Homosassa Bay is chalked full of fish! Fishing Homosassa has been terrific the past few weeks with many good catches. The weather has been superb and most of the cold fronts have not been making it to our area which means warmer gulf temps and better fishing. One of my fly fishing clients, Clark Everest of Sugarmill Woods had a great day of salt water fly fishing. Several speckled trout and a couple of redfish were caught and released. Also on a previous trip Clark managed to catch several nice Spanish mackerel on the fly rod. Bill Woodard and his two fishing buddies all got Homosassa Slams. That is when you catch a legal sized grouper, speckled trout and a redfish. Most of the catch consisted of 13 gag grouper to from 5-8 pounds. Larry Farmer and friend also had Homosassa Slams of grouper, trout and redfish. The speckled trout have been running very good size, between 18-24 inches. Top water lures like the 84MR808, a Mirrolure called Top Dog Jr. works very well in shallow water depths of around 3 feet. Also, Mirrolure has come out with the Top Pup, a smaller version of the Top Dog and is fun to cast on lighter tackle in the 8 pound class. The new Catch 2000 Mirrolure also is a dynamite lure which can easily be worked in 1-2 feet of water. This lure barely sinks and can be twitched in various ways to imitate an injured or dying bait fish. My first day out with the lure was with a trip with Carter Smith in which I saw trout chasing the chartreuse colored lure until they got hooked. Sam Shine tore up the redfish compared to his fishing buddies. Sam landed a half dozen nice reds in the 22-26 inch range. The water seemed a little chilly for spoons to work, so we used live shrimp to entice the redfish to the hook. I do think the water is now warm enough to catch redfish on gold or silver spoons by Johnson or Cotee. The 1/2 ounce size is the best choice for our area. To get the most distance use this size. 3/4 ounce will work but is too heavy and will hang up on the rocks sometimes. Some times I like the 1/4 ounce for lighter 8 pound class. For my running line I like 10 pound Berkley Big Game or Ande Monofilament. The clear line is transparent in the water and is strong enough to handle most any gamefish in shallow water applications. I do use a 24 inch section of 30 pound in the same brand for a shock or bite tippet. A double Uni.-knot is tied to connect the two lines. A #10 barrel swivel attached to a split ring to the eye of the spoon is a good trick to keep the line from getting twisted and to prevent swivel rod tip hang ups. John Euart and Chris Bowers brought their familles together at the Homosassa Fishing Club for their daughters Katherine and Kelly’s 21st birthday. The rather large group of 18 tore up the fish. Many speckled trout were landed between 20-25 inches. John caught the largest trout which was 25 1/2 inches while being guided by Capt. Jim Long. Capt. Long also had a 13 pound grouper with one of John’s sons. I had two out of three Homosassa Slams with Kelly, Mary and Will. We ended up 7 keeper grouper between 4-7 pounds and a limit of redfish. Capt. Alec Williams brought in the most trout with 19. The two families enjoyed a fresh caught fish fry with all the trimmings prepared by the Homosassa Guides Association.