Big Bay Charters

Another great trip.  I will be adding more blog posts soon, but have yet been too busy to focus on it.  Tight lines!

Well I had  heard the rumors that the pompano had made it to Apalachicola, and yesterday I found out for my self!

For weeks now most of the fisherman I know have had what I like to call “Pompano Fever”.

“Seen any pompano?”, is a question commonly asked this time of year at the local tackle shop, hardware store, and grocery store, as everyone tries to get the scoop on this tasty little fish.

Pompano fishing is fun, it can sometimes feel more like a day at the beach than a boat ride, as we anchor and put the Bimini top up and wait.  We got to our spot about an hour before the tide began to rise, we turned the on the radio, kicked back, and started fan casting sand-fleas all around the boat.

Wasn’t long before this guy was zooming around pulling drag and getting everyone fired up!

Happy Pompano Season Everybody!

- Capt. John

This week brought some beautiful warm weather to Apalachicola, a welcome change from the freezing cold winter we had here.  It was sunny, with a light breeze blowing from the southeast at about five knots.

After gassing up the boat, icing down the cooler, and rounding up a fishing buddy, we were on the water.  I headed straight to west pass, hoping to have some luck fishing a rising tide between the two barrier islands; Little St. George, and St. Vincent.  The next twenty minutes produced a few small Whiting but nothing else and I decided to make a run to Sike’s Cut, hoping to get on some big Reds.

I was cruising down Little St. George fifty yards off the beach when I saw a huge pinkish cloud in the water about 20 feet off the port bow!  I slowed down to idle speed and yelled at my fishing buddy.

“Wow, did you see that school of Redfish?!”

“That was sea grass.” he replied.

I turned the boat around and slowly pursued the cloud as it cruised on down the beach.  I was able to get right up behind the cloud which upon closer inspection was indeed a massive school of bull Reds!  Hands shaking I grabbed my fishing pole and fired a jig-head with a soft plastic shrimp on it directly into the school of fish.  A few turns of the reel was all it took as one of the behemoths broke from the school and nailed the jig.  The drag screamed and for a moment I really wished I had used a larger fishing pole…

I had to really tighten down the drag to prevent this fish from spooling me.  I was only using a 2500 Shimano reel with 10 pound Sufix on it.  After running me all around the boat for a few minutes this fish was tired, and reluctantly came beside the boat and was netted.  I quickly snapped this photo and released the fish, which swam off to join back up with the school.