Steveo's Blog & Reports September 04Sept 3,2010 kayak Charter Leo,Matt,Alex & John fished with me on Friday.The Target species for the day was Trout. We launched early in the AM on Sarasota Bay and it wasn't long before we started catching fish. These four guy's had a great time catching many Trout up to 25 1/4 ". Congrat's to Matt for catching the largest Trout of the Day.This was a fun trip for me as well.Enjoy your fish tacos!. Looking forward to fishing with this group next year. 5:37 AM GMT | Read comments(0)Sept 2,2010 Kayak Charter September has already started out good for shallowpocketsfishing.com. Recently had Leo and Matt out fishing for Redfish in Bradenton. We did find some good fish first thing in the Am. With the extreme high tides in the morning it wasn't easy. The fish were cruising the outside of the mangroves and eating top water plugs. It seamed as soon as the sun peaked up over mangroves the fish headed deep in the cover which made it very difficult to catch them. Leo managed to get two nice Redfish at 23" and 26 3/4". Good times! 5:16 AM GMT | Read comments(0)August 228/21/10Got the chance to get out and run the boat this Sat. And I was quickly reminded of how much easier it is to just use the kayak. The day started off with a great sunrise and a few shots at some Tarpon. After having no luck with the Tarpon we made to move to find some other inshore species. We spent the next couple of hours catching some good Trout on topwater plugs. Mother nature then decided it was time for us to go home. The bay went from flat as glass to a washing machine in a matter of minutes. Still a great morning on Sarasota Bay. 4:53 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 07SRQ Night Ops Duane E fished with me again last evening for a night ops trip. We waited out the rain and then launched around 9 PM.The skys cleared and it was slick calm a with a slight breeze. We fished fro 9 Pm to 1 Am catching 3 Snook on fly to 25" and 5 Snook total. The Trout bite was realy good as well catching many upper slot fish. 7:41 AM GMT | Read comments(0)July 17Yakangler July 16,2010 I met up with the crew from www.yakangler.com . Mark Watanabe, Adam Hayes, Chip Gibson and his son Bradly. They were in Florida for a few days fishing with different guides around the State. I was glad I could be one of their stops. They wanted to target Tarpon on the beach's of Sarasota. We met at a local beach finding more than perfect launching conditions. Shorty after launching I caught us some nice Pin fish for bait. We waited patiently to only see three fish all day. They were not showing very much and the Tarpon that we did see were on the move . After about 2hrs the wind shifted from blowing out of the East to blowing directly out of the South which made things much more difficult Maybe we can get another shot at them another day. Good times & good people is whats most important . 12:52 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 237/22/10 In November of 2009 Braton M of www.buzzdflyfishing.com contacted me with the interest of catching his first Snook on fly. After a few emails back and forth we set the date,7/22. We launched at 9PM and paddled the short distance to our first location. The fishing started off very slow with only a few fish showing in the lights. For the first couple hours they were not interested in any of the flies he was throwing.One thing is certain, Snook can be stubborn at times. Once the tide started coming in the Snook started to get active. Braton was dead on with his casting which helped tremendously. After trying 10 different fly patterns he finally got hit on a white flats minnow pattern. It was on! Braton was fighting his first Snook, there for a second I saw this fish breaking him off in the dock but he was able to muscle the fish out . The fish gods were with him. After a short battle Braton had landed his first line sider. After a few photos the fish was released. As the night went on we had many shots at more Snook. I wanted him to experience the excitement of Snook hitting on top. I tied on a Gurgler for him and and he was hooked up again. This time the Snook won the battle. It was a great night to be on the water. Looking forward to fishing with Braton again this weekend if this tropical storm doesn't cause us problems. 