With the Tide getting lower and the strong North east wind we met up at around 8:30 having super low water.  Van and Jane brought their neighbor Steve along who has been Kayak fishing around the area before.   We paddled back to where I wanted to be and just like a light switch the snook turned on.  We caught a fair amount of snook from 15-30 inches on the golden Brim CAL  working it real slow.  Also their was redfish in on the mix as well and Jane got a keeper out of the deal.

We moved out of there and got on a real good trout Bite and I was able to get them another slot redfish.
Van,Steve and myself got a slam.  Jane ended up getting a nice red.  Not bad for a cold windy day!

We got our limit the day before with rob and Jimmy on the Team Delosas boat a 34 yellowfin.  We had a good group of us Capt Joe, Aaron,Wisconsin Mike, Rob Jimmy and myself.  We left the pass after 12 and were back through by 5:30 .We fished 80-90 foot and got our limit of gags and scamps and a couple nice red grouper.  They dove and got a couple nice gags and bunch of hog fish.  We went back out on the Lady Godiva boat the 29 Ocean Runner Capt Joe and myself run out of Johns pass.  The whole Parasail group wanted to go so We left the dock around 1 and ran out to the same area.  We ended up getting our limit of gags and scamps couple mangos  and bunch of bar jacks and a 35 Lb cobia..
Lot of fish in the past 2 days!  If you want to go Offshore to let me know we got the boat and I help Joe run them out of Johns pass!

Met a  couple guys that were at the Fishing mission seminar and they wanted to do night time snook fishing they never really done it.  We worked back to the zone and they were not to active picking up lady fish and a couple small snook.  We got to a sand flat I get them really good especially with the high tide they were blasting finger mullet and we could see the big snook waking around all over the flat.  I was showing them how to work the CAL jig and bam after a good fight lipped this big girl around 36 or so and shortly after got another one the same size.  They are healthy  fish and blasting mullet!

I was doing my route in Siesta key for Coastal Angler Magazine on Saturday and on our way back to her house in Anna maria Island I found a launch for the kayaks.  So we relaxed in the morning and went by her parents house and picked up a malibu two and paddles.  I didn't bring any of my gear with me because I was going to come back and go offshore the next but those plans fell through.   Anyways we launched at around 12 and I was standing up in the malibu 2 paddling around checking out the area seeing nice reds and snook. She had on Pandora music so we were out enjoying a beautiful day. All I had for tackle was a basic spinning rod that i rigged with a gold spoon and a 20 l leader. I came up on an area that had a nice school of redfish spread out on the flat and started sight casting them.. I was pointing them out to her and sight casting them I was handing off the rod to her she was having a fun time! Caught 2 over slot red on the spoon and had 2 shake the spoon in the grass.  A big bluefish and had a 30 inch snook shake the spoon out while she was fighting it.  We got a couple pictures with her blackberry! Found another cool area feeling more and more confident for running trips down south!

Lately their has been a good amount of flounder ,larger trout and occasional a sheephead bonus or a big school of jacks!

 We planned to camp on a spoil island Jeremy Stock, Tony Lai and myself (Jason Stock).  We all had stuff going on in the morning so we loaded up the gheenoe full of camping gear, fire wood and all our fishing gear..  We fished a couple different areas getting a couple bluefish and trout and such but we both knew that we would have to set the tent up at night..  We started setting up camp just after dusk and got the tent up.  Jeremy brought fire wood ready to cook our meal plus stare at the fire and be memorized by it.  Tony showed up shortly after we got the fire going and he came with food that his wife Jen had pre prepped wrapped in aluminum foil.  He had Grouper seasoned, carrots, potatoes, corn on the cob and baked beans.  Their is something about eating a good warm meal out while you are hanging out camping tastes so much better for some reason!   So after eating a delicious meal we jumped in our canoes fully tricked out and after a short run we started fishing.  Fish were exploding on  bigger size finger mullet every where around us in shallow water.  I was throwing the new One knocker spook which is a 4 inch top water causing a little bit more noise and was difinently getting some strikes right off the bat. Shortly after a few explosions on the top water I landed a trout that was 27 inches and fat... Jeremy shortly after picked up a fat 30 inch red while fluttering the CAL Greenie.  We covered the rest of the island and picked up a  handful of trout in the  lower 20s  while having fish exploding on mullet all around us.. Towards the end of us fishing around 1 or so I picked up another big gator trout  that was tacking drag almost thought I had a nice snook on after trying to grab the Willey trout splashing me Jeremy saying he ain't that big and I finally get a good grip on him and he says I take that back Probably a 7 lb trout.  We both were tired and satisfied and came back to camp chilled by the fire and we crawled in the tent and went to sleep.  The next morning we all woke up just as the sun was trying to peak out and with the super low tide the boats were on solid ground we all three gave the boats a shove and back in the water..  We fished around all day and checked different areas and caught some flounder and trout and lost a couple reds.  But it was fun and very inexpensive to just go out and really appreciate where we live at and hang out with friends and enjoy the times and fish we caught together! We be going more sooner than later! Its cheap, fun and a nice change!
Tight lines!
   

