Mid Spring Break - Mar 28, 2008
If you are a regular reader of ours, you already know that I consider April and May to be pretty much the best time of the year to go fishing here. (And since I'm the one writing this fishing report, my opinion is the one that counts.) If you are lucky enough to have stumbled upon this site for the first time, I'll be happy to explain. April is historically when most of the fish that swim in the Northern Gulf of Mexico choose to begin making themselves available. Pompano normally begin showing up the last couple weeks of March and there should already be a good supply of Spanish Mackeral. The month of April is when the weather starts to be more consistent, the water begins to warm up and we begin seeing more and bigger (Bull) redfish and speckled (Gator) trout. A day of inshore fishing this month with or without a guide should also put you in direct contact with everything from sheepshead & ladyfish, bluefish & flounder, whiting, jack crevalle & black drum.
Capt. Nathan Donahoe is happy to report that his prediction of Pompano on March 26th was right on target - he caught 3 fish off the rocks at Sikes cut Wednesday morning. Capt. David Heinke is just happy that conditions are back to normal and his angler Jack Browning from Madison WI was able to experience this reel-spooling 12lb redfish yesterday. David also hooked a couple of tripletail this morning. I have to admit that this March has presented us with the opportunity to learn where & how to fish in adverse conditions as we don't get to just fish only on the "Good" days. Several days this month I would check in with Jr. or one of our other Flats or Bay guides, certain that they must have cancelled their trips to learn that they had a box full of fish and their anglers had a fantastic time. The beauty of our area is that for the most part there's usually some place to get in a successful day of fishing in less than perfect conditions. You just need to know how to read the water and have the experience of knowing how the fish will react given those conditions and what to use to tempt them to bite.
FORECAST: May is our secret season. Most every type of fish we can think of will be here before Memorial day but the people don't actually get here in any significant numbers until June. What that means to you is plentiful fish with a scarcity (comparatively speaking) of anglers fishing for them. The local "Fish List" for those who haven't already memorized it is as follows:
Inshore - Speckled trout, redfish, Spanish mackerel, pompano, flounder, black drum, ladyfish, bluefish, whiting, jack crevalle, cobia, sheepshead, and as the water gets warmer later in the month, we'll see tarpon, tripletail and sharks in larger numbers.
Offshore: Snapper, grouper, amberjack, cobia, dolphin, wahoo and king mackerel.
Note - the 2nd Annual Fins & Family Allshore Fishing Tournament will be held May 9th & 10th in Apalachicola. For info call 850-653-3142.
Hope you're out having a great time on the water!Robinson Brothers Guide Service
118 Commerce St.
Apalachicola, Florida 32320
850-653-8896
850-653-7196 (cell)
http://www.floridaredfish.com/
Robinson@Flaredfish.com
REALTOR - Robinson Real Estate Company
http://www.robinsonrealestatecompany.com/
850-653-1653
Member:Apalachicola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce http://www.apalachicolabay.org/Carrabelle Chamber of Commerce http://www.carrabelle.org/Gulf County Chamber of Commerce http://www.gulfchamber.org/Florida Guides Assn. http://www.florida-guides.com/Florida Realtors Assn.