9:46 AM GMT | Read comments(0)July 31Day with the little manI have been working way to much lately. I finally had a day to spend with my boy Jacob. We launched at South lido park around 9 Am in search of some fish. After paddling about fifty yards I started casting the mirrOdine into a large pothole. In that pothole seemed to be and endless Trout bite which was perfect to keep Jacob's interest for about 30 min.. At 3 yrs old he gets bored very quickly. After a few pics Jabob was over the fishing part of our trip so we headed back to the launch to load the rods back in the truck. Now we were ready to hit the mangrove tunnels. We spent the next couple of hours exploring the tunnels . We found a few new tunnels we had never found before. We encountered many different types of birds today.I think they were enjoying the shade of the mangroves as much as we were.Today was a great day spent with my boy. If anyone has kids and would like to introdce them to kayaking & fishing ,the trails at South Lido Park would be a great place to start.4:59 PM GMT | Read comments(0)August 14HCKA Club Tournament4:11 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 10Sat. July 10Doug and I fished off of longboat Key this morning. Our goal was to catch some Tarpon. At first light we came across a nice school of rolling fish that we could not keep up with so we pressed on. 10 min later a single fished rolled about 30 ft from the beach, I had thrown a DOA Bait Buster in front of the fish and it hit my lure, I was hooked up until its first jump where the tarpon threw my Bait Buster right back at me. Damn! If I would have set the hook like a man instead of a school girl I would have had a better chance,Lol. O'well thats what Tarpon do best! We had many more shots at Tarpon for about an hour, after 8:00 am we didn't see another Tarpon. I did finish the day off with a 4ft Blacktip Shark. In all it was a fun morning on the water.11:00 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 07Tarpon charter 6/7/2010 I fished with Joe & Brandon today. Joe was the highest bidder on both of the 4 hr guided trips I had put up for auction for local high school fundraiser. For thier first trip they wanted to target Tarpon. Our original plan was to fish for them off the beach but with the west winds we have been having I had to go to plan B. Plan B was targeting some resident canal Tarpon. We launched at first light and were at our location about 5 min later. We had our first shots within 10 min, Brandon hooked up and was on his very first seigh ride. He had hooked a Tarpon in the 80lb range that came out of the water about 5 ft away from my kayak on its first jump. Brandon faught the fish for about 30 min making a few trips around the canal and ended up stuck between the lower units of a docked boat. Brandon had the fish boatside and it made one more run and jumped and spit the hook. This was Brandon's first tarpon experience. We had plenty more shots over the next couple of hr's but no more takers. I'm looking forward to our next trip. 10:04 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 13Demo day 6/12/2010I spent the day in Tampa at the Paddle -In Demo day. Had some good times & met some good people. Many people enjoyed taking the Emotion kayaks for a test run. n. 8:05 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 19Hardcore Kayak Anglers Club Tourny 6/19/10 Ft DesotoDoug and I fished Round # 3 of the HCKAclub tournament series today. This was an Exude Soft plastic only tournament. We fished hard but just couldnt get the Slam today. We found a small Red and Trout but no Snook. Out of 15 teams there were only 2 slams caught. Tuff day! 6:25 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 23Fishing 5/23/2010I fished with the Ely family today. We fished the west side of Sarasota Bay catching Trout to 24", and Redfish to 27". We started off using live shrimp under popping corks catching lots of dink trout and catfish. Soon after we quickly had to change location and make a change to the new Berkley Gulp Ghost Shrimp in the new penny color on a 1/0 circle hook under a popping cork. The Trout could not resist the Gulp today! The Trout caught on the Gulp artificial baits seemed to be much larger than the smaller fish we had caught on the live shrimp. It's true! Gulp out fishes live bait. It was a good day to be on the water. The Ely family is going to eat well tonight. 1:00 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 22Family funSpent the day with with family and friends paddling at South Lido beach. Tomorrow I am doing some serious fishing. 1:12 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 21Family fun in the new kayak I recently added a new addition to my fleet.The Emotion kayaks "Tandemonium". This kayak has given my family and I hours of fun. If your in the market for a stable tandem kayak I would check out the Emotion "Tandemonium". The Tandemonium is by far the most stable 2 ½ person kayak I have ever tested. At 13’ 7”, its stability & maneuverability is amazing. Balanced perfectly for solo paddling and designed for multiple paddlers. 