What an action packed fishing trip I had Saturday the 14th, day before Fathers` Day. I took my party out way past Seahorse Key, thinking I had to go to a little deeper water to catch some of those big speckled trout. Water was calm and the wind was low, excellent conditions. We fished there a while and caught only one keeper trout. The tide was still on the rise so we headed over to Deadmans Key to fish the oyster bars there for redfish. Fished both sides and no redfish. We were one hour into our four hour trip and I was getting antsy. Only one speckled trout so far. We anchored up and headed to a spot I go to often (should have started there) and tossed out a few shrimp, and real quick caught a pretty speckled trout and a few pinfish I cut up for bait. We were catching a variety of fish, some nice silver trout I threw into the box, and everyone was holding a rod when I heard a startled yell from the stern and a whooshing sound. Three manatees had surfaced to take a breath of air right next to the pontoon and caused my guests to jump a little. When you`re not expecting it, a manatee can shock you pretty good. These three manatees stayed next to our pontoon boat for an hour or more. We also noticed when the big critters would pass by, several cobia would be right behind them. Apparently as the manatee would grazed on the bottom in all that good live grass, the little animals living in the grass would swim up and the cobia would be right there to eat em` up. The whole group passed us many times and we saw the cobia zipping around with them. On one pass I threw out a red and yellow jig with a 10 ounce head and long feathers in front of a cobia and sure enough he struck it right then. The rod was a big stout one I keep onboard for just such an occasion. The reel was singing and the rod bending as that cobia zigged and zagged in front of the boat. My guests were pulling in their lines so we wouldn`t get tangled up and the head of the group started pulling in anchor line so we could chase the big fish around. Just as quick as he got hooked up, he ran under the metal pontoons and cut the line. OH MAN! Everybody let out a sigh and stared at the water. Our time was up and we were all hot and tired and a little sunburned so we headed in. We ended up with ten trout, speckled and silver, so my guests took home a large bag of fillets.
While we were sitting at the dock, and as I cleaned the trout, a fellow fisherman came by in his small skiff and asked us if we wanted a redfish he`d caught. He was serious. Said he was just too tired to clean it. It was 21 inches long.
I thought about offering to clean it for him, but I could already taste that fine fillet, so I cleaned it up and gave half of it to my guests and took the other half home for dinner. Folks, the Cedar Key area is still very healthy. We saw the manatees and cobia, a big sea turtle, dolphins everywhere, those high gliding Frigate birds, and everywhere we looked, the water churned up from bait fish getting attacked from below by some bigger fish. It was another great day out on the water fishing and floating from Cedar Key. Let`s go fishing. Call me at 352-486-1656 or go to my web page, www.inshorefloridafishing.com and email me and we`ll set it up. Capt. Dan | 