Author Archives: Bob Cohen

9.8.24 INSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Bruce Archambault
Where were you fishing? INSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; Yes
The date you went fishing; 09-08-2024
Your Name; Bruce Archambault
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Nice sea trout modeled by my GF I caught on a ‘Gulp’ 3” artificial shrimp just off Anclote Key near the Tiki Hut.
If this report includes a tournament entry please state the species and length of the fish caught in this box. 16” sea trout caught & released.
Type a question Yes

9.08.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Capt Carlos Bastos
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; Yes
The date you went fishing; 09-08-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio Florida
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Gag season opened on the 1st but the number of days with weather good enough to fish has been limited.  Bob Sherley, Mike Spanhel and I joined three other anglers for a fishing trip with Capt. Carlos of Bottoms Up Fishing, Tarpon Springs for a day fishing for Gags.  It was overcast and looked like it might rain most the day but the overcast kept the temperature down and the fishing enjoyable all day.  Our first drop was in 65ft of water and Mike was first to score with 2 gags on this spot, at the next stop Bob picked up a gag. We moved often and worked our way down to 25ft of water. We all caught plenty of Red Grouper which were out of season but the next open season on Red Grouper ought to be a good one.  Capt Carlos moved from spot to spot and if we weren’t getting the results he wanted we moved on.  I finally put a gag in the box.  We also caught some Mangrove Snappers, Lane Snappers and Mike caught the only Hogfish of the day.  We ended up with 5 keeper grouper all put in the box by FOC members, as a matter of fact all the fish in the box were caught by FOC members.  It was a good day of fishing but we didn’t hit the limit on Gags as we had hoped.  I know we could see the fish on the bottom on every stop we made but the bite was a bit sluggish.  Thanks Capt Carlos for the relentlous effort to get us our gag limit.
If this report includes a tournament entry please state the species and length of the fish caught in this box. Mike Spanhel   28 3/4″ Gag
Frank Bellizio   27 1/2″ Gag
Bob Sherley     25 1/2″ Gag
Type a question Yes

9.07.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Capt Jesse
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; Yes
The date you went fishing; 09-07-2024
Your Name; Tom Saska
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Offshore fishing for gag grouper & mangrove snapper.  Caught in a depth of approx 50 feet on a cigar minnow.
If this report includes a tournament entry please state the species and length of the fish caught in this box. Gag grouper – 32-1/8″

8.29.24 INSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Frank Bellizio
Where were you fishing? INSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 08-29-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Mike and I had not spent a day inshore fishing together in quite awhile so we decided to head out this morning to see how the inshore fishing was.  We headed out of the Anclote river at about 8:30 am and found that there were not many boats on the water. This was a relief since scallop season had reopened.  We first headed to the west side of Anclote Key to see if the large schools we had seen on Sunday were still there but no luck. We headed back to the area in front of the power plant and started in 8 ft of water and worked our  way toward shore on the incoming tide.  We caught lots of short and keeper size trout on shrimp and plastic.  About an hour after high tide when the tide had turned and the water was headed out we moved in next to the mangroves and near the oyster beds.  I caught a nice size shark and Mike landed two nice size keeper reds. It was starting to get hot so we headed in.  It was a great day for fishing and catching with an old friend.
Type a question Yes

8.25.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Capt Carlos Bastos
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 08-25-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio Florida
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below The last days of ARS season were at hand so Mike Spanhel, Terry Freeman, Mark Cammiskey and me joined Capt Carlos and his mate Jeromy  and Gerald, a fisherman from Clarmont, for a 2 hour ride out to 100+ feet of water in search of ARS.  We caught 6 keeper ARS’s and a bunch of lane and mangrove snapper.The snapper were fun but as you can see from the pictures there was plenty of Red and Gag grouper action.  There certainly is no shortage of Red Grouper, we caught a large number of short and keeper size Red Grouper.  The Gag caught by Gerald in the picture was 34 to 36 inches.

