Fort De Soto Scouting Trip

Greg and went out to Fort De Soto the other morning to do some scouting for the winter.  We were looking for low water holes and fish holding areas that might hold some fish here in a few months after the water levels start dropping.  We started pretty early with a 0.3 tide with an incoming all morning so we knew that even if we ran out of water in a shallow spot we could get back out since there would always be more water behind us.  We stopped at the local bait shop on the way down to the Fort and although the shrimp weren't the largest, the few bucks was well spent as the bait shop guy gave us some pretty good direction on which way to go from the launch.

So the Fort De Soto launch is really nice and it wasn't long before we were in the water and headed to our first stop of the morning.  We found the flat very quickly and with no putt-putt zones and places to run we were fishing very quickly.  I jumped up on the platform and Greg grabbed a top-water rod.  We had a bunch of missed strikes and the wind was pushing us across the flat pretty quickly but we finally started seeing some deeper holes and worked them a little better with both top-water and subsurface jigs.  In one of these holes I was able to snag a pinfish so we had some cut bait back out into the hole and it wasn't long before we were rewarded with a really nice trout.  A 20+ inch trout on our first float in the first hour of fishing.

 

In the same hole it wasn't long before Greg got another pretty big thump so turned on the video camera quickly to see a redfish get reeled in but to our surprise it was a pretty nice bonnet head.  After we caught that one there were a lot of sharks around the boat for some reason so I will try tie some shark flies and put in my 8wt for next time we visit the fort.

From there we drifted a little further south onto the flat looking for more holes and fish.  We got pretty skinny into the flat and did push a few reds out of a hole but weren't able to connect as we were already over them before we spooked them.  We poled a little further out and turned back around to the water as another boat was coming on to the flat and there was a very large group of reds just appear and they were up pushing water.  The other boat was in prime position and hooked up very quickly about 200 yrds from us.  I didn't want to spook the group but they were busting up pretty quickly into smaller groups so we put down the trolling motor since I couldn't pole fast enough into the wind to keep up with them and got back around upwind to set up a drift.  We fished some of the mullet schools then started working some of the pot holes for trout with some shrimp and were rewarded with a couple of nice trout and then I happened to see some red coming straight at us.  I had a loaded up shrimp under a cork and pitched it out in front of the pushing fish.  Well it wasn't 10 seconds before that big red found the shrimp and then it was game on.  

Unfortunately, we didn't find any more reds but we were able to find some new spots to fish.  We found a couple of mangrove snappers later in another location where there were some guides hanging out but the best part about Fort De Soto is the size of the area and the diversity of the fishing opportunities.  I'm looking forward to getting to learn the area this fall since it's so convenient to the house.

Follow that up with a Dawgs win over the Palmetto State Poultry later in the afternoon it was a pretty great day!

Every Tampa Bay flats fisherman should know how to use a popping cork

So, a much different title for this entry but it comes with a good fishing tale from today's outing with Vance and his Dad.  Light winds greeted us this morning as we ran south from EG towards the flats of Cockroach Bay.  Rain was way south for the morning and although I was worried about getting into the wet stuff, both of my fishing companions were ready and fired up to go fishing.  We pulled up to the first flat and I quickly got on the trolling motor and started looking for potholes.  It wasn't more than what seemed like 5 min before we were into fish.  It started off with some small trout and we pulled out 5 or 6 while Mr. Whitaker got the hang of fishing with a popping cork and circle hooks.

Vance didn't get on the board until this really nice trout.

By that point we had boated quite a few trout and were looking for some larger fish as most of the trout were smaller.  We drifted a little further as the tide slowed and finally found some activity around some pothole I liked to target during the winter for reds.  Well we found a couple trout with Vance getting some more meat in the cooler with another large trout.  We saw the trout swirl chasing bait and Mr. Whitaker pitched in and unfortunately caught the smaller trout because when Vance pitched in it was game on.

After playing the fish perfect on his new St. Criox we put it in the cooler and started looking again.  It wasn't long before we saw some mullet working and I had no longer mentioned that we might be in the area of some reds when Vance's cork disappeared very quickly in the pothole he was in.   This is when the fish story begins. It was just that quickly that he hooked up and his line broke.  After reeling in it was determined that the braid (main line) had broken and the cork and everything else was still out there.  It didn't take long for the cork to pop up about 20 yards away and I figured we would just go over and retrieve it and start fishing again.  Little did we realize that there might still be a fish attached!  As we got closer the cork dove under and out of site (think Jaws!).  We would wait for it to come back up and we would take off after it again (again Jaws!).  By this point it was all hands on deck so we closed the distance after a few missed tries and some tense moments when we didn't see the cork come up.  I had the grand idea to try to hook the cork with my jig.  Well we got within 10 yards and I made a quick cast to where I thought the mid point of the fish and the cork were and like throwing the hook on Deadliest Cast somehow I was able to snag the line and the cork.  I quickly loosened up the drag to hopefully keep the fish on the cork and line and played the fish for a tense 30 secs before we go the fish close enough to grab.  Vance made a great snag on his leader underneath the cork and wrestled the 24 inch red into the boat.

We cruised some more potholes on the way to Schuster's Hole without any luck and got to the hole and it wasn't long before we were rewarded with some fish.  Mr. Whitaker got a nice flounder and I got a snook on a jig before we took off back to Cockroach to fish some mangroves on the high tide.

When we got inside Cockroach there were some fisherman already in the cut I like to fish so we cruised some other mangrove shorelines while they fished and eventually they came out so we pulled up and started our drifts around the cut.  It wasn't long before we had some bites and Mr. Whitaker pulled out his first Florida red.

I got my redfish as well for the inshore slam and we caught a kitty cat to make a trash can slam.  As you can see from the picture above the clouds started rolling in and the tide started to die so it was a quick run back to EG to clean some fish!  Great day overall 15+ trout, a few reds, snook, flounder and a couple mangrove snapper.