Tampa Bay and St Petersburg Area Fishing Reports, Florida Flats Fishing Reports

The Bradenton area is red hot with big trout and red fish. The fish are in super shallow water so you need to go with topwater lures or very light weight jerkbaits. The fish are up in that shallow water to get warm so you need to go after them a little different because they can be very spooky!

What I like to do is start very early to get the morning bite but once the sun gets up I will primarily target big trout until about 11:00, then I will start making my way back to that shallow water. By shallow water I am talking about a foot of water because when the water temp is in the low 60's the fish get a little lethargic and they don't want to do anything but get warm. That's why if you let the sun heat up the flats before you try to get up there you will be a little more successful. Most of the fish that I have been catching have been mid-day, after the sun has warmed up the flats.

The areas that I am talking about are around the mouth of the Manatee River and North Sarasoto Bay. The rods that I am using are 7'6 eupro rods with 10 pound braided line. The baits of choice are the Waker bait by the Manns Company and the Boss jerkbait on a 1/8oz 4/0 Edje hook by Fish On Lures. Those two baits have been red hot for the big trout and the red fish. These baits are very easy to use; 1) With the Waker, all you have to do is throw it out and slowly reel it back. The fish will come up and anialate it, how easy is that. 2) For the BOSS Jerkbait all you have to do is throw it out there and slowly reel, and every once-in-a-while, give it a twitch. I promess it will work for you.

One thing that I like to do is to add some Pro-Cure Super Gel in the Shrimp flavor to the BOSS Jerkbait. It is a fish attractant and it is one of the best on the market. When a fish grabs your lure they will hold on to it for what seems like ever, plenty of time for a good hookset. You rarely miss a fish!

Get out there and fish that skinny water, give these baits a try and send me some pictures! if you have never heard of the baits or you can not find them check out our store, we have the Boss Jerkbaits, Edje hooks and Pro-Cure scents in stock.

Want to learn firsthand how to fish these lures, book a charter with me and spend a day learning how to read the water, working the lures and best of all...catching some fish!

The fishing is great right now as we have been having some really negative tides. When that happens all the fish get pushed into these little ponds and if you are able to get to these ponds you can really catch a lot of fish in a short amount of time. What I am doing is picking the days with these really low tides and I am taking my boat and buzzing it right a crossed that shallow water to get into the ponds that are loaded with fish.

Once you get into the pond, give it a minute to calm down and after a few minutes start fishing. When you are fishing these ponds you can expect to catch snook, trout, redfish and a hole lot of other species.

 I am useing the 6-12 Eupro rods with a 2500 series reel the baits of choice for me have been the SS Minnow or the Boss Jerkbait by Fish On Lures. The colors that have been working for me the best are the red and silver glitter SS Minnow and the MULLET colored Boss Jerkbait. I am rigging the minnow on a Joe Jig 3/16oz with a 2/0 hook for the jerk bait I am rigging that on a fish on lures 4/0 Edje hook. It has been making me proud every day so I don't plan to put them down or to switch lures any time soon. So if you do not have any of these lures you should look them up because they shure work for me!!

I will tell you one thing that I like to do to them before I start fishing and that is put some SHRIMP Pro-Cure Super Gel on them. Maybe it's just me, but I think that the fish hold on to the lures a lot longer than if you were to just put the bait on right out of the package. When you put that Pro-Cure Super Gel on make sure you do not get it on your clothes because it is hard to get out of your clothes. I think that it is just as good as GULP and in some cases I think that it is better.

It all depends on where you at and how deep the water is, but in all the fishing is HOT!! Just remember to pick the days with the negative tides!! Get yourself a pack or two of Boss Jerkbait or SS Minnows with a bottle of  Pro-Cure Super Gel and get out there and catch some fish.

Better yet, give me a call and I will do my best to put you on a bunch of fish. If you have problems trying to find the baits just go to www.DayAwayCharters.com and you can find them their also.

 THANK'S FOR READING !! Capt. Jeremy Heimes

The fish are biting and the weather is nice so you all should be trying to get out to do a little fishing. I have been fishing Tampa Bay with some great success. Every year the red fish in Tampa Bay go back to their wintertime spots and I am not talking about the little 8 to 12 inchers that go to the rivers every year. If you want to catch those all you have to do is go to any river that drains into Tampa Bay, pull up to some mangroves or some docks, and throw some shrimp under them or all around them and you will catch all the little rat red's you want.

The fish that I am talking about are on the flats and some days they are up close to the shore, and some days they are over 500 yards from the shore. The secret is to stay in the schools of mullet no matter how far they go from shore, and it might surprise you how far you will have to go.

