Action is good and September should be a great month to paddle and fish

I was talking with one of my clients the other day and he said he liked my Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing motto: We take you fishing and not for a boat ride."

I have to admit, I think that's a great motto.

I have another of which I'm quite fond: "The worst day you're going to have with us will be pretty darn good."

That has been proven time and again over my years of guiding. We do want to catch fish, and we seem to always do that. And most of the trips are pretty darn good.

I took John Mallia of New York (in the photos) out on two trips this past week. We had a couple of wonderful days. On the first outing, we fished Sarasota Bay and caught a mixed bag of fish: spotted seatrout, bluefish and ladyfish. We also encountered (but didn't catch) Spanish mackerel, shark and tarpon. Action was steady throughout the day and dry spells were infrequent.

We caught a bunch of fish, but the highlight of the outing was when we were paddling back to the launch. We found a bunch of manatees that wanted to hang out with us. They'd swim up to our kayaks, put their noses against the plastic or swim under our boats.

They were literally close enough that we could have reached out an petted them if we had wanted.

It was John's first up-close encounter with a manatee.

Manatees aside, fishing has been very good. We've been getting trout to 24 inches, bluefish to 3 pounds, Spanish mackerel to 3, redfish to 33 inches, tarpon to 30 pounds and all the ladyfish you'd ever want.

Most of the action has been on D.O.A. CAL Jigs with gold paddle tails. The reds have been taking Bomber Bondonkadonk surface plugs, D.O.A. Baitbusters and the D.O.A. BFL.

We're expecting tarpon action to heat up in Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor in September. We use D.O.A. Baitbusters, D.O.A. TerrorEyz and flies.

We anticipate excellent action has the days start to grow shorter and the water begins to cool. Slams (snook, trout and redfish) will be possible.

September is wide open, so you can pick your days.

Give me a call at (941) 284-3406 to book your trip.

You won't regret it.

I'd like to thank my sponsors for making all of this possible: Native Watercraft, D.O.A. Lures, Temple Fork Outfitters and Dri-Grip Sunscreen.

I appreciate their support and belief in me. And what makes it all especially wonderful is that they're great products.

Steve Gibson

Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing