May Recap of The Fantastic Fishing!

I am pleased to announced the kingfish and cobia are here! As I'm sure everyone's noticed, the warmer the water gets, the bigger fish are getting hungry & ready to bite on your line. These past couple months, we made the most of many people's spring breaks, bringing in more fish than in past April or Mays. Our area really needed the hotter temperatures, after that brutal winter. My boat ran almost three weeks non-stop & we caught a plethora of gag and red grouper. In the mix also was (but not limited to): amberjack, kingfish, cobia, blacktip and other large sharks... notable but not nearly as exciting were a variety of snappers, triggerfish, and porgies.

The slideshow below stars Scott Taylor from Tampa, with his Smoker Kingfish around 40 lbs. Scott was using a flatlined sardine, in about 150 ft offshore of Anna Maria Island, on 5-6-2010. The second picture is of Margie Ferrantegennaro, also from Tampa, with one of her mighty gag grouper. She caught it using a live pinfish in about 60 ft offshore of Anna Maria Island, while fishing out with her family. The happy family also caught more grouper, kingfish. Margie even caught a Hogfish [Hogsnapper] on hook and line. The final picture has Robert Guidry of Tampa, with his first amberjack EVER, caught using a live pinfish in 150 ft offshore of Anna Maria Island on 5-06-10.

This heavy biting is happening at most depths, with the kingfish hitting mostly around 40 to 50 ft depths offshore of Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key. Cobia are on almost any kind of underwater edifice, natural reefs or an artificial structures like a wreck. Lately, Gag grouper are hanging out on the ledges that have the least amount of pressure, and the monster red grouper are hungry out deeper (in around 170 ft) and are moving in closer as the water heats up. We've been seeing a lot of cobia these past couple of months, and have even had them swimming around the boat! Of course there are days that the fish just don't act interested in biting, but then the next day they are so easy to catch a caveman could do it.

Kingfish are definitely back & begging for some attention! We caught large ones almost every day we went out fishing this past month. However, I predict that the real big Mac(krel) attack will be happen any day now, but it will definitely be sometimes this June. That's when the mackrel will school around the boat in a feeding frenzy, hitting everything but the kitchen sink! Some of my clients get tired of catching so many, that we move on to spots that are known for other species- that's another positive aspect of fishing with me: I have a spot for every type of fish!

As usual, fishing is great, the weather is beautiful, and life is good. Now is the time to enjoy paradise and come out and get ya' some!

Thanks,
Capt. Larry McGuire
SHOW ME THE FISH CHARTERS
Cell: 941-720-6475
Email: captlarrymcguire@gmail.com
Operating out of the Cortez Fishing Center
12700 Cortez Rd. west
Bradenton, FL 34215