Well folks I met Kevin on the  new FeedingFrenzy Mako bay boat at 6:30 am on Saturday to see if we could hook a Tarpon or two to check off my bucket list(I have a long list) . Kevin talked about the great day he had the day before, where they landed 8 Tarpon.

As Kevin says,”every day is different” on the h2o!  His new Lowrance HDS 8- Structure Scan sonar was lit up with Tarpon. You could see them on both sides of the boat when they weren’t showing on the surface.

So,  so, so beautiful, rolling, surfacing for a gulp of air. Kevin must have cast 100+ times trying to get the Tarpon to bite. His Captain skills placed almost every cast in front of the Tarpon. No bites for 1 to 2 hours. Then he got one hit with a crab on …then off….try again ……fish on!!!!!! All of a sudden boats came all around us from out of nowhere trying to get in on the tarpon. No one else hooked up !

Now the dance begins, Kevin says,” stay calm.  Reel in.  Keep the tip of the rod bent so ya do not lose this fish!! Short fast turns of the reel…let the tarpon run….reel in now……let him run”. This went on for over one hour and I am thinking how big is this fish- will ever land it ??   I have see on fishing shows how the Tarpon snap hooks etc.  That did not happen.  The Tarpon was about 80lbs.  What a great day and a great Captain. Went home took some advil and  smiled all night long and the following day!

If you are remotely considering going on a tarpon or any fishing trip, Book Kevin for a trip ASAP, it was well worth it !!!!

Joe Mastandria

Grest day with weather good in am and winds picking up in PM. Rich and one other fishing buddy and I went out to about 17 miles in 72 feet of H2O. Standard live pin fish with some blue runners we caught at the Venice shelf.We hit 4 spots all about .5ml from each GPS. First spot was NON Stop Red Gropuper!!!! 18 to 24 in size!! Two other spots …lot of structure lots of fish on the finder …no hookouts!!!! We tried every type of bait and even a bucktail with a white eel! Nada. Thant is fishing not catching!

Last spot again dropped the lines…non stop Red Grouper all 18, 19 in. The Gags knew that it was not in season so no bites. One interesting event occurred. We had a LARGE (looked like 4to 6ft) fish circle the boat 4 times. Had a spinner ready casted many time in front of it no takes. May have been a shark or cobia .

All in all great day!

Barry, Rich and Capt Joe went out yesterday to troll for king fish and cobia with some knowlegde that Kevin passed on to us during a class at West Marine. Plans, lures, and live shrimp too.  The first spot was north of the venice pass and we trolled for an hour or so. We got a hit on one of the bommers but no catch.

We then switched to bottom fishing and caught blue runners on light tackle and some pins too. Saved them for another spot. Went to a spot just off Sharky’s peer. Just bottomed fished and set up plugs for spanish macs and in a matter of minutes we got our lines bitten off several times. Changed to grouper rigs and then we caught 8 to 10 red grouper largest  20″  22″. But the catch of the day was for Barry!( First time grouper fishing!!!!!) With a in light rod n reel equipted with heavy leader he hooked a 28″ GAG.  The rod was bent so much we thought it would snap. After 10 minutes of give n take Barry got the Gag up to the surface. In the boat and hero pics!!! The day ended well , several spanish macs a lot of big grunts on light gear too.

We also had a anchor buoy on board. The anchor was stuck big time. We let out more line,connected it to the anchor line and ran the boat away from the buoy. The buoy sank and then it popped up…achor was free! Saved $100.00!

Went out of Cape Haze Marina 2/22 to fish for goliath grouper; trout; and sheepshead  at the pass with my buddy Rich. We brought both heavy tackle ( Penn Slammer n Summano 650 reel) n light tackle too ( San Croix rod with a light sumano reel). We already had live shrimp from Mahi Max and boated to Little Gasprilla to catch some Pin Fish for bait with my sabiki rig. Stopped in some grass flats and caught about  25 pins along with some sea trout. The sea trout were 14 in ! They went back into the water to grow.

Went to Boca Grande Pass and got out the pin fish found a hole and in a matter of minutes we hooked onto not goliath grouper but two 22 in gag groupers.Go figure!!! We also caught several Sheepshead 18′ and 16 ‘ to take home for dinner!

All in all it was a great day. The two Gags went back into the h2O for another day!