Fishing in Florida So Far

Well, I have gone fishing 4 times thus far and have been successful in each trip. Two trips I went with my friend Mike Fister on his Kayaks and the other two times Mike and I went with our friend Brandon Hirons on his boat. Mike is wearing the blue hat and green shirt in the pics below.

The first trip was successful with many spanish mackrel. Unfortunately the last few we managed to hook were gobbled by dolphins before we could g

et them on the boat.  

A successful day, nonetheless.

Here is our second trip, on Brandon's boat. After we 

dropped the girls off because they were cold, we 

headed back out and starting catching some 

spotted trout and catfish.

The third trip began as Mike and I started at the Skyway Pier. This was our first mistake. Not only did we not catch any fish, Mike managed to let the ocean eat one of his fishing rigs. Well, all we can say is, another $80 or so down the drain. After that frustration, we headed to the flats on his kayaks and managed to catch quite a few fish, and 4 were keepers. Here are some trout. A mangrove snapper was also hooked but was under regulation size; therefore, released back to sea.

The fourth trip started out on Brandon's boat trying some Tarpon fishing. Let's just say the Tarpon were huge, surrounding us, but not biting on our live (well, at first) crab and 2 varieties of baitfish. Once all of our bait died, we headed to some flats. We were very successful, catching over 15 spotted trout each. Despite this good luck, only one was a keeper. Sorry, no pics of our solo keeper.