Tuesday, Sep 10 2013

Busman's Holiday!!!

Just a fun day with my good friend Capt. Clay Shidler and we had our selves a Crystal River slam. My boat is getting detailed for a couple of days and Clay also had the day off; so he called me and said "lets' go fishing". I met him at his house on the river, loaded up his dog Nick and we hit the creeks. We spent the morning way back in Ozello and this young man took me to a couple places I haven't seen in many years. We targeted the various rocky shorelines and points with top water plugs and lucky enough, we caught a couple red fish, a trout and a snook. A fun time exploring, catching a few fish and we ended our day with the best chicken wings in town at Lollygaggers Sports Pub & Grill. Here's a fantastic picture of Clay and Nick with a Ozello red fish... Capt. Dan
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Saturday, Aug 31 2013

Crystal River Running Small....

They can't be big ones everyday and on today's charter, they definitely eluded us. I had Rick, Don and Mario on board and after we dodged the morning storms, it turned out to be a pretty nice day. We covered a bunch of ground from the North Shore off Crystal River to the back country in Dixie bay. The guys had action with red fish, mangrove snapper and a little pup snook, but we just couldn't get on any fish of any size. It was still a fun day and with super high tide from the steady SW wind, I gave the guys a great boat ride though the creeks. Thank you all for your efforts and here's Rick with a future trophy snook... Capt. Dan
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Friday, Aug 09 2013

Bonus Snook, but No Gags...

After today's trip, I think I may have to go to 100lb test.... Tough day for grouper fishing and unfortunately, we weren't able to turn any of those big gags today. Brad, Robert and Bran joined me today out of Crystal River and with beautiful conditions for going offshore, we made it a grouper day. A quick stop on the way out and we filled the livewell with pinfish and ran to some of my favorite ledges. Hook up after hook up, but we just couldn't turn them around today. We did land some sharks, cobia, rays and short grouper, but the big dogs escaped us. A hefty snook took us for a ride some 13 miles offshore and was quite a surprise when he jumped next to the boat. A great time today and we'll get them next time. Here's Robert with today's offshore bonus snook... Capt. Dan
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I send a big thank you to my great guide friends; Capt's. Mark Zorn, William Toney, Rick Spratt, Jonathan Hamilton, Don Chancey and Clay Shidler for doing an outstanding job with this years Veterinary group. This years trip consisted of seven boats with 17 anglers and "wow", did we catch them. The boats totaled over 80 keeper trout with a couple nice red fish, Spanish mackerel and Capt. Z's team won big fish with a heavy weight snook. I was a little worried with the weather forecast, but we dodged a couple showers and made it through the day. Nicole did great planning the trip and all the guests had a excellent Crystal River fishing experience. Here's my crew with fine catch of trout and we even released several keepers to leave some for tomorrow... Capt. Dan
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Monday, Apr 08 2013

Crystal River-Grand Slam!!!

My guest Matt accomplished what only very few Nature Coast anglers in our area have done and that's a Grand Slam. Snook, trout, red fish and we even found a bonus tripletail, all in today's Crystal River charter. Matt only gets to fish a couple times a year, so I pointed out some locations for him to try and we caught some different species in all the areas we covered. Today's trout were scattered inshore on the flats and we caught a couple keepers on DOA glow jerk baits. Next, we caught a beautiful snook jigging MirrOlure Lil' John's along the rocks and also landed a hefty tripletail floating on a nearby crab buoy, that couldn't resist a shrimp.  And to end the day, we hit the creeks and sight fished a slot red fish to top our charter. I thank you Matt for the great day and a big congratulations on your achievement... Capt. Dan
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We hit it out of the park today! Myself and Capt. Mark Zorn fished the Kilebrew party for an excellent day of Crystal River Fishing. I had Bob, Greg and Brad on board and the trout fishing couldn't have been better. From the oyster bars to the rock piles, the trout action was excellent. My team primarily used MirrOlure Lil' Johns in the new Bourbon color (I really like this color, and so do the fish) on 1/8th oz DOA cal jig heads. We had some added bonus species for the day including snook, pompano and Spanish mackerel. The entire group did oustanding with both boats bringing in their limit of trout and Capt. Z had several more macks to end the day. I thank you all for the great time and for more pictures, please visit the Crystal River Fishing facebook page... Capt. Dan
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A big thank you to my good friend and excellent outdoor writer David Brown, for our article in the March 2013 issue of Florida Sportsman magazine. David and I did a feature story about the northern snook population here off Citrus County. It has some great tips on how, when and where to find them and I know you all will enjoy reading it... Capt. Dan
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Windy and Cold....... Yes folks, that pretty much sums up today's condition's. Phil and Al were my guests traveling from Pennsylvania and you just feel horrible when the conditions are so. We all said you can't catch them sitting at the dock, so we left from Pete's Pier and ran down the river. Another extremely low tide was with us and limited us to where we could fish. We stayed a little north and worked some of the oyster bars and did catch quite a few trout. Most were on the short side with four of them making it to the keeper sized. DOA glow cal shad tails were the color of the day and every trout we caught was this color. The big catch of the day was the beautiful snook that put up great fight and was one of the larger ones I've seen in a while. We took a few pics and watched her swim away. I thank you both for the fun time, good laughs and we'll see you next time... Capt. Dan
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We just beat the much needed rain in today with the approaching front. Bill and Karen were on board with me today out of Pete's Pier in Crystal River and trout once again was going to be our theme. We ran up to the North for the day and targeted everything from oyster bars, rocks and kelp beds. Loaded with MirrOLure Lil' Johns, DOA cal shad tails and shrimp, we had an excellent morning. Numerous short trout made for some steady action and we added a keeper to the mix here and there, to add to our total. A nice surprise snook graced us, as well as an under slot red fish to top off the trip. The winds picked up considerably from the South and we called it a day with thunder in the distance. I thank you both as always for the great times and congratulations on your catch... Capt. Dan
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What a awesome surprise to start off today's Crystal River charter. Dan, Mallory and Ross were on board for the day and Ross got us going with a monster 40" snook. We left from Pete's Pier Marina this morning and tried our luck for trout with the little bit of out going tide we had to work with. The trout bite was slow, but the drag screaming snook made up for it. As a plan B, we ran back offshore to the rocks and loaded up on the sea bass, mackerel and released a couple grouper. The tide was turning to come in around noon, so we made our run back inshore and picked up a couple nice quality trout to end our day. I thank you all for the fun time and congratulations on a outstanding catch. Here's Ross with one heck of a snook to be proud of... Capt. Dan
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