I started to build this web site, in sept, and by the end of sept it was getting almost a 1000 hits a day, now it gets 19,000 plus a day with average of 600 pages being looked at each day.
wow thanks so much to all of you.
I am working on getting prime fishing times page it is on the way. with daliy best times to go fishing.
And a Harbor map with names and places is coming.
Well all I can say is stay tuned more fishing info is on the way.
Fishin Frank
B & M Rogers (unverified): Hey Andrew,
It’’s May and Bryan from PA-awesome fishing trip on Monday Oct, 12th. It indeed was a Grand Slam day. So totally did not expect the Tarpon but when they are jumpin’ all over like that one just has to step up to the plate and go for the fight-man an hour and 30 minutes to bring that puppy to the boat! Hot, hot, hot 8 hour day but went by fast. Thanks for keeping us BOTH in the loop as to what was next to fish for. You are very passionate about your work and you delivered for us. I think a film crew should film one of your charters as you have such a passion for what you do! Anyone looking at this blog and thinking of chartering-Andy delivers and is charismatic about his job. And-oh yeah, don’t forget to visit one of the coolest tackle shops around-Fishin’ Franks in Port Charlotte,FL. We are back in PA now and we are freezing our butts off-52 degrees much cooler than 94 degrees. Good to get home to family/work but always sad to leave the fishing!
Take Care,
Bryan and May from PA
Tim, a veteran whose tour of duty was in Iraq. His dad, Chris is a good friend of Franks for 20 plus years.
Tim has been wanting me to take him fishing for some time but we were not able to hook up till now. I could see it in his eyes about the excitement of getting to go with a fishing guide. He also said he’ll have another fishing story to tell cuz he just doesn’t have many.
We met up at Fishin Franks before the sun came up and I picked up some shrimp. We launched out of Ponce de Leon boat ramp. A good early morning start, we were running the flats with a beautiful sunrise coming up, it was going to be a good day.
I pulled into a favorite spot, anchored and 5 minutes later Tim hooked up on a nice red. This was a good start to a promising day.
Tim got in fight with a big red that refused to give up. He didn’t realize they could put up such a battle. It was the biggest red he ever caught. After catching several more Redfish and Trout, Tim had His keeper Red and a Trout in the live well. The tide was getting low and the Reds had stopped biting so we decided to move on and go catch some live bait. We found Sardines to fill the live wells.
We took a run to Pine Island to look for some bigger trout and whatever else we could hook up on. We fished one of the deeper flats and caught several trout, snapper and lady fish.
The tide was coming back in and a problem came up. The rear live well pump had gone out and we had dead bait. So with one live well down with dead bait and one full with live bait and our keeper fish we headed back north towards the boat ramp.
Tim said he was going to help out at Fishin Franks at 6:00 so he would need to get back and pick up his car by 5:00. So running low on time we stopped at one of the hotter spots to get a Snook to finish off the day with a slam.
We cleaned out the dead bait from the live well and started fishing hard and fast. Shortly after getting there Tim hooked up on his biggest Snook ever. After a few more fish it was time to go. The fish were still biting so I asked Tim if he would consider calling Frank and say he was too sick to come in. But everyone knew he was out fishing with me so that was not going to fly. Earthquake? Tsunami? Boat sank? Frank’s probably heard them all or came up with a few of those too. Oh well my wife never believes that stuff either.
We got to the boat ramp and I cleaned fish in record time and got Tim back to Fishin Franks by 5:00 and we transferred the fish to his car. Seemed like an extra hour we could have fished but guess he didn’t want smell and look like he had been fishing all day. I am sure he had a long night. He said it would be worth it because this was his best fishing day yet catching fish. That said I had a great day to so I headed home.
Captain Jerry Gillespie
Being officially back is still kind of “sort of”.Hadn’t really thought that a little thing like a hernia operation would be such a big deal.Just goes to show that little things can sneak up on you and get you when least expected(no reference to any local charter captains in that little things remark intended.)I have managed to get out of the house and venture down to the bait shop a couple of times this week,but had to stay home and relax the whole next day to recuperate.Must be getting old.
Can’t offer any personal observations on the fishing lately,since I’ve decided to actually heed my doctors and several friends advice to stay off the water for a couple of weeks.I have talked to several friends that have been out and they tell me fishing has been pretty good just about everywhere you go in the harbor.Have heard tales of bull reds,monster snook and trout,and spanish mackerels up to 30″.All inshore.Also hearing that the bonito,kings and spanish are all over just offshore and lots of cobia mixed in for good measure.Heard about a 140 lb.tarpon along with some decent reds(25 to 26 inches)caught in the Peace River this past week-end.Sounds good to me.All I can say is that I’m extremely jealous and am looking forward to getting out there and making some of my own fish tales. The boy is too.Maybe in another week.
Good blog Robert,and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you sometime soon. Greg
As the cooler weather approaches us so is some of the best rod bending action of the year is coming with it.
Inside the harbor you can find massive feeding schools of Spanish Mackerel. Most are in the 15-17 inch range but I have seen many caught pushing the 25 inch mark. I don’t care who you are, a 25 inch Spanish Mackerel on light tackle as is good as it gets. Silver spoons worked very fast just below the surface of the water always seems to trigger that explosive strike. Look for feeding birds in 10 feet of water or more and you should find the Mac’s close by. Tarpon are still around, especially around the US 41 bridges in the Peace River under the feeding schools of ladyfish. Ladyfish are your best bait of choice. Any bait smaller like shrimp or whitebait will be consumed by the 14.6 billion catfish that are roaming the harbor right now.
