A beautiful day out of Crystal River with Wes and Kay on board and these gentlemen had a great catch. Leaving from Pete's Pier Marina this morning at 9am, we made our run offshore to the ever reliable bombing range and our mixed bag of species were waiting. It was very calm in the gulf for the first couple of hours of the day and you could see several schools of ballyhoo being harassed mackerel and blue fish throughout the area. To get the bite going with the calm conditions, we used the D.O.A. deadly combos rigged with the holographic root beer shrimp to call up some trout. The trout were very cooperative and the guys put 11 healthy slot trout in the cooler along with a couple pompano, mackerel and blue fish. We didn't have a chance to red fish due to the later tide, but the guys had a fun time and I thank you. Here's Kay and Wes with their Crystal River variety... Capt. Dan
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Thursday, Mar 08 2012

80 Degree Trout...

A warm sunny spring day today out of Crystal River and with temperatures in the 80's, it felt great. I had the pleasure of having one of our finest local deputies on board for this charter and John caught some great fish. Light winds today and plenty of incoming water, we had a great morning targeting trout and a couple mackerel and blue fish joined us as well. We used a combination of MirrOlure Lil' Johns and D.O.A. deadly combos for the trout, but the larger fish came off the bottom jigs today. A perfect high tide to red fish, we hit the creeks and boated six beautiful back country red fish to end our afternoon. I thank you John for the great time and it was a pleasure having you on board today... Capt. Dan
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Wednesday, Mar 07 2012

More Wind and Hungry trout...

The east wind continued for us today, but with the full moon tides on schedule, the tide rushed in despite the conditions. Bill and Jeff were on board for this windy day out of Pete's Pier Marina and the guys put up with the elements and D.O.A. deadly comboed some trout. Not being able to run offshore, we stayed close inshore, worked the oyster bars in Crystal bay and had a great catch of trout. The root beer holographic shrimp was the top color today and it was great to see good schools of trout in their spring locations. After several hours of rocking and rolling in the gulf, we ran to the creeks and found a red fish. I thank you both for a fun time and hope you enjoy all the fish at the fish fry... Capt. Dan
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Just about as tough as it gets today out of Homosassa with 25mph east winds with extreme, and I mean extreme low tides. Myself and fellow Homosassa Guides Association Captains Rick Spratt and Jody Johnson were at the Homosassa Fishing Club and we made the best of what mother nature gave us. I had the young group on board and Emily, Ellie, Elizabeth and Francis did great. We kept it simple using live shrimp under a D.O.A. deadly combo cork and targeted the shallow depressions around the rock bars. The young ladies caught a total of 17 trout with a mackerel mixed in to fill out our morning. I thank you all for the fun time and look forward to seeing you on your next visit to Homosassa... Capt. Dan
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Friday, Mar 02 2012

Trout and Macks...

On today's trip, we ran back offshore and targeted Spanish mackerel and the deeper offshore trout. Clell, Lee and Bob were on board out of Pete's Pier Marina and with D.O.A. glow shad tails in hand, we caught a nice variety of trout, macks, blue fish, lady fish, porgy's and even a couple keeper sized grouper. The bite was great was long as we had a little breeze blowing, but when the wind quit, so did the bite. We had a hour or so of down time with not much happening and when the sea breeze kicked in, the trout fired right back up. The gulf is offering a variety of options right now and I've seen a lot of bait fish and surface activity in the recent days. Thanks guys as always for the fun time and look forward to seeing you soon. Here's Clell with the big trout of the day, a 4 1/2 lb gator... Capt. Dan
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Wow! What an action packed day out of Crystal River and Juan and Dennis had their hands full. Running down the river this morning to foggy conditions, we took our time until we reached the mouth of the river at Shell Island. The skies cleared and we were offshore bound to find some early arrival offshore trout. We reached our destination and on the second cast, Dennis hooked into a 100 plus pound bull shark and we were off to the races. We ran him down with the boat, so we could get a good look at him and it was quite a fish. After close to a 25 minute battle, we finally broke him off and began drifting and catching some beautiful upper slot trout. Today, my favorite spring time bait, the DOA glow shad tail jigs were the hot ticket. The trout averaged 16 to 24" and a few Spanish macks and blue fish were also keeping us busy. To end the day with a bang, we sight fished a hefty black drum that bottomed out my 30lb boga grip. We took a couple pictures, had some high fives and called it a day. Thank you guys for the awesome time and here is Juan with today's big drum... Capt. Dan
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Tuesday, Feb 21 2012

Drums, Sheeps and Macks...

An interesting variety today out of Crystal River and even though the gulf water clarity is quite dirty, the fish cooperated nicely. Robert and Peggy were on board from Texas and they caught some beautiful Spanish mackerel, sheepshead, grunts, red fish and a hefty black drum. The Spanish mackerel and sheepshead bite was fair due to the water conditions, but we had steady action and live shrimp was the bait of choice. We picked up the big black drum while targeting the macks and it was a bonus, plus, a welcomed surprise. Just afternoon with the tide running in hard, we hit the creeks and landed a couple back country red fish. Robert had the big one reaching the 26" mark. I thank you all for the great time and look forward to seeing you on your next visit to Florida... Capt. Dan
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Wednesday, Feb 08 2012

Mackerel Invasion!

Outstanding Spanish mackerel action continued for us today out of Crystal River and Bill, Len and Mel had some great drag burning fights. Leaving from Pete's Pier Marina at 8:30am, we made our run offshore to some hard bottom areas and tried our luck for some sheepshead. We caught a couple under slot sheepshead and numerous sea bass while we waited for the tide to turn, so we could anchor up and chum in the macks. Around 11am the tide was running hard, so we put out the chum bag, free lined some live shrimp and it was fish on. The mackerel bite was so fast and furious, we had to catch our breath a couple of times to keep from wearing out. Along with the mackerel, we picked up one beautiful sheepshead, some porgys and grouper to give a little variety to the day. Thank you guys as always for the fun time and look forward to seeing you again soon... Capt. Dan
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Tuesday, Feb 07 2012

Windy Macks & Sheeps...

It was a windy one today out in the Gulf of Mexico and Jim, Melanie, Ray and Linda put on their sea legs. I met the group at Pete's Pier Marina and by looking at the cooling towers at the power plant, I knew it was going to be bumpy. The crew said lets give it a try and we made it out to the 8ft depth range and did very well. Chumming up some Spanish mackerel was the main attraction for the day, along with a few sheepshead added to the mix. It's actually quite early for the mackerel to be here in such good numbers and it's a much welcomed surprise. Several gag grouper kept the rods bent in between the sheepshead and macks and they are always a fun fight on light tackle. Thank you all for the great time and here is Melanie with a beautiful Crystal River sheepshead... Capt. Dan
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Monday, Feb 06 2012

Crystal River 1/2 Day...

A very good 1/2 day Crystal River charter with Tyler, Tim and Seth and the trout bite was on.  Leaving out of Pete's Pier Marina, we pulled up to the bars again and using MirrOlure Lil' John's, the guys had their 15 fish limit. A few short trout were mixed in, but the majority were beautiful mid slot keepers, with the largest being almost 22". For a change of pace, we tried a couple sheepshead locations and found a few hefty sheepshead. The fish are still on location, but there is currently a heavy algae bloom occurring making bottom fishing very difficult.  We called it a day just afternoon and I thank you all for the fun time. Here's today's crew with their great catch... Capt. Dan
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