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Getcha Some Snapper

Sunday, September 5. 2010

Trips this week yielded some good sized mangrove snapper up to 4 pounds. I know that those of you reading this that primary fish in the gulf say, “That’s not that big.” But these are coming out of the bay. Mangrove snapper in my opinion are one of the hardest fighting fish especially if caught in tight quarters against structure. They are also unarguably one of the best fish for the table as well. One of the best baits and tactics to catching these fish is to net a well full of the small whitebaits or scaled sardines. Go to your favorite rock pile and chum them to the top crippling the baits. Snapper are a wary fish so scale down your hook size and leader. We typically start with a 1/0 hook and 25 pound leader and when the bite slows we scale back even further until the bite slows again and repeat the process.

Typing this and thinking of snapper is making me hungry so I’ll share a great recipe with you. You’ll need Panko Japanese bread crumbs, peanut oil, large cucumber, rice wine vinegar. Peel your cucumber discarding the peel and peel into the meat saving that part and discard the seed portion as well. After you have a good bowl full cover with the rice wine vinegar and place in the fridge and let chill. Fry your snapper with the Panko in the peanut oil. After frying the fish make a bed of the chilled cucumber on your plate placing the hot fish on top and drizzle with the vinegar. I just don’t get any better. Our underwater camera man Capt. Ben Bateman turned my family on to this a few years back and it’s now a Nobles’ family favorite. T

he off shore bite is still going off with red snapper in season but only on the weekends. There are plenty of AJ’s and grouper to be had as well. Mackerel, trout and sharks continue to prowl the deep water flats in the bay and suckers for live sardines. There are quite a few toothy critters out so be sure to use long shank hooks.

Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:30 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday. Call in on Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am. Also you can follow us on face book and visit our website @ www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and t

Posted by Capt. Billy Nobles in Captain Logs at 12:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Three Days in Paradise

Friday, August 27. 2010

With this past weeks weather at home not being exactly Fisherman friendly. Billy and I were fortunate to be spending 3 great days in Key West filming episodes of our TV show. The fishing and weather down south were both awesome to say the least. Tuesday and Wednesday we fished with Capt. Alex Canalejo out of Murray’s Marina. Tuesday we targeted Yellow Tail Snapper on the near shore reef. We caught 20 or 30 of them from 2 to 5 pounds. A good chum slick and freelined 3 inch pilchards were the key to our success. Wednesday the wind layed down a little and Alex decided to make a run for the blue water. We ran into a crazy Dolphin bite about 20 miles west of Key west. Lots of schoolie sized fish in the 8 to 12 pound range. We caught 15 or 20 fish and also got some great underwater footage for the show. Again a live well full of pilchards were used to catch and keep the school near the boat.

Thursday morning brought higher winds and bigger seas but that did not deter our captain from being optimistic. Captain Zach Bentley took us out to some rock piles just 8 miles off of Key West in 200 feet of water. Drifting with free lined pilchards produced several nice Bonita and a surprise visit by a nice summer Sailfish. Capt. Billy landed the sail in about 15 minutes with some great jumps and under water footage for all to enjoy.  This great fishery is only a 7 to 8 hour drive from Tampa, so keep it mind when you need a great summer fishing fix!

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Posted by Capt Michael Anderson in Captain Logs at 07:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Dog Days in Full Swing

Friday, August 20. 2010

The dog days of summer are in full swing! Water temps are high and this weeks tides were very slow making things even tougher. There are plenty of fish around and with next weeks full moon tides approaching things will change up in a hurry. Redfish remain the best game fish target on the skinny flats. Big schools of oversized Reds are roaming all over the bay. Weedon Island and the 4th street area are both holding a couple of nice pods along with Piney Point and Simmons Park flats. A 4 inch Berkley Gulp Shrimp on a ¼ ounce jig head left sitting on the bottom in front of the school is tough to beat. The stinky bait will almost always get a bite.

