Redfish Update - Spring 2024

Spring has sprung!

Its here folks! The birds are singing, everything is turning green and its full of life. Most importantly the fishing is on fire. Tons of bait and birds feeding. The water quality has been stellar so far this year. Crystal clear water allowing me to see fish a hundred yards out and set you up perfectly for a shot.

Snook: Big Snook have been a bit of a struggle for the past few years. Mostly due to the hard freeze killing off a heartbreaking amount of fish. With that being said this spring has been phenomenal! The big girls are back and ready to party. I’ve been seeing large schools of over slot Snook in good clean water, Almost every spot i go to. Not only that but they are ready to destroy a fly, coming 8 ft away sometimes to engulf your fly. Love to see it!

Redfish: Be prepared to see Redfish schools looking like a Coy pond. Red-fishing has been great, with many double digit days. The key to success with Redfish is a good long cast and a good presentation slowly dragging your fly in the “shoe box” zone. They are reacting good to flies hitting the water, slowly working there way over looking for that small slow drag, then boom!

Tarpon: Tarpon bite has started right on time. If you are an early bird like myself then you will have no problem finding poons. The early morning bite is where its at early to late spring. You will find them happy and feeding just as the sun peaks the top of the mangroves. It is 100 percent a morning thing, by mid-morning the bite is done. I have been able to find them backing and crawling down shallow shorelines making the knees shake first thing in the morning. Feeding them with large gurglers and kwans patterns has lead me to success.

Nice Tampa Bay Redfish