On the way back to port we came on one of the most unusal sights I have seen fishing in this area. At about 6 miles off the beach of Anclote Key we ran into about 1000 segulls working the water, as we approached we could see what appeared to be trout or ladyfish for about a half a mile square making the water boil.  We saw another almost identical situation about 3 miles from the beach.  The wind had picked up and the combination of white caps and the fish action was a once in a lifetime sight.  It was a great way to finish out the ARS season fishing with FOC member friends. I have a grouper trip booked with Capt Carlos for Sept and from the looks of things it should be a great trip.
Type a question Yes

8.1.24 INSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; John Grieder
Where were you fishing? INSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 08-01-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio Florida
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below It was hot but Frank and John hit the water at 11 am to see what we could catch.  As it turns out small and medium size trout still bite when in hot water.  John threw top water most the time and Frank used a mix of live shrimp and white Gulp swimming mullet.  We only got to fish around 2 hours before the thunder and lightning started so we called it a day.  If you can take the heat there are still fish out there that like to bite in the water between 5′ and 10′.  We just couldn’t get a bite in the shallows.
Type a question No

9.24.2024 INSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Frank Bellizio
Where were you fishing? INSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 07-24-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Back in early June I had encountered an engine overheating problem while out fishing.  As it turned out it was a minor problem and my boat has been ready to go for 6 weeks but I did not have time to take it out so I asked John Grieder to take it our for a test spin and do a little fishing yestereday.  We left the dock around 11am and moved around fishing for trout and redfish for about 6 hours. The fishing wasn’t lightning fast but we did catch quite a few midsized trount.  The boat ran fine with no problems so we headed in around 3pm.  The seas were calm and there was just enough breeze to keep it from being really hot.  Thanks John for coming along.
Type a question Yes

7.18.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Mike Spanhel
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; Yes
The date you went fishing; 07-18-2024
Your Name; John Grieder
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Hark! Hogfish Haven Hotel

We’ve all heard that Tampa Bay Real Estate is at a premium.  And so it is apparently in the waterworld, too.

Mike Spanhel invited Frank Bellizio, Butch Kaelin and John Grieder for a Hogfish trip on Thursday, July 18.  We departed the dock at midnight (for me) (actually it was 7:30am) and headed out to forty feet of water where we found the Hogfish Haven Hotel.

First hooking up with one was John.  Then (once again) the port side led the charge.  Those wiley Hogfish characters must have sublet many rooms in the hotel to the Grunt family as starboard rousted many from their rooms.

Hogfish in the penthouse area only let portside shrimp in.  A call of discrimination was sent down to them from the starboard side and they finally allowed themselves to be entertained by our starboard side shrimp.

After all was said and done we all caught a bunch of Hogfish along with others of various species that  were all returned to the hotel.

A fun day and a great time by all on the water with plenty of fish caught.  Thanks, Mike!

Question for our tax accountant:  If we’re all Real Estate investors is this trip tax deductable?
Type a question Yes

7.16.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Mike Spanhel
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 07-16-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Once Capt Mike Spanhel found out that Bob Sherley had never caught a hogfish with hook and line Mike initiated “Mission Hogfish” to get Bob his first hogfish on rod and reel.  Mike enlisted help from Bruce Archabault and Frank Bellizio.  We left the doc at 7:45am and Capt Mike had us in 40ft of water within an hour.  We caught a few hogfish and quite a few grunts.  We moved several times to spots within 5 to 6 miles of the original spot picking up hogfish and grunts as we went.  We used naked ball jig style setups with frozen shrimp.  The fresh shrimp at the bait shop were very small so frozen was the ticket for the day.  The frozen shrimp were fairly large and stayed on the hook well.  Bob caught his first hogfish about 2 hours into the trip so we all felt good that our mission was a success. We also caught quite a few short red grouper.  At about 1pm the clouds started to move in so we headed home and beat the rain by about one hour which gave us just enough time to clean up the boat and the fish we caught.  Thanks Capt Mike for a great day of fishing.
Type a question Yes

6.29.24 OFFSHORE

Posted on by
Name of Captain; Stu Johnson
Where were you fishing? OFFSHORE
Is this a tournament entry Fishing Report; No
The date you went fishing; 05-29-2024
Your Name; Frank Bellizio
Your Fishing Report: If this is a tournament report do not state the fish’s length in this box. State the length and species in the box below Mike Spanhel and I joined Stu Johnson and his brother Paul for a week of fishing at the end of June on the Atlantic side of Summerland Key Fl.  The weather was great except for the last two days that were windy or rainey.  We spent three days reef fishing and two days trolling.  We could not find weeds or fish for that matter the two days we trolled so we did some bottom fishing off the reefs for 3 of the days.  The first day on the reef was slow with a few yellow tail snapper and grunt.  The second day we headed 20 miles south to an area off Key West and got into some good fishing. We were catching 4 to 5lb grunts and really big progies.  The third day we found an area on the reef near home and caught yellow tail and grunt that were small non stop all day.  The great part was we caugh enough fish for Chef Paul to provide some excellent dinners each night.  I have to tell you that plantain breaded snapper was my favorite.  Thanks Capt Stu for the great trips.
Type a question Yes