark. The plan of the night would be to stalk a mangrove island for gator trout with Sebile Stick Shadd and then try a spot or two for redfish. Jason started off catching trout pretty quickly, but it took me a little time to finally get the SLOOOOWWW twitch, twitch, pause retrieve down. I had a few taps and even blow-ups before one came tight and then another and before I knew it I had two of the biggest gator trout I've ever caught in my hands.
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We circled the entire island, I had many more missed strikes and more big trout landed as well. At one point, I sat my rod down to paddle a few strokes back off the island and when I picked the rod back up there was a fish on! Unfortunately, it was a sail catfish, not a trout! Oh well, check another new species off the list! After circling the island, I had caught 8-10 Speckled trout with only one being "small" and the rest "gator" status. My biggest was a new personal best at 26" and Jason caught one that was about 28".
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Next, we headed off to a cove known to hold Redfish. I made about 5-6 casts and had one solid bump that didn't feel like a trout. A few casts later, the fish had not returned to bite again and Jason said, "Go ahead and give one more cast and we'll start making our way back." Twitch, twitch, pause, twitch, twitch, WAM, ZIIIIING! I knew right away I had a nice sized Red drum on. He made a few runs and I got him close to the kayak, but he wasn't quite ready to give up. One big splash and a woosh of his tail and he was off on another run. Finally, I tired him out enough and landed him. At 32", this was my new personal best Redfish!
DSCN6005.jpgDSCN6003.jpg
If your looking to do some kayak fishing in the Tampa area, look up Capt. Jason Stock, he'll put you on fish!
I arrived at Longboat key just as the sun was setting and by the time we got on the water it was fully dark. The plan of the night would be to stalk a mangrove island for gator trout with Sebile Stick Shadd and then try a spot or two for redfish. Jason started off catching trout pretty quickly, but it took me a little time to finally get the SLOOOOWWW twitch, twitch, pause retrieve down. I had a few taps and even blow-ups before one came tight and then another and before I knew it I had two of the biggest gator trout I've ever caught in my hands.
DSCN5992.jpg
We circled the entire island, I had many more missed strikes and more big trout landed as well. At one point, I sat my rod down to paddle a few strokes back off the island and when I picked the rod back up there was a fish on! Unfortunately, it was a sail catfish, not a trout! Oh well, check another new species off the list! After circling the island, I had caught 8-10 Speckled trout with only one being "small" and the rest "gator" status. My biggest was a new personal best at 26" and Jason caught one that was about 28".
DSCN5995.jpgDSCN5997.jpgDSCN5988.jpg
Next, we headed off to a cove known to hold Redfish. I made about 5-6 casts and had one solid bump that didn't feel like a trout. A few casts later, the fish had not returned to bite again and Jason said, "Go ahead and give one more cast and we'll start making our way back." Twitch, twitch, pause, twitch, twitch, WAM, ZIIIIING! I knew right away I had a nice sized Red drum on. He made a few runs and I got him close to the kayak, but he wasn't quite ready to give up. One big splash and a woosh of his tail and he was off on another run. Finally, I tired him out enough and landed him. At 32", this was my new personal best Redfish!
DSCN6005.jpgDSCN6003.jpg
If your looking to do some kayak fishing in the Tampa area, look up Capt. Jason Stock, he'll put you on fish!
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