Capt. Danny R. Guarino
Inshore Fishing Charters, Ruskin Florida
Reporting 2-11-08 through 2-17-08
The up and down weather pattern has made it a little difficult to fish this past week. We ended up canceling 2 out of four charters and as fate has it the best two weather days, I had no charters scheduled.
Both Tuesday and Wednesdays trip canceled due too weather. On Thursday we started out in the morning at about 48 degrees and a 15 knot wind. Bait was a challenge but we finally got enough to fish with. As it turns out 2 dozens baits would have been enough. We fished the Fort Desoto area and picked up a 6 trout 3 flounder and 2 lady fish. That was it. I do want to mention that one of the trout was just shy of 19 inches but the flounder were reel small.
Friday’s trip was much better. We got our bait in one cast at the Skyway Bridge. I headed over to Fort Desoto to pick up my client. We fished some of deep channels adjacent to some grass patches and found a few trout as well as 2 small flounder. As we were fishing the area I could see that the bite was better than the day before but still on the slow side. We decided to pack up and head over to the Southshore area of Tampa Bay. We fished Cockroach Bay as well as the Little Manatee River. The trout bite was hot and caught our share. Our trip topped out with about 20 trout and 6 Snook. The biggest snook measured in at 28 inches. This was the 6th slot snook we brought to the boat in 2 weeks.
The Redfish bite has been very slow (at least for me) for the last few weeks. I have looked for these devils in Fort Desoto and along the Southshore area. I am not seeing any great numbers.
With the water temperature sitting in the mid 60’s we should see some good action with Snook and a continued good bite for trout.
There is no white bait on the flats with most of the bait holding deep around the Skyway.

Catch em up.
Capt Danny R. Guarino
www.fishingguidetampabay.com
813-956-2010