How a Tampa Bay fishing captain turned Hurricane Helene conditions into a ‘special day’
Every angler believes that big incoming weather means hungry fish.
The thought of a pre-front or pre-storm bite intrigues anglers even when deteriorating conditions are ahead. The idea of an epic day is one we dream about.
Hurricane Helene provided this opportunity as it spun up between Mexico and Cuba earlier this week. Hurricanes create a lot of water movement and dropping barometers, both known for inspiring hungry fish.
With the storm closing in on Florida Thursday, the southern approach allowed a few captains to keep their fishing trips on Wednesday scheduled with fishable weather.
“I’ve been guiding for around eight years,” said captain Joe Burruezo, who specializes in trips around the eastern side and up into Tampa Bay. “I’m blessed to be a Tampa Bay native, so I’m familiar with a lot of ramps. I was upfront and open with my clients for Wednesday and said there’s a storm coming and it’ll be windy, but we can hide from the wind. They were only in town for two days and wanted to fish so I said, ‘I’ll keep you safe and lets go.’”
Burruezo is no stranger to fishing ahead of big weather and knows it can provide a special day. He stayed tucked into wind-blocked areas for his out-of-town guests to keep their rods bent.
“I’ve done some professional redfish tournaments and I’m all for fishing a pre-frontal bite,” he described. “On Wednesday, bait was fairly easy and they wanted to target sharks with kids. I think the sharks were a little off with the weather, but there was plenty of action with the jacks and ladyfish as abundant as we could ask for.”
Highly migratory fish like jacks, mackerel and ladyfish usually thrive with more water moving and are great for kids as they are willing eaters. After providing plenty of action, a change of scenery brought him into an unusual event.
“The tide was about a foot higher than predicted ahead of the storm, so the day started on a flood tide. When it started dumping out, the fish could feel there was something in the air and they were frisky,” Burruezo said.
“We started catching redfish in an area I don’t catch too many,” he added. “If we would have targeted them sooner I’m sure we would have experienced a great bite.”
The only thing that ended the fish biting was the charter concluding for the day, leaving Burruezo’s clients happy with their day.
Burruezo fortunately lives far enough east of the bay to escape any day-of storm impacts. When he gets back out to fishing, he may take a few days to explore the bay again.
“Water is probably going to be really dirty with an influx of debris and freshwater,” he said. “I’m going to scout a bit before running trips. If the fish haven’t moved around, that will be a blessing. But there could be some interesting findings out there with so much freshwater and lower salinity.”
