Fishing Reports

  Had a pretty busy week on tap again this week, but late season cold fronts are still causing problems. It's gusting 30 mph outside as I write this, and of course, I had to reschedule this day. The week began on Tuesday with another trip with my friend Dale Grantman. I picked Dale up at his condo at Punta Rassa. It appeared we'd drawn a beautiful weather day, and I was hopeful that the water might be warmed up enough to let the fish bite well. Dale had expressed an int...

  This was a week of poor tides, with the exception of Monday. It wasn't a strong tide, but it was a big one. You can usually get redfish to bite on tides like that, even thought the ambush feeders might be tough to come by. My Monday trip was with a long time friend and customer, Dale Grantman, from Urbandale, Iowa. This would be our first kayak fishing trip together. Dale has canoed and kayaked, but never fished from either. I had the boats ready for the water when Da...

  I had three trips on the books this week, but only got to run one, on Monday. It was with Joe Colarusso, and we'd already had to reschedule because of weather, and were running out of options. We finally drew a descent weather day, but I knew it would be tough with the water so cold, and fishing behind a front. We met at Port Sanibel Marina, got the bottoms wet, and were off. After a scenic ride to our first spot, I realized as I approached my spot we had two guide in boa...

Got out Yesterday checking a few areas out with a mother and daughter who was trying something new while driving from Memphis to Florida. We found things to be alot different from the previous days. As you can see in the picture above the water has came way up and the river has turned to mud. All we could catch was some small fish and we ended up with around 18 lbs for our best five. We fished about 4 hours. We never hit the big groups becaus...

  Tampa Bay May 1 Fishing Report       We just had one great week of fishing this past week, inshore and offshore I mixed it up about 50/50.  We caught fish everywhere and every stop and a lot of them. We are in & out of summer time patterns now with a light wind out of the East, calm in the afternoon and then a sea breeze.  I switch over to Tarpon this week and that will make up about 95 percent of my trips for the next 3 months. &...

Report: The Fraser river is starting to rise a bit from the spring snow melt but its still in great shape. Sturgeon fishing has been fairly good lately with many fish in the 3-6 foot range and a few bigger ones to 8 feet. May is typically quite good and June is a very good month for us as we do well in high water and our selection of baits.  Forecast: 20-40 million Pink salmon returning from Aug 20 to early October on the Fraser river, from July 20 to Aug 20 on the Squamish river j...

The last few days moving baits have been the key. A-rigs, crankbaits, single swimbaits, Spinnerbaits are the deal.We are starting to find some big groups that are deep and on the shad and it seems that the schools are a little spooky still because when we hit them we will catch 2 to 3 maybe up to 5 on straight cast and then they will breakup for a while and then group right back up and we will hit them again. The good thing about it is one you catch them they are all  3 1/12 to 5 + pou...

Bass fishing has been outstanding on Shasta Lake, where those with the skill and expertise to use various techniques, can and are, catching over 100 fish a day. …Most fish are in the Shasta “Rat Patrol” the cookie cutters in 11-14 inch range Gary Heffley at MyOutdoorBuddy.com...

April 30 2013 report     The Redfishing around the Venice, Louisiana area has been going good most of the time, but some of the time has been in the “search” mode. We find ourselves constantly fishing different areas based on the conditions for the day, as far as wind and sea conditions. Every day it seems we have to decide to do it the hard way or the easy way. I am always trying to figure out whether I am going about the easy way or the hard way. I do my...

The weather finally started to warm up and the wind calmed down and we did the shake down cruise this weekend.  We started in 20 foot of water and trolled out to 70 foot with out a bite.  I believed that there had to be some Brown Trout in the shallow water off the rocks on the Douglas point, so we angled back in toward shallower water.  When we hit 55 foot of water we caught a 15 pound lake trout and then hit another lake trout in 52 foot and a third in 51 foot.  We los...

