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Last month I was able to travel to Florida for a few days. A friend recommended fishing for a few hours with Captain Andrew Herzog while I was visiting in the area of the Charlotte Harbor in Southwest Florida. I was told that Andrew specialized with inshore fishing, but is willing to chase deep water fish as well, and we would target trout. I showed up at the marina and met with Andrew as well as my friend and kids, taking off shortly after introductions. Andrew has a very nice boat for inshore fishing, set up with great casting decks and a tower for spotting fish.
He knew what the fish had been doing, as he is a full-time. We headed to the first spot and he handed me a rod baited up with a live shrimp and a cork. His advice was to pop the cork and wait a few seconds before popping it again. It didn’t take long for the first bite, but the bite was real light with the cool water temperatures. We kept losing the trout shortly after the bite or close to the boat. He decided we would move on, as the dolphins moved in.
We were buzzing to
the next spot that Andrew said had a school of snook. He quickly spun around and advised us to grab our rods and cast over to the shore as he spotted a bunch of fish. As soon as my cork hit the water I was hooked up. He knew right away that I had set the hook into an Amber Jack. After a short fight we put the jack in the boat for a photo op and released it.
The next spot Andrew took us to was the spot he told us there had been a large school of snook. We moved in slow and quiet and could see all the fish hanging close to the mangroves. One of the kids set a perfect cast and he was hooked up to snook immediately, it didn’t take long to get it in the boat.
Andrew seems to know the water that he fishes, knows where particular fish are at and what the bait is. He has nice equipment and a great boat too.
I hope to be able to fish with Andrew again someday, hopefully under better fishing conditions. If you’re in Southwest Florida I would give Andrew a call to see about getting on the water.
http://www.bigbullyfishing.com
941-661-0304