Dec 16th, 2010

Well, it has been a while since my last report. I have been fishing 2-4 times a week. We had very good fall laid up Tarpon fishing. That is all over now and we have been sight fishing Red fish for the last 6 weeks. The Red fishing continues to be very good. Greg Petersen and I won the Redfly#4 tournament. ( this is an all fly Red fish tournament in Tampa Bay) Greg was on the front of the boat while I handled the poling. The weather was cold and blowing 20-25, but Greg managed to make some really good casts and our plan came together. We are continuing to get lots of shots at Red fish. The water is clean and the sky has been good. Trout fishing in the lower bay is going strong and I expect the larger trout to move up in to really skinny water which allows us to sight fish them. I think this is going to be a banner year for Red fish. The average size of the fish seems to be a couple inches longer and they have been aggressive. Greg and I are going to fish the salty fly tournament in Feb so wish us luck.

Aug. 31 2010

Well I haven't been as dedicated to writing the reports as I should be but I've been fishing a lot in the heat and wiped out at the end of the day.
The good news is the fishing is hot as well. When ever the wind is blowing east I've been fly fishing for tarpon on the beach. This time of year you may need to wait a while in between shots but the fish travel most days and they eat pretty well.
I spent 3 days the week before last fishing bait for whatever would bite. In the three days we caught, Tarpon (well we hooked Tarpon) Snook, Red fish, Mackerel, Bluefish, Jacks, Lady fish, Catfish, Grouper, Snapper, Grunt, Trout, Puffers, a Cobia, and a Remora. The only things we didn't catch were Pompano and Little Tunny. The bait is everywhere and fishing was pretty much wide open. I have been to the upper bay a couple of times to look for Tarpon but have not been successful. It seems like every time I go the weatherman miscalculates the forecast and it blows twice as hard as it was supposed to. I know several people that have been doing very well throwing plugs. As soon as the wind dies out I will spend some time looking for Permit. We did stop in the pass on the way south today and caught a Little Tunny. We could of caught as many as we wanted but we had Tarpon on the mind so we settled for one and kept going.

August 2, 2010

It has been a while since my last post. I went to guide for 3 1/2 weeks in south east Alaska to fill in at Yes Bay Lodge. Yes Bay Lodge is located 50 miles north of Ketchikan in the Tongas forest. Kevin Hack is the owner and runs a first class operation. I can not say enough on how impressed I was with every aspect of Yes Bay Lodge. Its beautiful, the fishing is great, the people are great, the food is great, the guides are great. It is a must do . You can look up Yes Bay Lodge on the internet or contact me and I will get you in touch with them.

As for the fishing here in Florida, I have been Tarpon fishing almost exclusively with a few Mackerel and Trout trips mixed in. There are still Tarpon on the beach and you still have a good chance to catch big fish on the the fly. There are a lot of tarpon inside the bay and catching multiple fish on plugs or bait is almost guaranteed.

Spanish Mackerel, Trout, Bluefish, Snapper, Sharks are everywhere. We haven't been out to look for little tunny but with a little searching they could be a target as well.

The tarpon fishing should stay strong for another month or so.

Tight lines.

Tarpon Dave Does Alaska!

Sometimes in life you have to ask a friend to step up to the plate and give you a hand. I did just such a thing, I was short a guide at Yes Bay Lodge in SE Alaska and I phoned a couple past guides and asked them to fill in for 30 days or so and the response was poor to say the least, so I turned to my good friend and expert guide, Dave Dant - a premier fishing guide from the St Pete area and he agreed that a little summer vacation to Alaska was just what the doctor ordered. Less than 2 weeks later he was leaving sunny Florida for the cold north of Alaska!

It takes some confidence to leave the fishing waters of your hometown and head off to a totally new area and be expected to perform and catch fish for your guests. I knew Dave would be able to easily make the adjustment, a guide with his fishing ability and knowledge would fall right in place and fish with the best of the guides here and he did!

Less than 24 hours after his arrival in Alaska he was out fishing and catching! Within a week he was out on his own boat with guests and bringing in some real nice fish!!










Dave filled in for a little over 30 days and we greatly appreciated his efforts, so from all of us at Yes Bay Lodge - Thanks for a job well done and we wish you a great fishing time for the remainder of your summer tarpon season in Tampa Bay! And we hope to see you again in Alaska!!