Fishing Trip 4/29/2013    Took Jay Allen party from Lake Jackson & caught this mess of Trout on a Morning party. Most fish were caught on "Pumpkinseed" Bass Assassins. Wind East @ 12 to 14 mph, water clarity, marginal. \...

  April 29 2013 Stable weather improves jig fishing catches With the prolonged wind event we experienced on Lake Erie this April the jig fishing has been spotty at best but we are breaking out of that now. Saturday we seen a lot of walleye rolling on the surface and we had a nice power drift of 14 walleye. Sunday brought some volunteers or double dips where trailing walleye swim into the net while you are netting one that is hooked up.  Some walleye spawn according to...

Fishing Friends,   This past week proved to be the best of the Spring as we were on the Lake everyday except for Wednesday when the Weekly Cold Front blew thru and kept us off the Lake, and even better news is that the fishing ( and catching) improved dramatically!!! On every trip we either had limits on White Bass or a full box,and on several trips we had some Hybrid Striper action. The fish are on a consistent bite in all the normal Spring locations so I believe we can final...

  Fishin’ with Capt. Gus! May Fishing 4/28/13   Photo courtesy of Capt. Gus Area lake resident Wes Rabb holding a striped bass he caught on a recent Lake Norman outing. May is considered by many to be the best month of the year to fish on area lakes.  The biggest reason is that the fish are in shallow water and easy to catch. Great fishing aside, the weather is usually so beautiful that just being on the water is enjoyable. Spring...

  Strong incoming tides in the morning along with fantastic weather resulted in very productive trips this week.  Bluefish, ladyfish, and Spanish mackerel were feeding in the passes first thing.  We caught most of the fish on Cotee jigs and several using Rapala X-Raps.  As the tide increased, we moved to the nearby deep grass flats and caught speckled trout, silver trout, mackerel, bluefish, sea bass, jack crevelle, and ladyfish using Cotee jigs, Gulp! Shrimp, and li...

  Capt. Rick Grassett’s Sarasota, FL Fishing Report for 4/27/2013               Anglers fishing with me on my Action Craft flats skiff the Snook Fin-Addict, out of CB’s Saltwater Outfitters on Siesta Key, caught and released trout, flounder and Spanish mackerel in Sarasota Bay and snook and bluefish in the ICW at night near Venice on lures and flies during the past week. We also jumped the first ta...

  W A N T E D A L I V E! The best game in town is striped marlin fishing.  There has been a few dorado and wahoo in the counts but not like the last couple of weeks.  As the hot marlin action off Punta Pescadero died a huge body of fish popped up south of Los Frailes.  It is a bit of a run for us but once there the action has been non-stop.  In shore the roosterfish are cooperating one day and gone the next.  Live bait has been tough...

Kona Hawaii fishing report – April wrap up.   April was certainly a mixed bag of bites. We would have a good blue marlin bite for a few days, then the marlin would almost disappear and the ono would be the big bite. Then the mahi mahi would show up and the ono would disappear. Spearfish, even though it’s still peak season for them, disappeared for weeks and then showed up again. So what’s up with that?   The majority of the people who vacation in...

  Fishing Fort Lauderdale on Happy Day Today with Capt. Zsak   Three great days of fishing!!   Clint Presley with his 12 year old son, Jack, from Georgia were on their way to the Virgin Islands for fishing but had problems with connecting flights so they decided to stay in Fort Lauderdale to do some deep sea sport fishing and chartered the Happy Day Today along with the Topshotfishing team for three afternoon fishing trips.   In the three days...

Heard of a Striper caught on Island. Not sure if it's true or not yet. But sounds good. You might try along the South Shore with small white Jigs and white flies....

  Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report Bumper sticker of the week: The seatrout were on fire again this week. See the photos below. Tried to fly fish the Econ on Monday. The water was just a bit too high. Didn’t get a bite, but didn’t try very hard. Didn’t fish Tuesday because of the weather, but did go out running along the FT. As I suspected, the chiggers are active. Ouchie. An beautiful oak tree along the trail… Wednesday...

