On Show Me The Fish Charters—on my 31ft custom Morgan Sportfish operating out of the beautiful Bradenton Beach Marina—we are catching almost everything this time of the year. My parties are working hard catching Gag and Red Grouper, Kingfish, Spanish Mackerel, Cobia, Amberjack, Mangrove, Yellowtail and Lane snappers, Blacktip and other sharks. Action is hot starting at 40ft to 70ft for the Kings. I prefer to anchor up on a honey hole loaded with Grouper and Snapper catching all those tasty bottom fish and then deploy a chum block and wait for the King Mack attack on the flatlines. Someone asked how do you find Kingfish? I always joke about that we don’t look for smoker Kings, they look for us. With a good chum slick going on they really do. Once the Kings are around the boat we catch them on spoons, gotcha lures, and a variety of live bait, using blue runners and cigar minnows as desert for the smokers.

On one trip we had huge Kingfish hiding under the boat trying to eat our Spanish Mackerel we were reeling in. So I had to send him back out on a stinger rig with larger hooks and then it was on, a 35lb smoker screaming the reel and later in the boat. That’s what I am talking about! Always keep a flatline out with a large live bait. Last week Alex Simard from Italy hooked up a sailfish on a live blue runner on the free line. It happens this time of year. Inside 9 nautical miles [state waters] there are lots of keeper Gags available plus some monsters mixed in to abuse you.

Offshore out past 100ft on the wrecks,springs and large ledges my party’s are catching limit catches of Amberjacks some really monster Mangrove Snappers, Yellowtail Snappers, Cobia, big Sharks, and nice Red Grouper. For the firetruck Red Grouper best bite is out about 130ft using large pinfish. When the Grouper bite slows, then down-sizing my tackle to 25lb test and sardines for all the Snappers you want. During spring and early summer anything can happen from limit catches of Speckled Trout available in the bay, Spanish Mackerel all down the beaches to everything hitting offshore of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. The weather is great, life is good; now is the time to come on out and get ya some of this action.