Family and Children trips are always a blast. The kids are always fun and excited to be on the water and these young anglers (ages 3 and 5) stole the show. Their mom and dad wanted to introduce them to fishing in a fun and safe way so they booked one of our Family and Children charters specifically designed for families with small children. We hit the water in the afternoon and made our way to an area that has been producing a bunch of smaller sized fish perfect for young anglers. The pair did a great job of reeling in some Redfish, and Sheepshead with lots of excitement and smiles from everyone. After catching some great fish with the kids we made our way to one of the areas more secluded beaches where the whole family went ashore and found fossilized shark teeth and shells before heading home.

We started from our pick up location in downtown Sarasota and headed south to a an area that had been producing some great fishing despite the colder weather. Almost immediately we were hooked up on a bunch of Redfish. Over the next half hour or so we had multiple double and triple hook-ups on Redfish with over twenty caught in total. The bite slowed down though and we made a small move to another area and were rewarded again with some fantastic Sheepshead and Black Drum for the remainder of the trip as well as a few Mangrove Snapper thrown in. A few of the nicer Sheepshead and Black made it back to the dock to become tacos that night with the rest of the fish safely released for another day.

It was a chilly start with a little bit of a breeze as we started the morning. But shortly after pulling into our first area we got into some very nice Black Drum and Sheepshead along an oyster bar. Throughout the rest of the morning it was consistent fishing with some great Redfish, Sheepshead and Black Drum being caught along with a few Mangrove Snapper and small Snook. Right down to the very last cast we continued to catch fish. We released a ton of fish this day and kept a few of the bigger ones for the frying pan.

When we hit the waters early in the morning I wasn't expecting the numbers of Redfish we caught . I was blown away by the amount of Redfish we were catching almost immediately. I had pulled into an area that the day before produced some nice Redfish, hoping that we could get another couple nice ones. First cast = first fish and for the next two hours it was lights out fishing for my clients. A grandfather and his 4 grandsons, ages 7 to 19, managed to catch and release 40 Redfish in just a couple hours. Absolutely amazing! Five years ago I had a group of clients on a 6 hour charter set the all time record for number of Redfish caught on a single trip with 42. This broke the old record of 22 set years earlier. Now here we were just two hours into a 4 hour trip and already 2 fish away from tying the record. The fish slowed down and we had to finally make a move to another area. After the move we continued to catch fish but couldn't seem to find any more Redfish. But with about 30 minutes remaining to fish we finally found some more Redfish and broke the old record catching the 49th Redfish of the day just moments before our time ran out. This was definitely an epic day of catch and release fishing.

What a great morning with a fun family< The kids did a great job of reeling in a bunch of Redfish, Sheepshead, Black Drum and Redfish and even left a few for the adults to reel in. After a couple hours of fishing we headed to one of the local beaches where they found a bunch of fossilized shark teeth and shells to end the day.

The cooler waters have really made the fishing great lately. This morning my clients caught a bunch of Redfish, Sheepshead, Snappers, Black Drum and even a few small Flounder as we fished our way around some structure in the south bay. Clients were looking to take home just enough fish for a meal and the rest were safely released back into the waters.