Today I got the pleasure of running a 3 boat trip with my buddy Brad King of South Again Charters and Matt Mcleod of Hot Spots Fishing Charters. We had 10 clients today, all of whom take part in ownership of Carrabbas Italian Grill. From the get go, I was thinking a good fishing trip might lead to a free meal or two in the future, since Carrabbas of Pensacola is one of my favorite places to eat out! The plan was to hit the grass flats first thing in the morning. The trout bite has been good the last few weeks and we have been getting most of them on topwater! I figured that there was nothing like a little topwater trout action to wake everyone up! Unfortunately, the wind did not cooperate with us so our options soon became very limited. We decided we would deep drop the pass and wait for the wind to slack off. Forunate for us the bite was very solid in the pass. We put about 10 sheepshead and a flounder in the cooler, then played catch and release the rest of the morning.
With about an hr left in the trip, the wind completely quit. I looked at my clients and told them it was time to go catch a redfish! Ten minutes later we arrived at a flat that usually holds redfish during March and April. The first cast Shawn, who was one of my clients, hooked a fat 19in redfish and puts him in the boat. As I am unhooking Shawns fish, my other client Steve, hooks a very nice redfish. A couple minutes later we boat a 26in fish with 62 spots!! In all the times I have been guiding I have never seen a slot fish with 62 spots! It was definitely tatted up! Catching those fish so quick spooked the school and we were never able to get back on them so we decided to try trout fishing before we left. I rigged up 3 mirro lures and we headed to the trout hole. On the 3rd cast Jim landed a fat 19in trout. After 20 minutes of trout fishing we decided to call it a day. You could not have asked for a better day or better clients. Now for that Carrabbas dinner!
