Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By MIKE WHITMAN
Published October 6, 2005

Recent winds have kept us off the water. Although the forecast calls for a relatively wind-free weekend with sea conditions under 3 feet, I wouldn't bet the farm the weatherman is going to be right.

We have seen the bay clean up over the past week before the wind started to blow and a few grouper and real nice mangos have been along the edges of the ship channel. There has been a lot of bait around the pilings on the south end of the Skyway early in the morning with a few mackerel making runs through them.

This past Saturday we had a 12-hour trip. After blanking out on inshore bait spots, we decided we would be able to find bait further offshore as we had a 40-mile run. In 130 feet of water we finally saw a shower of bait and starting jigging up some of the largest Spanish sardines I have seen in a year. After securing 100 pieces or so, we continued to 155 feet of water. The first drop was all dead bait, two legal grouper, a short scamp and a decent mango. We knew the fish were there, so the next drop was live sardines. Every rod went over but only one fish made it back to the top - a 33-pound gag. Everyone reloaded with live sardines but apparently we picked water with Red Tide 40-plus miles offshore as every bait was dead. We continued to move to different spots but did not have the kind of day we could have if we had live bait.

Mike Whitman charters the Mega-Bite out of Gulfport. Call 727 384-5729 or visit the Web site at www.megabitecharters.com

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 01:14:18]