Winter time, especially February, is my slow season. While the fishing can be phenomenal, we usually do not have as many visitors, this time of year. Fortunately, I received a call from a life long friend about a fishing trip. Rick Marcello, is starting up a performance fishing company, Hydor. While he is based near Atlanta, Rick informed me that he was going to be in Steinhatchee, Fl for a few days. A gap in scheduled charters allowed Capt. Jason Phillips and I to head over across the state for a chance to play with some new gear and some different fish!

Since this was a mini vacation we decided not to mess around with bait. We started out throwing Gulp jerk baits and Slayer paddle tails. Even with being new to the area, Jason found a nice sea trout almost right away.A few casts later, redfish was on the menu. Once again, it was Jason with the hot hand.As the pictures show, weather was not conducive to sight fishing. We both caught several fish and then decided to explore a bit further south. After making a run of less then a half mile, we started actually seeing bait and fish activity. Day one culminated with 10 nice redfish and close to 40 sea trout. It was a fun day for sure.

Day two was a little cooler and we had a heavy fog to start out with. We struck out with the new Hydor rods and reels and had similar results. A few casts in, and the fish were chewing againThe fish may not be… but I am looking forward to the full release of the Hydor Performance Fishing line. Between the rods, reels, and performance gear I am excited to watch Rick’s company grow. Thank you for a good excuse to get away for a few days, as well as, the sneak preview of the great things to come.

Wow! I can not believe how many great opportunities, to share fishing experiences, that I neglected to blog about last year. Well this trip has fueled the fire and I will be sharing many more this year.

Tuesday morning, I had the pleasure of sharing the water with Mark. This was our second trip out during his vacation in Flagler Beach. and we were greeted first thing by perfect conditions.

It only got better from there. After searching for less then ten minutes we saw a group of redfish feeding. We had a school of about 25 reds within casting distance. Mark caught one almost right away.He then proceeded to boat 3 more fish within 20 minutes. We easily landed ten fish in the first hour. This was turning into a morning to remember!After catching so many fish that we lost count, Mark landed a nice oversized redfish also. I sure am blessed to have great clients to share the water with. I can not wait to get back out there and do it again soon.