Spring Fishing Has Started

Thursday, March 28th - Winette Odom and husband Bob and myself motored out past north Key and floated shrimp over the grass flats there and caught many small trout. Lots of 14 and 13 inch speckled trout. Out of 2 dozen undersized trout we managed to place in our cooler 3 plump `keeper` sized trout. Speckled Trout must be between 15 and 20 inches to keep and each fisherman aboard is allowed to keep 5 trout. 1 of those 5 trout may be over the 15 to 20 inches.

Water temperature had risen to 62 degrees F and I thought maybe the redfish are starting to leave the backwaters and come back to the oyster bars out among the mangrove islands along the coastal waters of Cedar Key. Deadmans Key was close by so we anchored along the west side and Bob tossed a large shrimp I`d saved for the occasion out next to the bar and before you could flip your bail over a redfish snatched up that shrimp and the fight was on. I was glad to see a red respond so quickly. I haven`t caught a redfish in the `outside` waters since the end of last November. That redfish turned out to be a wee bit shy of the legal limit of 18 inches minimum. We released it back into it`s world to grow and reproduce.

A short ride found us on the edge of Seahorse Key and another great redfish area. This time I slipped the big shrimp onto Winette`s hook and tossed it out alongside the curving oyster bar there. Once again the rod immediately bent over and the line was zigging around and Winette was hangin` on. In a few minutes she had a beautiful big redfish close enough for me to dip-net it up. We could tell this fish was big enough to keep. It had been a while since I`d seen one this size so I placed it in the measuring tray and saw it was 23.5 inches long with the tail pinched closed. The maximum length of `keeper` reds is 27 inches so we had to be sure it was under that. That`s Winette in the picture with her big red.

Folks, we have trout and mackerel and redfish swimming in and out of the Cedar Key area now-a-days and its` just gonna get better as the month of April starts up. I went out Saturday the 30th with a group and we didn`t get any redfish. We did keep many good trout and 1 big mackerel. Spring fishing has started and with a beautiful day and warm temps, light winds, lets get out there and catch some of our own. I`ll fillet `em all. Please call: 352-221-5463. thanks, Capt. Dan

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