Outdoors

Captain's Corner

TV shoot: I grew up watching Mark Sosin's Saltwater Journal in Cleveland.

By ROB GORTA, Times Correspondent
Published March 22, 2007

TV shoot: I grew up watching Mark Sosin's Saltwater Journal in Cleveland. One of my biggest dreams came true when I received a phone call from Sosin, asking me to be the guest guide. Everything went right during the shoot. The weather was perfect, blue skies, no wind, and no one was fishing the school of redfish I targeted. We caught as many redfish as he needed for a show and were done by 2 p.m. The show airs at 11 a.m. Friday on Sun Sports.

Great catch: Les Laske and Jim Nairn were in town for a convention and chartered me. A major front was coming through, and the wind was out of the southwest at 25 knots. The wind kept blowing us right into a school of redfish every time we got close, and we landed only six. We tried one last spot for snook. I threw out a handful of chummers and saw a snook blow up on one of the baits. The fish went crazy for the chummers, and we were able to get the fish in a feeding frenzy, landing about 15. Several were legal with three bigger than 30 inches.

Tactics: Scaled sardines are starting to show up on the flats. The bait is on the move, so have backup spots. I threw the cast net in a different spot every day last week.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 23:14:49]