Thursday I had the distinct honor of being a Captain for the BBI Hooked on Kids Charity Fishing Tournament. The event benefits Sheridan House Family Ministries. Kim Nobles, Capt. Billy Nobles and Mike Anderson were great hosts and pulled out all the stops creating a super event.
The day started long before daylight gathering bait at the Skyway Bridge. The process was very eventful and exciting as I managed to net a large Ray who did not want to come out of the net. I knew something was amuck while the net was falling straight to the bottom it made and abrupt right turn. Never a good sign and another good reason to never have you cast net line around your wrist. The next toss found the mother load of small baits, the 3/8 mesh net was full of gilled threadfins. There had to be 500 baits stuck. My net resembled a Christmas tree. Good reason to carry both ¼" and 3/8" nets.
I then made the 18 mile run to the West shore Yacht Club to meet my anglers along with breakfast. We welcomed Mark and Glenn and made our way to Tampa Bay's eastern shore. I told my mate Capt. Chris I was very optimistic today as we have had several good charters in the same spots I mapped out.
It took only 5 minutes for our first fish, Mark's rod bent and it was game on. Moments later our first snook of the day was onboard. A feisty 24" Linesider was a good way to start the day. Shortly there after Glenn got in the action with a smaller snook. Over the next hour it felt like we were in elementary school for snook as each fish landed were juveniles. We had several large snook, one well over the slot (34") boil on our chum baits; funny how these big bruisers know what bait does and doesn't have a hook in it. Good news we did manage a redfish so we had the 2/3's of the Grand Slam in the boat the first hour.
Next stop we found the same juvenile snook. Then out of nowhere Mark was reeling in his white bait when we all gasped as he had 2 monster mid 30" redfish chasing the bait. Both fish nosed up to the bait then turned away at the last moment. Timing was now passing quickly and we had to be in by 3. We ran back across Tampa Bay to the Weedon Island area. We managed to get a trout but we could not locate the redfish we had hoped to find.
On the last stop we found Ladyfish, catfish none of the right species. We had several large mid 30" in the area but no takers. The end of a great day we headed back to the Marina to recap the day. Mark and Glenn were an absolute delight to have onboard. Great conversations and new friendships made. It's never too late to help if you would like to donate or participate next year visit www.sheridanhouse.org.
Capt. Steven