Capt Jim Lucas
Professor
Yes Bay Lodge - Alaska

Oh and Dave - Just so you don't forget the view from the dock at Yes Bay Lodge!!

May 11, 2010

My apologies for the almost two weeks since my last report. The Tarpon are here and I have been fishing almost everyday. We have been averaging 10 -15 shoots a day with the fly rod with some days producing bites and other days not. Today we released two. We are seeing all sizes of fish now, from 30lbs to the big big females (150 lbs). The fish we released today were in the 80 lbs size (avg.)The Tarpon fishing is only going to get better. Mackerel, Trout , and Bluefish are everywhere. There have been a lot of Cobia around. The King Mackerel are going strong. I haven't herd anything about grouper but I'm sure the folks that are fishing for them are doing well. I'll try to get some new Tarpon pictures up soon.

First Tarpon on Fly for 2010 - Broken Fly Rod!

First Tarpon on Fly for 2010 and wouldn't you know it, the fly rod broke!!

Have now caught several more this season already and we are ready for the big run to start when the water gets just a little warmer. Call now to book a tarpon trip!!

Click the play button to watch video!!

April 21, 2010

Well I finally got some pictures up. This is a Tarpon we caught on the fly Easter day.
We jumped two Tarpon on fly today. That sounds good but we only got two shots all day. Fortunately both shots connected. I'm still working on get some video up.
Redfish, Trout, Ladyfish, Mackerel are all going strong. We got some shots on Snook yesterday on the fly and I've been told about some Cobia showing up off the beach.

4-16-10

We are having a great early season Tarpon year. I have looked for laid up fish 7 times over the past two weeks. We have released 3 Tarpon (all over 110lbs) and have jumped two more. Two of the days I went looking the wind was blowing so hard I shouldn't have gone and I knew I wasn't going to see any but I went anyway. So that's really 5 trips and 5 fish hooked. Not bad for before the migration has started.

Mackerel are throughout the lower bay. Blue fish and lady fish are as well. The trout fishing is very consistent with fish up to about 22 inches. I haven't been Redfish fishing in the last two weeks. Several boats are using live chum and catching a few fish. The sight fish fishing for Redfish should be very good now if you can stay away from the boats buzzing the flats. As a side note, if you're fishing with someone who is running all over the flats looking for fish, this means they do not know where the fish are and you should fish with some one else who does.
Buzzing the flats really hurts everyone.
I promised you some good Tarpon pictures and video. It is coming. I've been fishing a lot and haven't found the time to get them posted. Soon, I promise

First Tarpon 4-4-10

Well it is all starting to happen. Easter Sunday we got our first Tarpon of the season on the fly. We went back yesterday and got another. Both fish were over 100lbs and one was probably over 120lbs. I will post some pictures and video soon.

March 29th , 2010

We finally have started to have some nice weather. The trout fishing is good. Very Good. The Redfish are here but very spooky . As more bait comes onto the flat, the fish will start to be more aggressive. The Snook are starting to lay up and sun themselves. (Good sight fishing) I've been out looking for laid up tarpon but haven't seen any yet. ( though I know there are a few around).
The Spanish Mackerel fishing is good and will only get better and there are a few pompano being caught. For your best success make sure you fish strong current. Tight lines

March 20, 2010

I'm writing this report coming off one of the toughest trips I've fished in a long time. The problem is that now the fishing good and had been good all week. It just so happened, that it wasn't good for me yesterday. I thought I had a good game plan in place and though the weather wasn't going to be ideal, I was going to catch the easy fish first(trout- lady fish etc.) and then move on to sight fishing. I had a very good angler on the boat. He can put the fly were it needs to be, when it needs to be there. We were shooting film for T.V and needed to catch some fish. So much for the game plan. The first three trout stops we didn't even get a take. The wind was starting to blow and the dirty water from the Gulf was flooding in, turning everything to a milky mess. I ran to find clean water and fortunately was able to catch a few small trout and lady fish but it used up our time to go sight fishing. To make matters worse I got a call a few hours later telling me that the Redfish were eating the bottom out of the boat at one of the spots I would of gone sight fishing. What can you do? I take a lot of pride in being able to produce fish or at least shots at fish when things are tough but I took it on the chin yesterday and ate a big peice of humble pie.
Enough of that. What you want to know is whats biting and where.
There are a lot more Redfish around now. We haven't been able to fish the open flats because of the wind but still are finding lots Redfish. The fish are schooled up and very spooky. I'm sure as soon as we can fish them out in the open, we will find fish spread out which makes the best sight fishing. I want to say that that the trout fishing is on fire, but after yesterday I'm hesitant. Let's just say that it has been on fire and will probably be on fire starting tomorrow.
There has been some bait showing up at the sky way and the Spanish Mackerel are starting to move in. Were just starting to see some Pinfish on the flats. The forecast for next week has some 80 degree days so the Tarpon will be here soon. All in all the fishing is good except for yesterday.

