Eastern Tamp Bay & Tera Ciera - 03/14-15/09
Posted: March 15th, 2009, 7:43 pm
I threw out a few feelers on some fishing in the Tampa area and got an invite to go for a ride on a ECC Lostmen with Skinnywater from Triben forum. Meet up with SW and his dad and we launched the Lostmen and headed off into the Tampa bay estuary.
Looked for some rumored black drum bulldozers in the 40 lb class but they were nowhere to be found. Heading off in search of some other formidable target it didn’t take long for us to roll up on an oyster bar with a few hundred vegan redfish. Off to the next spot resulted in some more vegan redfish, not even remotely interested in a fly or a Gulp. Day ended with some great sightings of redfish and time on the water.
Day two puts us further south down around Bradenton. Meet up with SW and his dad and headed off after something to tighten our lines. I finally gave up on the flyrod around lunch. SW had already put a nice trout in the boat. The he got a snook and we were two thirds of the way to a slam. In a few more minutes he got a nice red completing the West Coast Slam. We found another school of very nice vegan redfish – more like communistic redfish for refusing to eat anything. Headed off to another spot and I successfully pulled a lure away from a nice upper slot red – I had a streak to maintain of not catching. Not long after that I felt the tale-tale tap on my line and set the hook. Successfully shook that snook loose to maintain the streak. Shortly after that I had another upper slot red eat right at the boat and set the hook straight up - drag screaming and again I shook the hook loose to keep my streak intact.
Can not think of a better way to spend my birthday while away from home, awesome two days of fishing. The catching will get better with the darker nights, but you have to go when you can. Thanks for ride SW and Bruce - much appreciated the hospitality and a spot on the Lostmen.
Looked for some rumored black drum bulldozers in the 40 lb class but they were nowhere to be found. Heading off in search of some other formidable target it didn’t take long for us to roll up on an oyster bar with a few hundred vegan redfish. Off to the next spot resulted in some more vegan redfish, not even remotely interested in a fly or a Gulp. Day ended with some great sightings of redfish and time on the water.
Day two puts us further south down around Bradenton. Meet up with SW and his dad and headed off after something to tighten our lines. I finally gave up on the flyrod around lunch. SW had already put a nice trout in the boat. The he got a snook and we were two thirds of the way to a slam. In a few more minutes he got a nice red completing the West Coast Slam. We found another school of very nice vegan redfish – more like communistic redfish for refusing to eat anything. Headed off to another spot and I successfully pulled a lure away from a nice upper slot red – I had a streak to maintain of not catching. Not long after that I felt the tale-tale tap on my line and set the hook. Successfully shook that snook loose to maintain the streak. Shortly after that I had another upper slot red eat right at the boat and set the hook straight up - drag screaming and again I shook the hook loose to keep my streak intact.
Can not think of a better way to spend my birthday while away from home, awesome two days of fishing. The catching will get better with the darker nights, but you have to go when you can. Thanks for ride SW and Bruce - much appreciated the hospitality and a spot on the Lostmen.