Tides always play a key role in coastal fishing, but Floridians are entering the time of year when ebb and flow create unique scenarios where the old cliché "catching fish in a barrel" isn't so clichéd — it's pretty close to accurate.

In simplest terms, incoming tides grant access to shallow areas and outgoing tides drain them.

 

Think of the tide like an usher guiding folks in and out of a theater. Now, what if that usher missed a handful of folks hiding out in the orchestra pit?

They might end up spending the night in the theater once the doors are locked.

After a few hours, those stranded folks will get hungry, and if someone tossed a pizza into their hiding spot, they'd make short work of the welcome meal.

 

That's how it works with the extreme low tides of late fall-winter. This season sees the year's lowest tides, but the strong outward flow around new and full moons will suck the water right off of a flat and leave the sea grass with a good suntan.

Random depressions between the shoreline and the outer sand bars will hold as much as four feet of water when surrounding areas sit bone dry. Any fish caught in this tidal trap will pounce on lures tossed into their midst.

Tampa Bay kayak guide Jason Stock and paddling buddy Kevin McKenna recently showed me the routine. Stock and other kayakers have been catching lots of redfish, trout and snook in the backwater holes of Miguel Bay, just south of Tampa Bay.

Typifying the area's mangrove-bordered shallow water habitat, Miguel offers a mix of lush sea grass, oyster bars, sandy ridges and potholes. This is all great habitat for gamefish, but when the tide falls, only a few isolated pockets of deeper water remain.

Here, and in all the small bays and coves along the Gulf coast, outboard powered boats can slide into wading range, but you'll often face long walks in soft bottom to and from the boat.

 

Kayaks greatly extend your mobility, as you can drag them over the skinny spots.

Notably, I found that we could actually make better progress paddling across shallow muddy spots than we could make by trudging through the oatmeal bottom that swallowed our feet.

Wading to the edges of the deep spots and casting soft plastics is the way to go. I always keep a gold Exude Dart handy for redfish, and my old faithful delivered a nice red that grabbed the bait not 10 feet from my toes.

Stock and McKenna stuck with D.O.A.'s C.A.L. jigs and kept busy — Stock even caught an inshore slam of snook, redfish and trout.

McKenna found a load of trout stacked along a sandy ridge and literally caught them on every cast before getting bored and moving on. Our best deal came at the very back of the bay where a hole the size of a football field held a big school of mullet. These vegetarians rarely touch lures, but their movement flushed out the crustaceans and baitfish that predators seek.

Wading tip: Pay attention

Sounds simple, but oh how painful my embarrassing admission. Tides do not announce their arrival and they don't wait for a dumb outdoor writer to make sure that his un-anchored kayak is still sitting where he left it.

I probably don't need to explain this one, but I will because confession is good for the soul. On our last stop, I banked my kayak on a muddy ridge where the grass was laying over on its side. Forgetting about the collapsible kayak anchor that Stock had rigged at my stern, I shoved the boat into the mud and walked away confident that it would stay put just like John Wayne's horse loosely tethered in front of some western saloon.

One hour later, I glanced westward and found my yak floating 30 yards from the grass bed that was now nearly submerged. Yep, the sound of my shattering pride is one I'll not soon forget. Thankfully, McKenna was already on his way back to his kayak and when he saw my befuddled look, he just gave me reassuring wave and said "I'll get it."

 

As I stood there on the edge of the grass flat, humbly watching a fellow angler tow my wayward kayak back to the shallows, I reflected on the importance of monitoring the water's movement. At the beginning of our trip, the tide was nearly dead low and when the water slacked, the bite stalled. Once the tide turned and started sneaking back in, this stimulated feeding that lasted several hours.

If you wade from a boat, make sure you have a return route when the tide rises. Pushing through waist deep water is no biggie on low tide, but that trough may be neck-deep or more when the incoming cycle peaks. That's why kayaks offer such a great backwater advantage  as long as you keep yours anchored between paddlings.

For kayak fishing in the Tampa Bay area, visit Jason Stock at www.JmSnookyKayakCharters.com.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/columns/story?columnist=brown_david&id=4667355

Got Van and Jane on some nice flounder and some real healthy trout.  We caught pretty much all the fish on the Golden Brim CAL

We got on some real nice reds on topwater.  Mike was extremely happy he got his frist slam on Artificial lures..

He was happy the were chewing good!

Got out with Van and Jane we met before sunrise and right off the bat their with nice fish knocking the spook out of the water..  Shortly after Jane got her first snook and it was on  the spook!

We covered some ground and we all had action mixed in with jacks and ladyfish..  We also had some of the big alusive snook spook out in front of us..  Van was standing up working the spook and he had a nice slot red eat the spook yak side. 

With the weather trying to cool down the fish are going to start working their way out of the pases and into the back country...