by Capt. Howard Hamilton /Howard's Fishing Excursions

This past week has been like old times for fishing both inshore and offshore. The speckled trout and redfish have moved in very good numbers. You can stop around the oyster bars and find Trout and Reds, and on almost any grass bed you can find some Trout. I had two days this week where my party only fished a half day but we weighed in as many fish as we had been catching before in a full day's fishing. Well!

Recently my friend Capt. Les Flaherty and I were making an exploratory trip offshore looking for new grouper fishing spots. At the eleventh hour we found one and limited out on big grouper in 45 minutes. We went to 96 feet of water before heading back. We caught red and gag grouper. Of course, we caught lots of smaller grouper too. I got a bruised place in my groin as a result of a big red gouper pulling so hard against me. We had a live well full of big pinfish when we found the grouper. That's an unbeatable combination as far as I'm concerned.

The water temps are steadily cooling, but slowly. This should cause a steady improvement in our fishing, both inshore and offshore. The lovebugs were especially thick recently as you have probably noticed from the front of your car. That signals the time of year to take a youngster brim fishing. I've been catching good sized bream the last couple of weeks, doing what I call jigger fishing.

So until next time, take a youngster fishing, hook on a pinfish and hang on, because you never know what will be on your hook next.

Capt. Howard of Howard's Fishing Excursions, Inc. can be contacted at 352-542-3278 to set up your inshore or offshore fishing trips from Suwannee.