Fishing tips from a Palmetto captain who followed ‘life long dream’ to start a business
With extra daylight returning to the evenings, March and April are great months to sneak out for an afternoon fishing session.
Temperatures aren’t too hot, bait is starting to show up on the flats, days are getting longer, and evening storms aren’t an issue like the summertime.
For captains, this allows many to schedule multiple fishing trips in a day. The busiest often run two four-hour trips, or doubles, meaning they can fish a single day with two different groups. Some will occasionally even try to fit in a triple, with three groups in a single day.
Four years ago, Captain Griffin Deans of Palmetto left his job and started a business called Slot Machine Fishing Charters. At the time he was a bit unsure if his new venture would be a success, and with a family of young children at home it was nerve-racking. But now he’s staying plenty busy doing his dream job. In 2021, Deans managed to fish 380 trips!
From a Facebook post on March 23, 2018, with a redfish picture, Deans wrote, “One of the best weeks of my life. I left my 9-5 job last Friday to become a full time guide and it’s moments like this that let me know I made the right decision to follow my life long dream making my living out on the water.”
To catch up, I ventured out with Deans this past week on Wednesday. The goal was to fish an afternoon short trip and see how one of the second trips would be. Winds were strong from the south blowing 20 to 30 mph, meaning any long runs were out of the question. Instead we stayed near Deans home waters of Terra Ceia Bay.
“It’s been good,” Deans said. “Seems like they’re all out of the winter spots and in the spring holes. The weather hasn’t been as good as last year, but if you can get on the fish first they eat. It’s mostly snook, a few redfish and some spots have a lot of snapper.”
Tucked into Terra Ceia Bay, the south wind made even fishing exposed flats tough. The south shoreline had many other boats also seeking refuge from the wind. We tucked into a cove and were greeted by a few snook before moving and repeating the process again.
At the second spot, the snook were a bit spooky. They would eat live chummed baits, but ones with a hook were turned down. In his cooler, Deans pulled out frozen threadfin, rigged one up with a cut tail, and tossed it under the mangroves.
“If they don’t eat that they ain’t eating,” he said. Within about 10 seconds, the threadfin line was tight and hooked up. “Told you.”
It was another snook that made its best attempt to get into the mangrove roots with the tide flooded ahead of the cold front. The 20-pound leader held and the fish was boated.
We bounced around a few other places, landing many more snook. With a full schedule Deans was actually OK with a “day off” as a strong front moved through Thursday with rain and storms.
“I’ve got to get rods fixed, reels with new line, do some boat repairs, get new dock lines,” he explained. “It’s all the stuff we need to do to keep fishing but never have time to do. So a day off is never really a day off.”
But even with the busy schedule, Deans is enjoying it. Sharing his 2018 Facebook post on Wednesday, he followed up with, “Couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”