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