I had the pleasure of taking Steve and Kate out on another fishing adventure. They are fun to fish with and are a true fishing couple. They will fish the flats, offshore, from a kayak, in good weather or bad. We were ready to leave the dock and some rain was coming over us so I asked them if they had rain jackets. They said no but I told them I had rain jackets for them. I asked them if they wanted to wait in their car and let this pass over (as it started to come down pretty good). They looked at each other - as if to say nah - and Kate says we will not melt lets go, and Steve agreed. My kind of people! So off we went.

Less than a minute and I had them out of the rain, then I immediately spotted birds just going ape over feeding mackerel. It was a spectacular display! Out came the jigs and the fun began. Chasing the schools around. The key is to get upwind and try to drift into the area or be in their path. Also, make sure you have heavy enough lures and/or jigs to make long casts and to get your lure a little lower in the water column to make it stand out from the pack of bait they are feeding on.

The winds started to pick up and they had caught five or six mackerel so it was time to leave to get some flats fishing in. It took a little bit to find some happy fish but we did, especially when the tide started to move a little (not a strong tide day). Steve and Kate really put a hurting on the snook with a few that did not make it to the boat. Then Kate and Steve both get a trout. Steve gets some more snook and then it happened, Kate gets a red and her slam!!! So that was great for her then we ended up getting some more snook and calling it a day. It never rained on us the rest of the day. They ended up with 16 snook, 2 trout, 1 red, 5 mackerel, 1 shark and a few unwanted guests.

Capt. George Hastick - " The Fish Hunter " - Fishing Charters - 727-525-1005 - For more information on Capt. George and his fishing charters, check out his Fishbuzz bio page or www.fishtampa.com