The Gator trout party keeps getting better on lower Tampa Bay. Today was my best quantity large trout day ever. The day started gather bait on local grass flats which is half the battle as the truly big trout are reluctant to chew shrimp and truly prefer live greenbacks.
Today's anglers Bob wife Shannon and father Bob are from Wisconsin and Iowa a big change from Walleye and Musky fishing. Back home they are ice fishing while today the temperatures neared 80.
Our first stop in 4-6' on lush grass flats produced non stop small trout action. Trout after trout 12-15" long inhaled greenbacks and shrimp. We probably caught 40 trout before making our second move. Looking for bigger trout our next stop produced a handful of bigger 15-18" trout but not the action I had hoped for.
The 3rd area we fished is very shallow less than 2' with numerous potholes scattered about the grass flats. The first 2 holes we took two better trout but not the big ones. Our next spot was outstanding to say the least. In short order we were catching trout 22-25" every couple of minutes. While we didn't top the monster 28.5" we caught last week we landed an amazing number of large fish 22-25". I cant recall catching these type numbers of bragging size trout.
Bob, Shannon and Bob were excellent anglers and tons of fun. Its hard to beat a day like today.
Captain Steven Markovich