Outside in the gulf you have huge feeding schools of Bonita and Spanish Mackerel along with good numbers of King Mackerel. Your near shore wrecks have some fish but your best plan of attack is to simple go out and look for bird activity and begin trolling some deep diving plugs like Stretch 30’s and Rapalas. I get asked a lot what is the best color plug to use. Red head with white bodies is considered “old reliable”. But honestly some colors do better than others depending on conditions. All I do is check with the folks at Fishin’ Franks; they always seem to know what colors are working best.
Good luck and tight lines!
Capt. Robert Moore
www.captrobertmoore.com
To leave a comment.
Look just below on the right,
it will say ” no comments” or
or some number like 3 comments.
Click on the word comment, it will change screens,
then type your name, You do not have to leave an e-mail.
after you type your name click in the larger box. Then your comment.
To get back to the main page, click the blog button in the left column.
I was asked this question a couple times at the store this morning.
Thanks
Fishin Frank
I am trying to get , the best time to fish and the tides up for you.
But I can not figure out how to do it yet. but I am working on it.
soon come mon.
Fishin Frank
Birds, Well for fishing there are two kinds of birds, ones that tell
you there is fish and one that don’t.
Birds flying in a straight line. or drop down and pick something out of the water. or Just sitting the on the water, do not mean anything to a
fisherman.
The ones that yell hey there are fish here. Do!
you just have to speak bird. Squak, screeh, And hovering of the water
mean fish.
Birds that hover over a spot go down grab something, rise up a few feet
go back down, get something Else, never taking their eyes off the water.
moving only a few feet sideways, but always looking down, These birds
are screaming FISH HERE, fish here!
I will bet you didn’t think speaking bird was so easy.
Now you have to do your part. First shut down easy the rapid change
in noise of your engine is the fastest way to spook fish, ease off the throttle
And look close at the surface of the water. what you are looking for is
white streaks across the surface. these white streaks are fish slashing at
bait, near or at the surface of the water.
Now you have seen the birds, you see the white streaks, move your boat up currant or up tide from the school. then drift toward the school casting
six to ten feet away from the action. The Trick isto pick off the ones on the outside and not distrub the ones in the middle feeding. If you cast into the
school you might get one fish. You will definately spook the fish and they will sound, or go down deep and maybe not come up again the minutes or hours.
Cast the outside of the school and you should be able to catch fish steady,
I hope this helps you in your quest.
any questions just leave them in the forum
I will try to answer.
Fishin Frank
As Frank said,I’m back.I figure by actually getting on the blog more or less makes it official.Unfortunately,being on the blog is as close as I’m going to get to fishing for a couple of weeks.Had a hernia operation courtesy of the V.A. on Thursday and I’ve decided that if I ever get another hernia,I’m just gonna keep it.No fun at all.Enough on that though.
I did get a chance to go out fishing on Tuesday in the wind,but didn’t have time to sit down and blog.Had to be in St.Pete wednesday morning.Jake(a.k.a.The Boy)and I hit the water about 7:15 and headed for Trout Creek first thinking we’d give it a quick shot and then head for the east wall.Got in there and caught a bunch of rats and small snook on shrimp and lures.Threw spook jrs.first,then a rattlin spook(new lure at Frank’s) and then a 3d minnow.Snook ate them all and the reds took the 3d minnow.We spent about 2 hours on that and then figured it was time to move on.Mother Nature had different plans.
We poked our noses out around the island at the mouth of the creek and when that 20 mph wind hit us,we noticed that the Harbor was just a tad bit lumpier than it had been at 7:15.Enough lumpier that we decided that we really didn’t want to get beat up just to go fish the east wall.So we decided that we’d just stay in Trout Creek and see if we could come up with anything bigger than we had been.
We ended up staying in there most of the day just to avoid the wind.We went all the way up the creek and I can say that the fishing was pretty good.We caught a few legal reds,just legal,probably 30 rats,40 plus snook,all in the 14″ to 25″ range,the usual snappers,and actually no catfish.The boy did get a really nice sheepshead along with a couple of smaller ones,and I managed to catch a pretty good sized one myself.Not too bad of a day.
The one thing that really got my attention while we were out was the water temperature.It was 68 degrees when we put in that morning,and it only warmed up to about 72 by 2:30 when we came in.Signs of things to come.A few more fronts come through and the fish should really start moving in closer and up the rivers.Gotta love it.
Guess that about covers my fishing for the week and probably for the next couple.Doc says no boat for at least 10 days and no lifting more than 5 to 10 lbs.for 4 to 6 weeks.Yeah right.I’ll be all over that.Guess you’ll have to go fishing with me Frank to make sure I behave myself. All for now. Greg
We will be closeing early for Halloween
Normal Hours
Sunday—– 6am to 7pm
Monday—– 6am to 8pm
Tuesday—- 6 am to 8 pm
Wednesday- 6am to 8pm
Thursday— 6am to 8pm
Friday—— 6am to midnight
Saturday— 6am to 9pm