Myself and my clients have been catching these fish for the last few weeks and we are only using artificials. The artificials that we are using are the SS Minnow and the Boss jerkbaits by FishOnLures. Match those baits with the best fish attractant on the market, Pro-Cure Super Gel, it is the best on the market and they have a bunch of differant flavors.

The flavors that I use the most are Shrimp, Crab, Mullet and the Shrimp Spawn. Just buy you a bottle of it and the next time you go out fishing start fishing without it, then when you start catching fish put some of the Pro-Cure on your bait and I guarantee you will see an increase in fish.

It's not just the increase in fish that you will see, you will notice that the fish are going to hold onto the baits a lot longer than normal. That will give you an edge and you will land a lot more fish because of it. I tell you what, if you buy a bottle of it off of my website and use it the next time you go fishing, and if you do not see an increase in the number of fish you catch, just call me and will buy it back. How does that sound?

Well the fish are out by the hundreds and if you are sitting on the couch you are not going to catch any! I have been averaging anywhere from 40 to 80 red fish per day, not including trout, snook, flounder and so on. So get off your butts and get in your boats or just call me and we will get out there to have an absolute blast!

Hopefully I will see you on the water and thanks for reading,

Capt Jeremy Heimes

Hey everyone, this is captain Jeremy Heimes with some fishing tips!

With the water temp being as hot at it is you really want to start early in the morning, and what you are going to look for are little schools of shad or finger mullet because right now in Tampa Bay area we have a pretty good shad spawn going on and fish are keyed in on that small bait.

Because the water is so hot any tide has been good for me, but you have to be smart about it on the high water. You are going to want to concentrate up against the shoreline, in and around all a the 'cul de sacs'... that's just what I call a cove at a creek mouth. That is where the shad and mullet have been holding at high water.

Once you find that you are going to want to move up there quietly because if you find the right group of bait there has been some big schools of red fish up there, and they are just gorging themselves on those shad. If you position yourself right you will absolutely put on a wake fest.

Now the best baits for me have been the SS Minnow in the Glow color rigged on a 1/8oz - 1/4oz Captain Joe Jig head. There are a bunch of different colors to chose from and they all work, but like I said, the GLOW is on fire right now. You are also going to match that with some shrimp flavored Pro-Cure Super Gel, and that is just a 'bottle of goodness' as I call it. Pro-Cure is a fish attractant that really works and it will definately make the fish hold on to the bait a lot longer than normal.

The other soft bait that I have been throwing is the Boss Jerkbait in the Green Back or Mullet color. I have been rigging that on an Edje hook and the size of the hook you are going to want to use is a 4/0 - 5/0 in a 1/8oz - 1/4oz size. That has been working the best for me.

Once you have found the fish up against the shoreline, and you have put on a show, then the tide will eventually start moving out again. It's not a time to get worried because all the fish are going to do is follow the bait out with the tide and that is what you need to do as well. You just slowly move out and fish the adjacent flat to stay on the fish.

I guess the point or tip that I am trying to give you is to stay on the schools of bait and once you get out on the flat you will also start to catch trout and other species as well. Good fishing and remember to take a kid fishing!

Captain, Jeremy Heimes

Anclote fishing report:

It is defiantly summertime again, it is super hot but the fish are still biting very well. Snook and tarpon are on the beaches and red fish and specked trout on the inshore flats.

Just they other day I ran a charter with a couple guys that have not thrown a lot of artificial lures. Well go figure that on that day, after going out to get some live white bait, my live well would not work because the pump had burned out. I did not have a spare... because it was my spare... but if you fish as much as I do you will know that you do not have to have live bait to catch fish. You can catch fish on lures just as well so that is what we did.

We got on a flat that I knew we would catch some trout on and rigged two of them up with an SS Minnow on a 1/4oz Joe Jig and on one I put a cork about a foot and a half above the minnow. The third guy I rigged up with a Boss jerk bait in the red glitter back/gold glitter belly, I call it the fire and ice bait because the fish just burn them up! I rigged it on a 1/4 oz Joe Jig as well and then we just drifted the flat and caught fish.

We did that for about three hours and we caught trout, sea bass and pinfish. (We even had a tarpon blow up on one of the bait as one of the guys started to pull his lure out of the water). Like I said, we caught all kinds of fish. The cool thing is, all of the pinfish/ladyfish that you catch you can keep and cut up and you can use that cut bait for red fish.

Right now the red fish are hanging around all of the mullet schools that are in about 1 to 3 feet of water so you want to pick a flat that you know has 1 to 3 feet of water and mullet. Once you find your flat you are going to slowly trolling motor up to were you think you can cast to the mullet, then just power pole or anchor. Cut up some bait and scatter out some rods.