The inshore Snapper bite has finally picked up as well. Capt. Billy and I both had great luck this week working the rock piles along the shipping channel edge. Small Pilchards fished on a knocker rig was our best bet. Chumming with a chum bag and extra baits also added to our frenzy. It was good to see the Snapper as I was starting to think they wouldn’t be coming in this year.

The offshore bite was very steady this week with Red Grouper and big Mangrove Snapper taking the spot light. Most of the bigger fish were caught in at least 60 feet of water. The bigger fish are taking live pinfish on the bottom.

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and Sundays at 11:00am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Posted by Capt Michael Anderson in Captain Logs at 14:07

Fishing is Still Great

Saturday, August 14. 2010

This week the fishing has been pretty darn great. The deeper grass flats are still holding plenty of mackerel, trout, and loads of sharks, mainly black tips. In a little closer and shallower, the redfish are still being taken on both live bait and artificial. For these just head to your local oyster bar on higher water and wait. One artificial technique that works is with the 4 inch Berkley Gulp Shrimp. Put it on a jig head cast it out, stick your rod in a holder and wait for it to bend over. There are plenty of reds in the bay in all size ranges from lower slot to well over the 27 inch max length. Also don’t forget the silver king, that’s right tarpon. There are still plenty of tarpon in the bay. You can sight cast these big boys or dead bait them or chum them up. There are still plenty to be had. As a matter of fact earlier in the week we were fishing with Bud’s Terry Collins for mocks and trout on the deeper grass flats and had tarpon busting our chum baits right behind the boat. Let me tell ya that’s pretty cool stuff. Off shore the snapper bite remains hot. There are still plenty of grouper, and AJ’s being taken as well. Remember that red snapper are out of season so let’em go. Live pinfish are the ticket for the larger grouper as always. The mangos can be chummed up right behind the boat with small greenies or cut chunks as usual. When you get these fish chummed up you can literally load the boat so remember to limit your catch don’t catch you limit. Be sure to tune in on Saturday mornings at 6:30 on News Channel 8 WFLA for The Reel Animals Fishing Show and listen to Captain Mike on 970 AM WFLA from 6-9 am on Reel Animals Saturday. Call in on Sunday’s to WDAE 620 AM The Sports Animal for the T.A. Mahoney Reel Animals Fishing Show to win some cool fish gear from 7-9 am. Also visit our website @ www.reelanimalsfishingteam.com or call 1-866-GAMEFISH to book your fishing trip of a lifetime and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’."
Posted by Capt. Billy Nobles in Captain Logs at 04:19

Summer Sizzler

Sunday, August 8. 2010

With record temps pushing the water temps even higher, beat the heat by fishing early or at night. Our best inshore action on Redfish was early in the morning with good incoming water. Cut threadfin herring fished on ¼ ounce jig heads worked best. The fish were very skittish to our boat pressure so long casts were needed. As the sun got up we changed gears and worked the deeper flats for Spanish Mackerel and Speckled Trout. Small Pilchards under a cork worked well as did Gulp Shrimp in Natural color. Again a ¼ ounce jig worked well to get the baits down in the 6 to 8 foot water depths we were working.

Capt. Woody Gore reports having similar luck with the Redfish up around Weedon Island, also on the incoming tides. One of Capt. Woody's clients also hooked and landed a nice 35 inch Snook this week which is great to hear. The inshore Mangrove Snapper bite has been slower this year than last but we are starting to get some reports of some action.

The offshore scene has been steady as well. From 60 feet of water on out all reports have been good. The Mangrove Snapper bite has been the most impressive. Great reports coming in of nice limits of big Mangrove’s mixed in with Red and Gag Grouper. Frozen Sardines, Squid and live Pilchards and Pinfish all are working well. Last winters super cold temps have kept the deeper waters of the gulf cooler this summer and made for some great late summer offshore action.

Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Saturdays for Reel Animals Saturday on 970WFLA from 6:00am to 9:00am and Sunday mornings on AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.

Posted by Capt Michael Anderson in Captain Logs at 04:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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