We started out a little early to beat the Sunday traffic at the boat ramp. It was the only nice day of the week so we new it would be packed. The weather had been warm for a few days so water temp was up a bit.That made it perfect for an early morning bite! As we dropped in, we kind of spread out to cover more area and find out where the bite was. Because there was a little water left before the negative tide ,I decided to stick close to the shore line while I could. It was beautiful outside. Temperature was perfect ,with the sun coming up behind us, Not even ten minutes of being in the water ,I hooked into a nice redfish Then not even five minutes later I hooked another! Both fish inhaled the lil john in golden bream. I heard Otis hooting and hollering so I came up to his yak. He hooked into a beautiful redfish that crushed his mirror lure! The morning was young and was starting out great. Minutes later the other two guys who were with us both hooked into reds on gold spoons. One measuring 21' and the other 26.5. The 26.5 inch red got hammered on the way in by a shark! Luckily it was by he head of the fish and didn't mess up the fillets of the fish. All the fish we were catching were in 1-3 ft of water but, the tide was moving out fast. We ere forced to fish the outer deeper edge. As the tide bottomed out so did the fishing for about an hour. We did manage to pick up a few trout,ladyfish,and small mackerel in the mean time. Once the tide picked up and there was some more water on the flat,we started picking redfish again. I managed to pick up 4-5 more reds all on lil johns golden bream and mama's 14k saltwater assassins. The other guys picked up more reds on the good ol mirror lures. Turned out to be another beautiful day in Ruskin ,Fl
Ruskin Reds!
Started out the morning with a semi high tide but was moving out fast. We decided to stay near the mangroves while there was still a little water left on them. We through out everything from top water,jerk baits, to suspension baits .Nothing! Time to make a move. While heading out to our next spot I through out a paddle tail jerk bait to troll behind. Not even a minute in the water and boom a gator trout! We picked up a few more trout but ,when we had almost got to our spot. My Bait got SLAMMED! Almost literally ripping my rod holder off my kayak! Seconds of way of losing my rod and reel I grabbed it! Line screaming out I new right away this isn't no trout. Finally after wear the fish down I saw that it was a huge mackerel. Pushing over 30 inches it looked like a kingfish!lol! I held it up i the air by my leader (stupidly) to show Mike the fish and pop! There went the fish and my whole set up! After retying and regrouping from all the excitement , we paddle just a little more to our next spot. I stood up to see if there were any fish hanging in the area. I started seeing redfish and trout everywhere! We began casting at them with jerk baits but, they wouldn't eat them. Threw a mirro lure at them and we started picking them off one by one. Most of them being nice fish in the 20 to 27 inch range. After having our fulfillment of reds,we wanted to try and finish off our slam, Venturing off where my snook friends like to hang out. We decide to keep pitching the ol mirro lure sense we were having some much success with it on the reds. After working th mangrove linre pretty hard we drifted across this hole witch we ended up catching a couple of snook out of. One was nice about 25 inches and one was a little guy but fisty! That had ended a wonderful day on the water in Ruskin , Fl!
Heading to Ruskin,Fl for a Kayakers Heaven!
We left out at 5am from Sarasota for Ruskin FL. When we got there it was crazy! Forgetting tht it was a holiday weekend... we had to wait in a long line of boats all putting in on one single boat ramp. We finally got our kayaks in the water and on our way we immediately hear bait getting busted on the top of the water everywhere. I take a long cast along the mangrove line. Pretty much as soon as it hit the water, fish on! The sun not even coming up yet and this beast of a snook whoops me, pulling me into the mangroves! Luckily we had our headlamps on. I was able to finally land the snook. Now we had to decide what our next move was going to be? It was hard to leave but we had just put in and boats were blowing by every two seconds. We paddled out to the right working the mangrove line all the way to the mouth of Little Manatee River. We probably caught 15 snook mostly on top water plugs like spooks and skitter-walks. It was sooooo beautiful as the sun came up watching our top water lures walking side by side getting smashed every few feet! Some of the hits sounded like gun shots blowing the lures completely out of the water. next we decided to head out into a little deeper water to target some trout. Got a couple of them on top water but as soon as we switched to Jerk baits we started catching them almost every cast! While we were drifting we came across a small school of reds. Matt was able to pick one up on a flat wrap by Rapala. By the time I got close enough to him to take a cast they had moved on. Now the flat that we are on is about a foot or two deep. We decide to stand up and look for pot holes. The fist pot hole I cast in my jerk bait gets crushed by a big ole snook, Next thing You know we start catching snook, trout ,snook, trout. Those fish had some backs on them. They were eating good! We were catching so many fish that boats were trying to follow us. They kept getting there engines stuck in the flats. When that happened we shot across the channel to hit up the other deeper flat. We started catching snook and trout when Matt saw a bobber in the distance. He casted near it and snags the line connected to it. His line starts peeling out! Finally he wears it down and when it gets close to the boat he realizes it is about a 3-4 ft shark. It had broken someones line and he caught it. We were able to save the shark by removing the hook and line that was all over the poor thing. After a long day of catching over 30 snook ,30 trout,1 redfish, and a few other kinds of fish we decide to start heading back. On our way back Matt hooks a 35 -40 inch snook that came off the hook right at the boat.:( An amazing day in good ole Ruskin Florida.