Keys Bonefish on Fly!

I just received a copy of a video that was shot in the Keys, took a trip there in October to do some bonefishing and met up with a friend Earle Waters and managed to capture on video a real nice bone fish I caught. Bones are one of my favorite fish to catch on fly. I used a crab pattern that I tied and as you will see it worked great.




You can see some of Earle's other stuff here:

http://earlewaters.shutterfly.com/439

Thanks for looking

Captain Dave Dant!

March 18, 2010

Other than today ( which is rainy and blowing 20-25) we had pretty good fishing this past week. The day time temp. has climb and the nights haven't gotten as chilly so the water temp. is up 5-7 degrees. The sight fishing in upper Tampa bay is still very good. We caught Redfish on jigs and flies on Monday.
Tuesday I spent scouting the lower bay in preparation to shoot a fly fishing show for television. The show is called Hooked on Fishing with Capt.Bill Miller. Bill is a great guy and has a wonderful reputation, so I really wanted to provide some good footage. The forecast for both Tuesday and Wednesday was mostly cloudy skies and a stiff southeast wind. I figured sight fishing was going to be out of the question so I when to check on some trout flats so we would have some fish to get on camera. Tuesday the weather wasn't as bad as perdicted and I found trout everywhere I looked. I even checked a Redfish spot and found good numbers so I felt pretty confident. The weather on Wednesday turned out to be bright and sunny and we went sight fishing. So much for all those trout. We ended up fishing a lot of Redfish but could not get one to eat. Bill is a good cast and everything seemed to be perfect, it just didn't happen. One of the school we fished had easily 300 fish. That may seem good, but for fly fishing it can make it hard. Once one fish spooks the whole school gets wacked out and getting them to eat at that point is really tough. Oh well, we did manage to catch a few trout on the way in to have some fish for the show, but it would of been really nice to catch a few of the Redfish on tape.
I've started to look for the baby Tarpon but haven't found them yet. There are schools of ladyfish in most of the canals and some big and small black drum on the flats. Speaking with some of the other guides the sheephead fishing appears to still be going strong and I've heard of a few in shore grouper being caught.
Hopefully I will be able to report on some Tarpon soon.

March 5, 2010

We'll the cold weather just won't go away. We get one day a week of nice, sunny, weather and the rest of the time we are fishing in cold, windy weather. At least were starting to see signs of spring. The sun's angle has changed, the birds are starting to change there feathers and fry bait is showing up. All in all, the fishing is pretty good. Ihave fished the upper bay for a couple of days at the start of the week. Sunday the wind was blowing hard out of the northwest and we had to fish in the lee. We found fair numbers of Redfish for the limited areas we could fish. Tuesday was a different story. The wind came around out of the southeast and dropped out. The sky was sunny and the Redfish were happy. We managed seven fish all over 28" in about 4 hours before the tide got to high. All the fish were caught sight fishing over sand. The fish were aggressive, actively chasing the jigs and flies. It was just as good as it gets. Wednesday I did some much need boat detailing and then back to the water, fishing the lower bay Thursday and today. Again the wind blew hard on Thursday. I did manage to find the Redfish and caught a few BIG trout to top it of. Today I went scouting with another guide friend targeting schooly trout. That didn't go so we'll. There has been a lot of dirty water coming in from the gulf on the in coming tide and it really shut down a couple of grass edges that had been producing nicely. I'm sure as soon as the water cleans up the schooly trout will again be going strong. I haven't done any sheepshead fishing this week but hear the bite is still on as it should be. I will say that there is a lot more life in the lower bay then there has been in the past few months. It really looks like it going to blow wide open with bait funneling in and all the good thing that go along with that. Tight lines

February 18th - Surprise Fishing Trip

I was heading down to Gulfport on some photography business with a plan for when I finished to stop by and see Capt Dave Dant to have him help me set up my new fly rod that I am taking to Alaska this summer. So as soon as I finished, I called Capt Dave to see where he was and of course he was out fishing...he said, where are you and I said not far from Gulfport marina, he said lets go fish, we'll come in and pick you up, bring along the fly rod I'll get it set up while you fish for some nice sheepshead!

