This week is the Big Fly Fishing Show in Somerset NJ. Although I will not be there personally, Baxter House Staff will be in attendance. Our staff will once again be manning the Sullivan County / Roscoe Chamber of Commerce Booth. This year our booth will be setup in the lobby of the destination theater in the Double Tree hotel. PLease stop by to talk fly fishing and get your spring float trips scheduled! On Sunday and Monday bad weather kept me off the water. We had some heavy rains and winds up to 50 mph. We spent most of Sunday under a tornado watch. Over this 2 day period we had heavy tides 2 to 3 feet higher than normal and the bay waters were up over some docks and spilling out into no
Over the last few days the very reliable fishing has continued. My last few trips have gone great with a variety of fish being caught on both Fly Rods and light tackle. We have been having great action during the periods just before and after the low tides. We have been hitting the potholes and finding good amounts of Big Trout and Redfish. Yesterday we also had a few periods where we had big reds tailing in super shallow water. The water around the bay remains in the upper 60's and there is plenty of bait on the flats. For as long as conditions remain steady we will have lots of options for what type of fish we target. We took advantage the option of great conditions and lots of fish to tar
Warm weather has returned after the 2 days of winter. It has been sunny and around 80 every day and the bay waters are still warm. There is abundant bait on the flats and the fishing is good. All of my recent trips have been packed with action. We have also been finding some bigger fish! Yesterday I had a full day of fly fishing with Robert Kwas. Robert has not had a lot of time in the salt as his passion is trout fishing in mountain streams. He quickly took to the longer casts and the strip setting and we had an exciting day of hunting. If you are on the water just after daybreak the trout bite is very good. I poled Robert into one of my favorite holes as the tide was outgoing and we had in
Over last weekend the first real cold front of the winter hit the Tampa Bay area. We had 2 nights in a row where the overnight temperature got down to right around 40 degrees. This quick cold snap really dropped the water temps. all around the bay. Over the next few days fish should be moving in larger numbers into the rivers and farther back into the mangroves. This morning I spooked a half dozen big snook laying in a dark mud creek in about 12" of water. For those of us who love to hunt the skinny water it's game time. Over the next 6 days negative low tides will continue. Recently we have been able to wade sandbars all over the place. Below are a few shots of the recent conditions. The lo
Happy New Year to All! 2017 is starting out warm in the Tampa Bay area. We are expecting sunny, breezy days in the upper 70's to low 80's for most of the week. This warm weather still has the fish pretty spread out. Yesterday I moved around a lot and had water temperatures from 68 to 72 degrees. Trout action on the flats is still pretty spotty. I have been finding pockets of fish but you need to try a few depths before you lock in on them. The drop offs of the flats have a good amount of Jacks and Ladyfish that will keep the rods bent. The action in the Mangroves has been steady. There are lots of juvenile snook under the structure. Most of the fish are 15" to 20" but they are eager and a l
