Capt. Mike Locklear Reports:
Capt. Mike Locklear
March 19, 2008
Homosassa - Saltwater Fishing Report
From everything I read on fishing reporting begins with spring arriving and how windy it has been. March is typical for windy conditions. Back in the 80's when I ran charters off shore I would cancel trips because I did not want my clients uncomfortable.
The wind did blow yesterday and we referred to it briefly. Charter boat captains who make their living offshore in Federal waters have to play it safe. About 60% of the time the forecast is not as bad as they say it is.
Today, my services do not include offshore charters further than nine miles westward. The charter boat moratorium galled me so much; I did not apply for the permit. I did not feel it was fair to single out a group and shut the rest of the world off to making a living in the gulf.
With the proposed bag limit of 1 gag and 2 red groupers per person a lot of folks will be selling their boats. With the price of gas soaring to all time highs even a rich man wants some reward or bounty for his efforts. One gag is not going to cut it.
Politics are always sticky business and a compromise of 3 gags may be acceptable. I could go on all day about this crap. Back to reporting.
A group out of Arkansas went out with me for a half day and the children on that trip caught their first redfish ever. They kept enough for dinner and the reds ran from 22-23 inches.
We saw some larger fish but they did not bite that looked like these, all oversized to about 34".
Today we will try again under a wind advisory as a front is bearing down on us for Thursday. We moved this trip ahead from Thursday to today because wind the wind is from the northwest the bite slows as the front passes.
Homosassa's maze of creeks and mangrove islands along with shallow water flats always has many hidden places out of the wind to enjoy the crispness of spring.
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