Now - who could turn down an offer like that, so 20 minutes later, I am climbing on the boat and off we go!

First stop right in Boca Ciega Bay near the marina, we fish some pilings and in no time we have a couple real nice sheepshead in the well. I had no fish at home, so decided to keep a few for dinner.

We fished most of the day and even managed to get my fly rod set up. Although, I have ordered some better line which I will put on when it gets here.

Fish for dinner - had 4 real nice keepers, we released the rest, but these guys are good eating.

Capt Jim Lucas

Feb 16, 2010

My apologies for the time lapse since my last report. I had a little problem with the cord which downloads the pictures to the cameras. All is good now.

The weather is the big story. When is it going to turn nice and stay nice? The fish are here, but the changes in the pressure with each front makes it tough to stay on top of them. For those of you who like to chase Redfish, the most consistent fishing is in coves and basins where the weather changes do not effect them that much. Usually this time of year our water temperature is 5 to 7 degrees warmer and you can have great sight fishing on the open flats, but with the fronts this year it has really sent the fish to find stable water. I do feel like we are only a week or two away from some warm weather.
The Trout fishing has been hit or miss over the last week depending on the weather. On the coldest days the Trout are holding better in 5-7 feet of water on a hard edge.
The Sheephead fishing is really good, though I had a couple of kids out last week and had trouble with catching them a whole bunch of Sheephead. I did go out the next day and really got into them good with a half dozen over 4lbs and a total of two dozen fish in a hour. We have caught a couple of Black Drum while Sheephead fishing which helps mix it up.

The weather forecast is for it to be warmer with less wind, so my next report should be a little better. Tight Lines.

Feb. 5, 2010

The Trout fishing remains good. The big Trout are shallow and are eating a variety of artificial lures. The Redfish fishing is still slow. We are having to work hard for every fish we catch. I have gotten reports of others doing well and finding some schools of fish. It appears the Redfish are moving around a lot, probably looking for flats that are holding bait. Speaking of bait. We are starting to see some bait return to the flats. The Pinfish are holding on the deeper edges and I've seen some fry bait along with pelicans diving and Ladyfish. If we can get the weather to hold a little and keep the high pressure around, the Redfish will settle down and spread out on the flat were we can sight fish them more consistently.

Jan. 29, 2010

The fishing this week was not as productive as I thought it should have been. The Redfish have really thinned out. After discussions with friends and other guides it appears the report is the same everywhere. Even up in Homosassa the Redfish this week were scarce. Capt.Paul Hawkins did have a good day on Redfish in upper Tampa Bay earlier in the week. That was the best report I had heard. It seems like about once a month, for a few days, the Redfish move and become harder to find. You would think that the tide or weather conditions have something to do with it, but I haven't been able to figure it out.
The Trout fishing still is going strong. We caught several fish over 22" this week. The surprise of the week was a school of large Black Drum. We caught two on the way to a another Redfish spot. Both fish were in the 60 lbs range.
As I'm writing this report I got a call about a fresh school of Redfish that have shown up.
Today the wind is blowing south with an approaching cold front. Behind the front we should have clean blue skies and light winds. Look forward to next week. I threw up a new gallery of trout pictures. Enjoy.

