I had the pleasure of fishing a old client and friend Brain Harmon. We talked on the phone of what he would like to try to do on his charter. He wants to learn to fly fish for Redfish. I told him no problem I’ll pick you up at the restaurant that he owns G Peppers at 6:30am. In the morning I pulled up with the Maverick be hind the truck for a quick stop of supplies and off to the ramp we went. When we got to the ramp just as the sun was coming up
and the big wolf full moon was setting with a light 5 kt north east wind. I told Brain it should be a great morning as we headed to the flat we wanted to fish. I told him to jump up on the bow and we would pole up to where the school of redfish should be sitting when the tide got out some more. We poled up to where I wanted to stake out and grabbed the long rod and started to show brain a few lessons on just keeping the line up and he did good job. I started to show brain how to double haul and a few redfish came by I told brain throw out in front of them and start stripping. The redfish had nothing to do with it so he picked up a spinning rod with a white jerk bait on it and it landed perfect just out in front of the fish and started to work it and bam Brain is on after a 4 minute fight a nice 29 inch redfish comes over the side for a quick photo op and back in the water it went. I got up on the platform and started to look around for the school and it looked like it moved down about 100yards. I started to pole down to them and saw a few singles but no takers as we stopped just up current of the redfish school brain took a shot on the outside fish with no success after a few more shots a big red came out of the school and tracked that jerk bait and ate it hard. I jumped down from the platform and staked out and landed that redfish and moved it to the tape for a quick measurement and it taped out at 32 inches wow what a great fish as we released it. As we sat there talking about what was going on and a osprey came out of no where and hit the water next to us and came up empty so I grabbed the camera and got some photos of him diving down next to us and this time he nailed what looked like a nice redfish and he could not pick the fish up because he was so heavy and finally got up out of the water and started to drag the fish up to the flat that was dry and started his feast. I asked Brain if he wanted to hit a Trout hole real quick and he said sure as we powered up for the short run and set up for a drift and as soon as the jig hit the water brain was on after a few more drifts and 25 trout later he said its time for him to get back to his restaurant G Peppers so we head back to the ramp and headed home.Tampa Fly Fishing Charters & Fishing Charters
My name is Captain Jim Lemke. I am a U.S.C.G. licensed Captain with more than 25 years of fly fishing experience as a full time guide in the waters in and around the Tampa Bay area. I specialize in Light Tackle Fly Fishing Charters for Snook, Redfish, Trout, Tarpon, Permit, and Bass. I guide on the inshore waters of Tampa Bay, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg, and everywhere in between.
Just picture yourself being poled down some of the most pristine grass flats in all of Florida. The beautiful Beaches have crystal clear water for sight casting to Tarpon, the mighty Silver King and Permit. The mangrove shore lines and brackish creeks hold wily Snook and the expansive grass flats harbor tailing monster Redfish. Great scenes for your fly fishing experience.
Tampa Bay is the secret fishing hole for tarpon. It’s like Las Vegas, it turns on at night, and night fishing for tarpon under the bridges around Tampa really turns on through late spring, summer and fall. This is without a doubt your best chance to catch your first tarpon, or a trophy silver king to remember for a lifetime. Period. Fish over 100lbs are common- see the photo gallery on this site. And remember, we measure these fish here in feet, not inches.