As drag-screaming fishing tales go, this one was a whopper. In June, a trio of fishermen landed a 9-foot, 600-pound bull shark off a dock in St. Petersburg after a muscle-burning, three-hour struggle. The kill sparked a media frenzy. While TV crews and photographers jockeyed for photos of the mammoth predator-turned-prey, the anglers fielded interview requests from as far away as Iowa.
Not everyone was impressed. “What a waste,” says Captain Wade Osborne, who runs fishing charters on Tampa Bay and hosts a Saturday morning radio talk show. “Sharks are in huge decline — we shouldn’t be killing them.”
He bristles at boaters plowing through slow-speed manatee protection zones, especially when the offender is a fellow guide. “I’m very vocal. I’ll call a guide out and tell them they shouldn’t do that.”
The straight-shooting Osborne is as outgoing as he is outspoken. It’s a winning mix for the radio host and fishing guide, who runs three to four charters a week and is recognized as one of the bay’s top-producing guides. Afishionado Guide Services offers light tackle sport fishing charters on Tampa Bay’s most pristine waters, from Tarpon Springs to upper Tampa Bay. Lush grass flats and mangrove-studded shorelines provide cover for bait fish and crustaceans that attract hungry snook, redfish, tarpon and cobia, making for excellent fishing.
For non-stop summer action, Osborne says nothing beats redfish pursued on light tackle or fly. From early spring to late fall, large schools of redfish cruise the bay’s grass flats foraging for food. At times these schools can contain as many as 100 to 300 fish, When schools reach this mass, it’s an hours-on-end fishing bonanza. “We’re catching them as quickly as we can put a line in the water.” In May, Afishionado client Gary Heaton of American Fork, Utah and two other anglers caught 86 redfish ranging from 24 to 36 inches in five hours.
But while the fast-action crowd may favor reds, the powerful tarpon dominates for sheer exhilaration. “I had two guys fight a tarpon recently and a half-hour later they were beat.” Juvenile tarpon reside in local waters year-round, but Osborne prefers tarpon fishing from April through October and especially during the May-June-July migratory run when the largest tarpon prevail. “Silver kings” weighing 90 to 165 pounds are common with the occasional tarpon topping the scales at nearly 200 pounds. Osborne catches bait and works the Pinellas and Manatee County shorelines with the rising sun, scanning for rolling or daisy-chaining tarpon.
Known for their acrobatic displays, when a tarpon strikes and realizes it’s hooked, it will shoot into the air in an effort to dislodge the hook. “A phrase synonymous with tarpon fishing is ‘bow to the king’,” says Osborne. Anglers are advised to lower the tip of their rod and point it at the leaping tarpon to reduce the tension and avoid a hook hurtling back at them.
Snook action also is at its finest in summer. “The snook are breeding, burning up lots of energy and they gotta’ eat,” Osborne says. For catch-and-release action, he recommends two areas near Tarpon Springs at the north end of Anclote Key and Honeymoon Island. Osborne likes to fish these areas during the last two hours of a falling tide when the tidal flow slows and the snook feeding peaks. For bait, he favors scaled sardines, pinfish and grunts.
Charter expeditions are all about the experience, says Osborne. “Most guides don’t understand this is really an entertainment industry. There are days when the fishing is slow, but I make sure people have a good time.”
Visit Afishionado Guide Services online at www.afishionado.com.
Article originally published Summer 2007
[su_divider]