Jan 21 2010

It looks like the effects of the cold water are behind us. Everything has returned to normal. The mullet have returned to the flats. Lots of Redfish and big Trout.
The Redfish were a little tough to find this week. As the cold front approached, the fish schooled up and it took some time to find them. The trout fishing has greatly improved. We found a school of big trout up on the sand and were able to sight fish them.
I did get the opportunity to go fun fishing with my friend Capt. Paul Hawkins. We went up to upper Tampa Bay and sight fished Redfish over the sand. It was a beautiful day and I got to stand on the pointy end of the boat. It was a lot of fun. Paul is a great fisherman. He is one of the few guides I will refer trips to. I threw some pictures up of a Redfish we caught sight fishing and one of the big trout

Jan 17 2010 Trout

Jan 17 2010

The Redfish fishing remains good. As the water temperature continued to warm the fish started to spread out on the flats in small schools (4-10 fish) and became more active. The big surprises on Friday was the trout started to become more active. Earlier in the week we were finding large schools of trout in very shallow water, warming themselves, however getting them to bite soft plastics was not very productive. On Friday that changed and we caught a very nice fish on plastics. I think that the Redfish will continue to get more aggressive as more bait ( crabs and shrimp) start to move around again on the flats.

Jan 13, 2010

We went out today to see what the cold weather had done to the fish. Unfortunately did see several species that did not survive. When we launched the boat this morning the water temp was 45 degrees. By mid day it had climbed to 51 degrees on the flats we were fishing. We found lots of schooled up Red fish ( mostly over slot fish). As you can imagine they were pretty lethargic early on, however we did manage to pull the hook on one fish. In the afternoon the fish had become more active and we managed a few more . These fish were slot fish. All the fish came on shrimp today. With the weather forecast to warm up, the fish will become much more active and we should be able to do real well on plastics and flies.

December 31st 2009 - End of 2009!

Dec 31 2009

The last trip of the year didn’t go as well as planned. We had the tides, we had the wind, we even had low clouds but they didn’t tail. With no sun sight fishing was out of the question. Did manage several big trout. One just over 26”. Thought I leave you with a picture of a Redfish we caught last week. Have a great new year.

Capt Dave Dant

December 30, 2009

The goal of today’s trip was to get some video of tailing Redfish and shots with fly rod. The fish didn’t tail well for some reason though they were there. We managed 3 Redfish to 31” and 6 Trout all over 22” on soft plastics. Never pulled out the fly rod and never got any good video of tailers. Found good numbers of Redfish at all except one of our stops. A big problem today was the wind stopped blowing by noon and the fish started to school up, which make skinny water sight fishing tough. Too many refusals to think about.

Capt Dave Dant

2009 Summary Report

This blog was set up in February for me to post fishing reports and here it is the end of December and I never posted one. My apologies to all who went looking for a report and didn’t find any... My New Years resolution is to keep it up to date.

I thought I would start my new fishing reports with a quick summary of the outstanding fishing we had in 09.

In Jan and Feb we do a lot of fishing for redfish. My specialty is sight fishing and we had a lot of great days. On both sides of the New and Full moon with low incoming water, we were able to find all the tailing redfish we wanted. The colder the weather the better. When we had high water and good sun, the fish cooperated by moving up over the sand and we had great sight fishing. We were lucky that our cold fronts seemed to coincide with the moon tides and the wind blew out of the North and East which really helps the sight fishing. I like fishing these conditions. Once the wind starts to blow south before a cold front starts the fish school up and head for more traditional holding areas and its time to switch tactical and bring out the bait. Sight fishing schools of redfish with artificial can be tough. You’re lucky if you can catch 2 fish on artificial or fly before you blow the school. This is not always the case. Some days they just stay in “their happy spot” and you can get a bite on every cast, but I still feel you will have more success when they spread out on the flat and you can make a presentation to single fish. The fish are spread out to eat and you just keep working down the flat and throwing at new fish all the time.

In March as the weather starts to warm we get Tarpon on the mind. I spent a few days in the upper bay looking for laid up fish but with limited success. It was a shame because we were doing a photo shoot for an article on fly fishing for Tarpon and I got to be the angler. Fly fishing the upper bay for early season Tarpon can be real hit or miss and we just missed. By the second week of March we turned our attention to the Everglades. We make day trips down to the Ten Thousand Islands to look for sleepers. (laid up Tarpon) We had a few good trips and a couple of blanks but we stopped going down by the first week of April because we found laid up fish here.

This past April was the best April I’ve had for laid up fish with a few days providing more the 20 shots. Our first tarpon caught on fly this year was April 10^th.