When I am using cut bait I like to use 3 to 4/0 cycle hooks and we put the rods in the rod holders and wait. When rods bend over you pick it up and fight the fish, perfect for the whole family. If you do not get a bit in a few minutes just move down the flat 50 yards and try it again. It will work once you locate the fish!!! Until the next report good fishing.

Thanks Capt Jeremy Heimes

Hey, it is capt. Jeremy Heimes with a little fishing report and it is about fresh water this time. I was fishing yesterday in some small lakes and ponds, I think we hit a handful of them, spending about an hour to two hours in each one. Some of them were better than others, but they all produced fish. We were fishing around the Land O Lakes area and I just wanted to share with you what we were catching them on.

My good friend Cory Hotrum was throwing a fire an ice Culprit worm on a 5/0 Edje hook and I was throwing a super soft Producto worm on 5/0 Edje hook. We caught a good number of fish on the worms fishing around the shoreline, but that bite seemed to slow down so I figured that we needed to move to some deeper water.

As we did, we changed over to crankbaits and rattle traps and we were back into the fish. We would fish a spot until we could not catch any more fish on the baits we were throwing then we would just change bait and we would start catching them again.

It seems like we did that about ten times yesterday, but the funny thing about it is, by the end of the day, we had found a good spot out in the middle of the lake. We had thrown just about everything in are tackle box at them and we didn't have a hole lot of things left to try. I went back to throwing the rattle trap just trying to get a reaction bite and every couple of cast i would feel one hit it, but they would not get it.

Cory is sitting in the back scratching his head then all of a sudden i see him digging in my tackle box and he pulls out a gold SS Minnow. He rigs it on a 1/4oz 3/0 Joe Jig head and he is just sitting there. I was like 'what are you doing' and he said don't worry about it. Okay, so I make a throw with my rattle trap and get about half way back when I feel a bass whack it. He just swatted at it and I was like dang it.

About that time Cory stands up and fires that SS Minnow right down the same path where I missed the fish, and he caught the fish. After that we knew what to do so I would just throw that rattle trap out there and reel and rip it in. If a fish slapped at it, he would throw behind me and catch it.

That just goes to show that even when they don't want to eat you can get them fired up with a rattle trap. They might not eat the rattle trap, but if you throw a little slow bait right behind it and pick them off.

Well I just thought I would share that with you so you could try it the next time out if you are faced with a tough bite. It was also cool that we were catching them on a bait that was really designed for salt water fishing. They are called the SS Minnow and are by Captain Joe Hebert of Fish On Lures. Thanks for reading, Capt Jeremy Heimes

Hello, it is time to go fishing! Everyone needs to pick a day to go fishing, the weather is beautiful and the fish are biting. I have been fishing all over the place so if you are wondering were to go here are a few place to get you started.

The Anclote area is hot and the trout bite is spot on. All you have to do is grab yourself a pack of Fish-On Lures Boss jerk baits in the red glitter with the gold glittered bottom. Rig that on a 3/16 oz 5/0 Edje hook and get on the grass flats in about 2 to 4 feet of water and you will start catching trout. You might have to move a round to find the real big trout, but in all you will catch them if you stick with that bait.

If it seems a little slow just put on a cork about 1.5 feet above the bait, then just throw it and pop it, they will come. Do not forget to add the shrimp flavored Pro Cure Super Gel.

 For the Tampa Bay area start early in the morning because you are going to want to get on the flats as the sun rises. Look for the mullet and put your boat right in the middle of them as the red fish are scattered all in them. Throw a bait that you can cover a lot of water with like an SS Minnow in the glow color. Match that with a Capt. Joe Jig head and you are in business. I just made some money with this same setup so I know it is working right now.

You can throw other things like a spoon or a topwater and they will work too, but the SS Minnow is an all around bait. You can slow it down or work it fast and there are a lot of colors to try. We have been catching them on a few different colors so give them all a try. If you just stay in the mullet you will also catch snook and trout all in the same area.

 Now for Sarasota. Again, get out early so you can throw some topwater as the big trout have invaded the area. You are going to want to get down by the long bar, if you don't now where that is at, look at a map. It very easy to find, and all you have to do is work up and down that bar throwing that topwater.

Once the sun is up high you will want to witch to a soft plastic or a hard jerk bait to keep the bite going. If you want to keep throwing the topwater you are going to want to go to the east bank and get up next to the mangroves, then you can work to the north or to the south and you will catch snook ,trout and red fish. If you want to stick with the topwater my favorite is the Skitter Walk in the black and gold color.

Give all of the above a and I am sure some of it will work for you.

Thanks, Capt Jeremy Heimes

P.S REMEMBER TO TAKE A KID FISHING