Steinhatchee 4/28-4/30/25

[Saltydawg]

Just got back from 3 beautiful days fishing at Steinhatchee. My wife and I headed down late Sunday to try for some trout and whatever else might wanta bite. Monday we headed N , weather was great sunny and just enough wind to drift well. Only problem was the fish didn’t seem to want to cooperate, got 4 keeper trout but very few shorts. Had a ball though as water/ bottom was beautiful and saw and fought sharks, rays, lost expensive lures to mackerel, and saw a huge turtle. Back at marina it seemed the guide trips had done ok but the rest of us “ normal” fishermen had struggled. The next 2 days were completely opposite, went S next day and tore the trout up in 3-4 ft on beautiful grass bottom. Musta caught 15-20 keepers including a 22 and 23 in. ( released of course) . She was using popper cork n mainly white/pink gulp while I prefer Yo Zuri twitchbait on light tackle. Saw several sharks including one my wife saw while I was fooling w tackle that was almost as long as my 20 ft bay boat. Next day was a rematch with going N n completely different from first day with15 or so keepers, several in 17-19 in range, basically using same tackle. Back at marina both days folks were bringing back fish, including 2 king mackerel I saw ( not sure where they were caught, although I caught one on the flats few years back, 18 lbs and in 4 ft). So not surprising for the time of year but the fish are there and mostly biting. I’m not a marine biologist but surprisingly we did not notice any scallops in areas we fished, not sure if they move into an area or live somewhere year long but interesting. May is such a great fishing month I hope everybody gets a chance to get out somewhere.