We started to look for migrating Tarpon the last week in April and found them, however it was only for a day. We didn’t see another push of fish for 10 days. By the second week of May the fishing was fairly consistent. It was nice to be fishing the beach in May before most people new the Tarpon were there. We lost all of May 08 to southwest winds. The weather stayed fishable for the rest of May but it seemed just as things were going good, the wind started to blow west. I only fished the beach 3 times in June and only managed 4 bites and two released fish. What a shame, it was just too rough. We went back to fishing laid up fish, with limited success. The water had warmed enough that the fish were lying on the bottom and with the dirty water from the west wind it made them tough to see before you were on top of them. We managed to catch a few fish blind casting bait busters and caught several fish drifting Pinfish but dreamed of east winds.

In July the wind finally came around to the east and we were back on the beach. For the first two weeks of July the migration was still going strong and we were throwing at fish most of the day, though they were tough to feed. This was due to the weather allowing everyone who wanted to fish the beach to do so and the fish were getting run over a lot. This is a real sore subject for me, enough said.

By the first of August the crowds were down and the fish were still there. These were mostly single or small pods but they ate. We had several days with multiple bites.

One day, near the end of August we were 3 for 5 by 11:30 (you can’t really start seeing them until 9:00) and we should have caught 8 or 10 fish that day but we broke off our last fish at boat side and lost the last all black Toad in the box. We threw at fish for the next 3 hours and had 5 or 6 long follows but none of them opened their mouths.My fault, I should have had more black Toads but we had gone through several in the past few days and I was too tired to tie more. The all black Toad is not a normal pattern for me, or I should say that in years past it hadn’t been a regular pattern. It seems that every year they eat something just a little better and this year it was the all Black Toad.

.

We fished the beach until the third week of September. We left the tarpon to spend some time looking for permit. I’ve been working on developing some consistent fly opportunity for permit and I am making progress. You need to put in your time. We finished off our tarpon season by catching some big fish in the passes on Pinfish and some small and medium size fish in canals on artificial.

In October we went back to Red fishing. I took a vacation in the middle of October to go to the keys for a week of fly fishing for permit. We had several shots at permit with the fly but finally decided to catch one on a crab to break the ice. It was a good fish around 25lbs, caught sight fishing in 2 feet of water. I managed to break off the only permit we hooked on fly. We caught a couple of Bonefish and several baby Tarpon to 20lbs on the fly for the week.

The Redfish fishing this fall has been good. I’ve had more bait trips then usual and we’ve caught Redfish, Shook, Mackerel, Snapper, Grouper and some Cobia.

November was good for tailing Redfish but the sun wasn’t out very much which made the sight fishing, once the water got high, not that great.

December the tailing fish slowed down. It has been a mystery to me. Finding the fish hasn’t been a problem but they are not sticking their tails up like they should. I would say that on average, I’m lucky to see 30 tails a day. One positive from this frustration is I’m having people do more blind casting and the numbers of big trout have really increased. The biggest trout this month has been 27 and half inches and I’d say we’re getting at least 5 trout over 22” a day.

So, there you have it, a quick summary of the 09 season. All in all I’m pretty satisfied. While we’re on the subject of 09 I should probably thank some people. I am very fortunate to have good friends to help out. They are all in the business, and I would highly recommend them all.

First a big thanks to Capt. Paul Hawkins. We get a chance to fun fish together and discuss strategy. He is a great fisherman and I have learned a lot from him. (Though he would never admit it, I think he’s learned a lot from me as well). Capt Earle Waters of Homosassa. Earle installed my stern mounted trolling motors for me a couple or years ago and even came down from Homosassa this year to trouble shoot a problem I was having to keep me fishing. He too, is a great fisherman, stands behind his product, and is a truly committed to the sport of salt water fly fishing. Justin of Mobile Marine who kept me fishing when I couldn’t fix something on my boat myself. Capt.’s Tim Drummond and Dan Bumgarner for their advice on finding species of fish that I do not stay on top of while following the Redfish. To my brother Tim who is my fun fishing partner. Fishing with Tim allows me to do a lot of scouting which keeps me on fresh fish and he’s one hell of a cast with the fly rod .Capt Jim Lucas for help with the website which is a work in progress. Lastly, to all my fisherman this year, who for the most part made the casts when they needed to and helped make this year another success

Happy New Year to all.

P.S. Look for Wednesday Nov 30^th and Thursday Nov. 31 reports in the near future.

Good fishing

Capt Dave Dant