5:40 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 18Sarasota IFAMay 16,2010, I fished the 2010 IFA kayak tour event that was held here in Sarasota, Florida. This was my second IFA event and I am very pleased with the way this tournament is ran. I fish many tournaments throughout the year and this is by far the most professional event I have fished. The best of the best come out to fish this event. There were some good fish caught. Congrats to Cameron Schurlnight,Tony Lai & Jason Stock for taking the top 3 spots. I managed to catch both species but just couldn't get them upgraded. I had a great morning catching a slam within the first 45min of being on the water. I am looking forward to the next event at Ruskin in September.6:37 PM GMT | Read comments(0)
September 04Sept 3,2010 kayak Charter Leo,Matt,Alex & John fished with me on Friday.The Target species for the day was Trout. We launched early in the AM on Sarasota Bay and it wasn't long before we started catching fish. These four guy's had a great time catching many Trout up to 25 1/4 ". Congrat's to Matt for catching the largest Trout of the Day.This was a fun trip for me as well.Enjoy your fish tacos!. Looking forward to fishing with this group next year. 5:37 AM GMT | Read comments(0)Sept 2,2010 Kayak Charter September has already started out good for shallowpocketsfishing.com. Recently had Leo and Matt out fishing for Redfish in Bradenton. We did find some good fish first thing in the Am. With the extreme high tides in the morning it wasn't easy. The fish were cruising the outside of the mangroves and eating top water plugs. It seamed as soon as the sun peaked up over mangroves the fish headed deep in the cover which made it very difficult to catch them. Leo managed to get two nice Redfish at 23" and 26 3/4". Good times! 5:16 AM GMT | Read comments(0)August 228/21/10Got the chance to get out and run the boat this Sat. And I was quickly reminded of how much easier it is to just use the kayak. The day started off with a great sunrise and a few shots at some Tarpon. After having no luck with the Tarpon we made to move to find some other inshore species. We spent the next couple of hours catching some good Trout on topwater plugs. Mother nature then decided it was time for us to go home. The bay went from flat as glass to a washing machine in a matter of minutes. Still a great morning on Sarasota Bay. 4:53 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 07SRQ Night Ops Duane E fished with me again last evening for a night ops trip. We waited out the rain and then launched around 9 PM.The skys cleared and it was slick calm a with a slight breeze. We fished fro 9 Pm to 1 Am catching 3 Snook on fly to 25" and 5 Snook total. The Trout bite was realy good as well catching many upper slot fish. 7:41 AM GMT | Read comments(0)July 17Yakangler July 16,2010 I met up with the crew from www.yakangler.com . Mark Watanabe, Adam Hayes, Chip Gibson and his son Bradly. They were in Florida for a few days fishing with different guides around the State. I was glad I could be one of their stops. They wanted to target Tarpon on the beach's of Sarasota. We met at a local beach finding more than perfect launching conditions. Shorty after launching I caught us some nice Pin fish for bait. We waited patiently to only see three fish all day. They were not showing very much and the Tarpon that we did see were on the move . After about 2hrs the wind shifted from blowing out of the East to blowing directly out of the South which made things much more difficult Maybe we can get another shot at them another day. Good times & good people is whats most important . 12:52 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 237/22/10 In November of 2009 Braton M of www.buzzdflyfishing.com contacted me with the interest of catching his first Snook on fly. After a few emails back and forth we set the date,7/22. We launched at 9PM and paddled the short distance to our first location. The fishing started off very slow with only a few fish showing in the lights. For the first couple hours they were not interested in any of the flies he was throwing.One thing is certain, Snook can be stubborn at times. Once the tide started coming in the Snook started to get active. Braton was dead on with his casting which helped tremendously. After trying 10 different fly patterns he finally got hit on a white flats minnow pattern. It was on! Braton was fighting his first Snook, there for a second I saw this fish breaking him off in the dock but he was able to muscle the fish out . The fish gods were with him. After a short battle Braton had landed his first line sider. After a few photos the fish was released. As the night went on we had many shots at more Snook. I wanted him to experience the excitement of Snook hitting on top. I tied on a Gurgler for him and and he was hooked up again. This time the Snook won the battle. It was a great night to be on the water. Looking forward to fishing with Braton again this weekend if this tropical storm doesn't cause us problems. 