Weekend cold front lowered water temps for a few days.

But we had no problem catching fish. Just have to find fish that don't mind feeding in the cooler water. So with George Witts and Lance Schillizi on board we headed into Everglades Creeks for the day. The water temp was in the low 60's F. Sheepshead, Black Drum and Redfish were bitting well. We kept enough Sheepshead for dinner and released 25 Black Drum and Redfish.

George and Lance used Rage Ultralight rods and
Diablo 350 spinning reels to catch Black Drum and Sheepshead

a dozen Pompano were caught on the ultralight tackle

Lance Schillizi with a nice Redfish caught on the
Fox Rage Ultralight rod and Diablo 350 spinning reel

Croc sunning himself on a warm afternoon

In the afternoon the wind dropped so we stopped at a deep hole to try and catch a big fish. Water was too cool but we did manage a Bull Shark. We finished this day using the Ultralight Rage rods and Diablo 350 spinning reels jigging some run off in the mid backcountry. Pompano and Seatrout were a fun way to end the day.

The next day dawned slick calm. Dick Ault and Tom Hilbert were my guests today. We decided to give the Gulf of Mexico a try. We ran 30 miles out to a wreck and set up. Hoping for Shark, Cobia and Goliath Grouper and possibly some big Redfish. It started out well. Tom caugth 2 Goliath Grouper around 80lbs each and Dick caught one around 25lbs.

Dick and Goliath

Dick Ault caught this TripleTail casting
with a Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Dick Ault nabbed this Goliath on a
Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo

due to cold water temps this
was our only shark bite, a Bull

Tom Hilbert used a Fox Trek XT boat rod
with a EOS 30 reel to catch 2 Goliath Grouper

No sharks and Cobia but plenty of Bluefish and Jacks on the light tackle kept us busy.

Later we scanned Stonecrab trap buoys for Triple tail. They like to lie under the floats in the current. Dick caught a beauty and we took him home for dinner. At another spot we tried for sharks but the water was still on the cold side.

The forecast for the next few days is warm and calm. Hopefully this will turn the fish on and get them feeding actively again.


Captain Skip Nielsen