Clients and I have been catching fish on a variety of baits ranging from a texas rig to an a-rig, swimbaits and crankbaits and spinnerbaits to senkos and in depths from 2 to 14 feet of water. Everyday is different. Some days we do best is 2 feet of water using a senko and the next we will catch them in 12 to 14 feet on a-rigs and crankbaits and everyday we catch them on a different place and were we caught them on the day before we can't get a bite the next day. The one thing that is th...

  This winter/spring transition has been a bit out of the ordinary.  We’ve had weird weather and fish patterns.  Fishing for our preferred bait has been our biggest struggle but we always seem to get ‘r done.   Eric and his son Jason met us at the dock for a full day trip and they wanted to get Jason his first Sailfish.  We loaded them up and headed for the bait patches.  We picked up the Hardtails easily and headed for the worm beds. &n...

THE PUERTO MORELOS FISHING REPORT FOR THE MARINA EL CID SPORTFISHING FLEET, (CANCUN TO COZUMEL AREA) The billfish bite is beginning to increase with each passing week and this past week reflected the weekly increases once again.  Along with the good fishing has been the area's weather that continues to offer very pleasant days and warm evenings.  This past week's catch report included 7 sailfish, 2 white marlin, 6 dorado, 5 giant Atlantic barracuda, 2 Spanish mackerel...

THE IXTAPA-ZIHUATANEJO FISHING REPORT FOR THE INDEPENDENT SPORTFISHING FLEET Captain Temo Verboonen reported very difficult fishing for the few boats that did get out with most of the fishing beyond the 30 mile mark where the green and blue water come together.  While a few fish were caught inside the 30-mile mark, most of the action didn't start until 35 miles and beyond.  Captan Chiro Barrigan, skipper/owner of the Bloody Hook, had a couple of sailfish and a marlin at t...

THE MAZATLAN FISHING REPORT FOR THE ARIES SPORTFISHING FLEET The offshore fishing from Mazatlan bounced right back this past week and the billfish catches were holding at 73 percent for the anglers and adding in some fair dorado catches, too.  The water temps were up for both, the inshore and offshore waters and all of the indicators reflected continued good fishing and without much interference from the coming full moon phase.  The offshore fleet fished a total of 15 days hi...

THE CABO SAN LUCAS FISHING REPORT FOR THE GAVIOTA SPORTFISHING FLEET AND FISH CABO FLEET The billfish bite from Cabo San Lucas has been changing with the water temperatures and current conditions and seems to oscillate every day or two.  Still plenty of fish being seen but they sure are not being overly cooperative for the anglers.  The fish of the week was the yellowtail, (jurel) with most of the fish in the 12-15 lb. ranges and while not as big as the week before, they were...

Monster hammerhead shark caught by Steve aboard the Out of the Blue The sharks are snapping off Fort Lauderdale. This year’s annual shark migration down our coastline is fully underway. Hammerhead sharks, Fort Lauderdale’s most sought after game shark, are abundant in 350ft of water. This is the depth where the Gulfstream waters meet with the cooler inland waters, and a temperature gradient is formed. Sharks and other top predators like to patrol along this...

  JACKSON LAKE IS DOWN 2.4 FEET, STAINED & 71 DEGREES   Bass fishing is good and anglers are scattered from one end to the other. Fish the backs of the small creeks and coves with the cranks. A lot of the largemouth are ready to bed and so are the spots lake wide. Small crank baits in the shallow running variety works and the crawfish color no.7 Shad Rap and the mid running Wiggle Wart in the green crayfish and perch colors is working well in the shallowe...

  LAKE OCONEE IS FULL & 69 DEGREES   Bass fishing is good and the water is a light stain on the main lake, creeks are clear. The shad spawn is in full swing and a lot of bass are shallow. Start the day early fishing sea walls and rip rap banks. Use a white or white and chartreuse spinner bait. You can also use a small crank bait, in a shad pattern and fish the same areas. As the sun gets up switch to a soft plastic. Fish the same sea wall and al...