9:46 AM GMT | Read comments(0)July 31Day with the little manI have been working way to much lately. I finally had a day to spend with my boy Jacob. We launched at South lido park around 9 Am in search of some fish. After paddling about fifty yards I started casting the mirrOdine into a large pothole. In that pothole seemed to be and endless Trout bite which was perfect to keep Jacob's interest for about 30 min.. At 3 yrs old he gets bored very quickly. After a few pics Jabob was over the fishing part of our trip so we headed back to the launch to load the rods back in the truck. Now we were ready to hit the mangrove tunnels. We spent the next couple of hours exploring the tunnels . We found a few new tunnels we had never found before. We encountered many different types of birds today.I think they were enjoying the shade of the mangroves as much as we were.Today was a great day spent with my boy. If anyone has kids and would like to introdce them to kayaking & fishing ,the trails at South Lido Park would be a great place to start.4:59 PM GMT | Read comments(0)August 14HCKA Club Tournament4:11 PM GMT | Read comments(0)July 10Sat. July 10Doug and I fished off of longboat Key this morning. Our goal was to catch some Tarpon. At first light we came across a nice school of rolling fish that we could not keep up with so we pressed on. 10 min later a single fished rolled about 30 ft from the beach, I had thrown a DOA Bait Buster in front of the fish and it hit my lure, I was hooked up until its first jump where the tarpon threw my Bait Buster right back at me. Damn! If I would have set the hook like a man instead of a school girl I would have had a better chance,Lol. O'well thats what Tarpon do best! We had many more shots at Tarpon for about an hour, after 8:00 am we didn't see another Tarpon. I did finish the day off with a 4ft Blacktip Shark. In all it was a fun morning on the water.11:00 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 07Tarpon charter 6/7/2010 I fished with Joe & Brandon today. Joe was the highest bidder on both of the 4 hr guided trips I had put up for auction for local high school fundraiser. For thier first trip they wanted to target Tarpon. Our original plan was to fish for them off the beach but with the west winds we have been having I had to go to plan B. Plan B was targeting some resident canal Tarpon. We launched at first light and were at our location about 5 min later. We had our first shots within 10 min, Brandon hooked up and was on his very first seigh ride. He had hooked a Tarpon in the 80lb range that came out of the water about 5 ft away from my kayak on its first jump. Brandon faught the fish for about 30 min making a few trips around the canal and ended up stuck between the lower units of a docked boat. Brandon had the fish boatside and it made one more run and jumped and spit the hook. This was Brandon's first tarpon experience. We had plenty more shots over the next couple of hr's but no more takers. I'm looking forward to our next trip. 10:04 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 13Demo day 6/12/2010I spent the day in Tampa at the Paddle -In Demo day. Had some good times & met some good people. Many people enjoyed taking the Emotion kayaks for a test run. n. 8:05 AM GMT | Read comments(0)June 19Hardcore Kayak Anglers Club Tourny 6/19/10 Ft DesotoDoug and I fished Round # 3 of the HCKAclub tournament series today. This was an Exude Soft plastic only tournament. We fished hard but just couldnt get the Slam today. We found a small Red and Trout but no Snook. Out of 15 teams there were only 2 slams caught. Tuff day! 6:25 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 23Fishing 5/23/2010I fished with the Ely family today. We fished the west side of Sarasota Bay catching Trout to 24", and Redfish to 27". We started off using live shrimp under popping corks catching lots of dink trout and catfish. Soon after we quickly had to change location and make a change to the new Berkley Gulp Ghost Shrimp in the new penny color on a 1/0 circle hook under a popping cork. The Trout could not resist the Gulp today! The Trout caught on the Gulp artificial baits seemed to be much larger than the smaller fish we had caught on the live shrimp. It's true! Gulp out fishes live bait. It was a good day to be on the water. The Ely family is going to eat well tonight. 