Fishing aboard the Reelin & Chillin has brought Trout, Sheepshead, Pompano, Whiting, and Redfish, to name a few species. The fronts have brought some chilly weather and windy conditions making for some slow fishing days at times, but with a little luck anglers ended up with a decent day on the water. Greenbacks have been a little hard to get, leaving shrimp and artificial as the bait of choice. A live hand-picked shrimp around structure or jigging along a grass line is effective. A Halo artificial shrimp under a Billy Bay Popping cork drifted across a grass flat will produce; I like fishing them later in the day after the water warms a little. Some anglers picked up some nice Redfish around structure in Sarasota Bay. A couple broke off, a few were over the twenty-seven inch limit, and several made the eighteen to twenty-seven inch slot. Also, Trout have been around in deeper areas near grass flats. I believe their staying deep for warmth. We found them in six to eleven feet of depth and caught them on live shrimp and Billy Bay Halo shrimp.

We also caught a fair amount of Pompano at Steven's Point jigging live shrimp — great fight, and great table fair. A couple fish tails enjoyed aboard the Reelin & Chillin: Terry and Ginny Allen worked the feeding periods to end up with a livewell of great fish by the end of the trip. At the beginning of the trip in the morning there was a minor feeding period around 9am. In a period of approximately one hour Terry landed five Trout in the slot of 15 to 20 inches. Things slowed down after this minor feed; then around 2pm the major feed arrived. We slid into an area where I had been catching some Sheepshead and picked up four in the slot, and one Redfish in the slot. Moving to a dock where I recently picked up some nice Reds, Terry got up one over the 27" limit, then two in the slot. It was a slow day between feeds, however being at the hot spots during the feed paid off very well for Terry and Ginny. Fishing just before a front, Brad Meyer and I went out for a late morning trip. We did have to fight the wind, however it was pretty nice weather for late January with the temperature at around 72 degrees.

I can’t say we tore up the fish, however Brad managed to take home Pompano, Trout, and Flounder for dinner. He didn’t managed to get a Redfish for dinner, however a nice photo of a 29" Red made for a great memory — the photo is on my website. Don Bourdon with son Robb, grandkids Chloe, and Jake enjoyed a great trip with Trout, and Redfish on line. Jake broke the ice with the first Trout, then all anglers kicked in, ending up with seven nice keepers within the slot of fifteen to twenty inches. We caught all seven in two different locations, like I said above, in deeper water near grass. Then we took off for some structure fishing with Redfish in mind. Chloe broke the ice with a big Red measuring out at twenty-six and three quarter inches. It had to be one of the fattest Reds I have ever seen. Pa Pa Don helped a little to keep it from breaking Chloe off in the structure. With not much casting area for four anglers, Chloe took a back seat so the guys could have a chance at a big one. As luck would have it, the three guys have their hand-picked shrimp tucked up in the structure perfectly and Chloe cast way off to the side in a somewhat grassy area — BAM! she hooked up again, this one measured in at twenty-six inches on the nose. Like all good fishermen say, “they would rather have luck over skill any day.” Chloe had the luck for today, two Reds, and three of the seven Trout.

Captain’s Tip - Fishing the Solunar times It’s pretty simple really; just take a look at when the minor or major feeding period is and start fishing one hour before and fish until one hour after. My understanding is that minor means the fish feed for one hour and major they feed for two hours. Minor is when the sun and moon line up on the horizon, and major sun and moon are above and below. Anyhow, why get all scientific about it, keep it simple. I pick up my tables at Hart’s Landing here locally, easy for me. You can maybe find a local tackle shop or bait stand in your area that gives copies away. If you can’t find them locally just search them off the Internet; you can find them free on some sites or buy a whole year’s worth on another site. If you can fish them — they do work. Nothing is for certain, however they have worked well for me, with a front moving in being the only time they really fail. I have one quick example as to why you should take a few minutes and figure the solunars out. Let’s say you want to fish on a Saturday, your day off, but you still need to get the yard mowed, weed whacked, and blown. So you decide to get up at the crack of dawn and go fishing, get off the water around 1pm, go home, clean the boat, and be working in the yard by 3pm. As you’re blowing grass off the driveway you smell chicken coming from your kitchen, not fish — why, because the major feed was at 2:30pm, that’s right, you got up really early for nothing, fished when the fish weren’t biting, and you were cleaning a boat, and mowing a lawn while the fish were in a feeding frenzy. CHECK OUT THE SOLUNAR TABLES. Tight lines & good times, Capt. Terry Frankford 941-228-7802 terry.frankford@verizon.net Reelin & Chillin Charters Inc. www.charterfishingsarasota.com