Florida Fishing

[elkhuntingfan]

I'm heading down to Orlando next week, and I hope to do some fishing. I'm considering three options. One would be to rent a boat down near Sarasota and fish Sarasota Bay or out in the gulf. Another option is to take a fishing charter out of the Sarasota or Tampa area. The third is to rent a boat on a freshwater lake and try for bass. I'm more interested in catching a bunch of decent fish as opposed to trying for one or two big ones on a charter.

Any suggestions from someone who has been there?

[gr81]

Try shore fishing if you would like to save some money. I always have a blast and you can catch a wide variety of fish. I do this most years with my grandpa and dad. You can google some fishing reports for the area you will be and locate some public beaches and cast away.

[jigginjim]

Look for guides and florida fishing on-line. If your thinking of fishing the gulf, it is worth it to hire a guide for a half day.

Are you bringing your own equipment?

[elkhuntingfan]

I'm bringing my own stuff so I can fish from shore or rent a boat. I wouldn't mind going out into the gulf a ways, but there are about a thousand guides down there. It would be nice to hook up with one that someone is familiar with so I don't waste a bunch of $ on catching little or nothing. I fished from shore on Longboat Key last year and caught a lot of small stuff.

[BartmanMN]

One thing that most MN people aren't aware of when they visit Florida is that all retention ponds around office building,schools, etc hold Bass, Snook, and potentially small Tarpon. If you are sold on casting out into the ocean, then look for sand flees burrowing into the sand where the waves break. You can use them for bait and the fish love them.

[YourBobersDown]

I am also going down to Florida in a couple of weeks and am looking for a good guide, any recommendations (bass fishing probably)

[YourBobersDown]

No one has any recommendations for a Florida fishing guide?

[elkhuntingfan]

I'm going out tomorrow am with Fish Two C's out of Clearwater Beach. We are going after amberjacks(25-30 lbs) first. I guess they fish over old shipwrecks about 30-35 miles off shore. After the amberjacks, we'll go after smaller fish. We found the guy by asking around at the docks. We were told by a local that this guy brings back fish nearly every day. He also recommended three others, so I don't think he is just a buddy. We'll see how it goes. I'll let everyone know.

[YourBobersDown]

My buddy Dietz gave me a few suggestions. I left a message and am waiting to hear back. All I really care about is catching 1 bass over 10lbs 6oz (sorry Dietz)!!

[senco 1]

I used Champion pro guide service a few years ago. We went bass fishing on lake Toho with the biggest shiners we could find. We caught lots of bass the largest going 6 lbs. Tony was are guide. He worked hard to put us on fish. When the bite got slow he called a guide and he was on fish so we went there to fish. We caught more fish but most were in the 1 1/2 to 2 lb class. When we went out the sun was just coming up and you could see all the bait fish on the surface. The bass were under them chasing them up. Man I can't wait for open water!!!

[elkhuntingfan]

I went out with Two C's Charters out of Clearwater Beach yesterday. It was an all day trip (8-9 hours). We caught 25-30 pound amberjacks until our arms hurt. At times, we had 3-4 amberjacks on at a time. We then tried for grouper. I caught one red grouper that was legal. We caught a lot of black grouper that would've been big enough to keep had they been in season. We also caught a bunch of smaller fish called grunts. Apparently, they are good eating. They were about the size of a big crappie. The captain was great, and we had a real good time.