1:00 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 22Family funSpent the day with with family and friends paddling at South Lido beach. Tomorrow I am doing some serious fishing. 1:12 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 21Family fun in the new kayak I recently added a new addition to my fleet.The Emotion kayaks "Tandemonium". This kayak has given my family and I hours of fun. If your in the market for a stable tandem kayak I would check out the Emotion "Tandemonium". The Tandemonium is by far the most stable 2 ½ person kayak I have ever tested. At 13’ 7”, its stability & maneuverability is amazing. Balanced perfectly for solo paddling and designed for multiple paddlers. 5:40 PM GMT | Read comments(0)May 18Sarasota IFAMay 16,2010, I fished the 2010 IFA kayak tour event that was held here in Sarasota, Florida. This was my second IFA event and I am very pleased with the way this tournament is ran. I fish many tournaments throughout the year and this is by far the most professional event I have fished. The best of the best come out to fish this event. There were some good fish caught. Congrats to Cameron Schurlnight,Tony Lai & Jason Stock for taking the top 3 spots. I managed to catch both species but just couldn't get them upgraded. I had a great morning catching a slam within the first 45min of being on the water. I am looking forward to the next event at Ruskin in September.6:37 PM GMT | Read comments(0)
Duane E fished with me again last evening for a night ops trip. We waited out the rain and then launched around 9 PM.The skys cleared and it was slick calm a with a slight breeze. We fished fro 9 Pm to 1 Am catching 3 Snook on fly to 25" and 5 Snook total. The Trout bite was realy good as well catching many upper slot fish.
I met up with the crew from www.yakangler.com . Mark Watanabe, Adam Hayes, Chip Gibson and his son Bradly. They were in Florida for a few days fishing with different guides around the State. I was glad I could be one of their stops. They wanted to target Tarpon on the beach's of Sarasota. We met at a local beach finding more than perfect launching conditions. Shorty after launching I caught us some nice Pin fish for bait. We waited patiently to only see three fish all day. They were not showing very much and the Tarpon that we did see were on the move . After about 2hrs the wind shifted from blowing out of the East to blowing directly out of the South which made things much more difficult Maybe we can get another shot at them another day. Good times & good people is whats most important .
In November of 2009 Braton M of www.buzzdflyfishing.com contacted me with the interest of catching his first Snook on fly. After a few emails back and forth we set the date,7/22. We launched at 9PM and paddled the short distance to our first location. The fishing started off very slow with only a few fish showing in the lights. For the first couple hours they were not interested in any of the flies he was throwing.One thing is certain, Snook can be stubborn at times. Once the tide started coming in the Snook started to get active. Braton was dead on with his casting which helped tremendously. After trying 10 different fly patterns he finally got hit on a white flats minnow pattern. It was on! Braton was fighting his first Snook, there for a second I saw this fish breaking him off in the dock but he was able to muscle the fish out . The fish gods were with him. After a short battle Braton had landed his first line sider. After a few photos the fish was released.
As the night went on we had many shots at more Snook. I wanted him to experience the excitement of Snook hitting on top. I tied on a Gurgler for him and and he was hooked up again. This time the Snook won the battle.
It was a great night to be on the water. Looking forward to fishing with Braton again this weekend if this tropical storm doesn't cause us problems.
Now we were ready to hit the mangrove tunnels. We spent the next couple of hours exploring the tunnels . We found a few new tunnels we had never found before. We encountered many different types of birds today.I think they were enjoying the shade of the mangroves as much as we were.Today was a great day spent with my boy. If anyone has kids and would like to introdce them to kayaking & fishing ,the trails at South Lido Park would be a great place to start.
The Tandemonium is by far the most stable 2 ½ person kayak I have ever tested. At 13’ 7”, its stability & maneuverability is amazing. Balanced perfectly for solo paddling and designed for multiple paddlers.