pondfisher

I reckon I might know the spot! 😉

Thanks Troy. The conditions were not good. Rough and cold. Not worth launching. Had to buy pins AGAIN / this time at O’Neils and they were dinky. And it was a grind to find a few barely slot fish. This body too is getting old. Spent the next couple of days completely pooped. On to sheeps fishing.

Thanks. Yeah, not easy conditions.

Two hard days of wind fighting, wave dodging, anchor pulling, and slow bite conditions. BUT - great friends and family trips to remember for a lifetime. Day 1, my childhood best bud John Williams with his father and two eldest boys. Fishing out of John’s Seafox 22, it was a grind to find the fish but we did manage a couple keepers among a bunch of shorts. The experience with John and his family - three generations of Floridians - was priceless. (We took a HUGE rogue wave against our port side that came out of nowhere, probably 8 ft., rocking boat and crew. All good, but scary). Day 2

Dear Sleeping Giant, Thank you very much for inspiring me to get back out there before the closure because I truly wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage another trip. In fact, in the past 15 years of fishing these gags this was the first time we couldn’t find bait so had to stop at that floating bait shop across from O’Neiis to get our pinfish and at a steep price. So I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep the fun going with these creative post titles until we actually finally secured some big pins and dropped them down. Luckily, our first three baits down all got crushed and we had three of our f

Definitely do it if you can. They’s a chewin’!

A day to remember, yesterday, with a ferocious, non-stop gag bite in Tampa Bay. Two anglers - 10 fish - all between 25-30”. Releasing large keeper grouper is painful business. Alas.... still time left on the clock!

Identity theft!

10-4. Got a trip planned. Stay tuned...

Really Troy? You titled this post “pondfisher”? If so I love it! Yet I hate.... then I love it again. Repeat. I want a huge blue water boat. Not sure where I went wrong. 😞 MA17 for sale??? That big ol’ haul from the Rampage?

Yeah they came in thick this year. Nice catch!

Thanks. ”Pond” means Tampa Bay.

Come to Tampa one day and we’ll go fish ‘em.

Strong gag bite again on run #2. Ran out of bait. At one particular spot, could NOT move a fish off the bottom. Again and again we’d try... two 200 plus lbs guys with heavy tackle trying to get a fish off the bottom only to get abused over and over. We even tried one guy holding the rod up and one guy reeling but you could not turn the reel handle. Probably a Goliath. We need a chiropractor! Otherwise, easy limit on quality gags. Great season so far.

Great haul! Time to break out the smoker. The Spanish are thick in Tampa Bay right now too. Miles and miles of blitzing schools in the shipping channels.