On Good Friday, Brian Weible and his 15-year-old son, Jake, decided to spend the morning fishing inshore and left it up to me what to go after.
I first decided to target a very productive rock pile for sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, flounder and grouper. As soon as Brian's first shrimp hit the bottom, up came a keeper-sized sheepshead.
"This is how it's done, Jake," Brian said while trying to remove the hook from the fish's gnarly face.
"Don't worry about that," I told Jake. "You'll get even."
Not long after weeding through a bunch of small sea bass, spottail pinfish and short grouper, Jake had a nice sheep as well.
"Look at this one, Brian," I said, because Jake was beaming from ear to ear.
With a few sheepshead in the box for dinner, the bite began to slow. The three of us headed off to a shallow flat where speckled trout were hitting everything that moved.
The flats were alive with activity. Small least terns were diving for glass minnows, and I knew the ladyfish, mackerel and trout would be there feeding on the anchovies, too.
A silver bullet launched itself out of the water attached to the end of Jake's line before he had a chance to get his bail closed. "Just keep tension on 'em and bring him to the boat," I told Jake.
Rick Frazier runs Lucky Dawg Charters out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at captainrick@luckydawg.com or (727) 510-4376.
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