Reel Animals Fishing Show Saturday 08-23-25

Reel Animals Fishing Show - Saturday August 23

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Bovarto Ford Reel Animals.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Radio show, your weekly voyage into Florida Fishing, presented by
Hubbard's Marina, hosted by Captain Mike Anderson and Captain Dylan Hubbard.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
You just got Mike Mahoney and my buddy Kevin crofton
today with me. Appreciate you. Kevin coming in, Kevin, Yep, yep,
Happy Saturday. Man. It is early too, huh.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yeah, it's a little bit early, coming from Loots and
getting over here.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
How'd you like that racetrack the new Howard Franklin. Yeah, right,
get you on your cornering and.

Speaker 5 (00:39):
Yeah, rope, that's like a race to get over here
for sure.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah, traffic's kind of nice this time of the morning.
We're entertaining you today, sitting in for I couldn't tell
you where they're at. Mike's probably hitting a softball somewhere
and Dylan. I think Dylan had something going on, like
a birthday. And I thought to myself, a birthday, your
kid's birthday where they ain't getting up at six in

(01:04):
the morning, Why can't you make it in then?

Speaker 5 (01:07):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:07):
But I didn't want to give them two heart of
a time them guys are big. Even these chairs were
sitting in there like oversized, like a love seat, you know,
to fill their shoes. It's not the easiest. But you know,
the biggest shocker to me this week, you know, prayers
go out to the Saladino family. Just a legend in

(01:30):
the area. And I'd thought all week about Tony Saladino
and when I was a kid, he was a legend.
And I start thinking back and we're talking, you know,
over forty years of me remembering it. So our prayers
go out to him. A great man, helping kids the

(01:51):
whole time. And I know one thing, when you played
a team and there was a name Saladino on it,
they were good.

Speaker 5 (01:59):
Oh absolutely, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
And even you know, it's crazy, Kevin, because you know,
being in the world of growing up in Brandon, right
and knowing just a brand and and I really thought
to myself, you know, definitely a legend for brand and
for sure, but man, that guy just all over.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Well yeah, Brandon, Tampa for sure, I guess Bay area,
but yeah he was.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I mean that he had he met the New York
the you know, the stadium for the Rays, and they
had something there, So I mean just really a lot
more than I ever imagined, and a great man, always
into youth sports, and uh definitely are our hearts. And
yeah they're still out to that family.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Done a lot for the baseball community, that's for sure. Yeah,
that's a lot of lives.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, for sure, I wanted to wanted to throw that
in there. And also, don't forget this Tuesday coming up.
We got Mike and Dylan and Captain Jeff Hackelman coming
over to O C C. Okay, make sure you get
over there. I've been over there a few times, you know.
Last time I actually did something I don't think anybody
else has ever done. I spilled a coke on Scott

(03:09):
Moore's lap. You know, there's not too many people that
can say that. And once again, Scott, I'm sorry about that.
It wasn't something intentional, but we did get to test
those quick dry pants you were wearing, and they dried up.
That's where old Big Sticky got his name from getting
a little bit of soda on him, you know, So
maybe we can call Scott big Sticky now.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah, Well, did he have the zip off pants where
you know he could zip the bottoms off?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
I don't think I don't think he had enough time
to do that. I went over to shake his hand,
and you know, the glasses. You know, I'm wearing glasses now.
I fought it for so many years and then all
of a sudden boom, and that's kind of maybe I
won't do that anymore. I'll fist bump instead of shaking hands.
It may end up being a little bit better. But

(03:56):
you know, fishing this time of year, talking to some
the guys out there, one of the the you know,
the best things to fish for right now, if you're
in Tampa Bay is where I would be targeting. Is
the kobea and tripletail still on the booys.

Speaker 5 (04:12):
Oh that's cool.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
A lot of guys catching them. I'm gonna tell you
my favorite spots from the Alifi River to downtown hitting
those booyes on the ship channel, there's been some big
triple tail kobea And you know when you're hitting those Kevin,
you really want to throw at every booy because you
don't always see the fish. He may hear you coming

(04:35):
up or whatever. And then tripletail don't really run that far,
but they'll go down that chain to where you can't
see them. The visibility isn't his good. So make sure
if you're doing that kind of fishing that you're hitting
every one of those booyes.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I always try to tell people on the drift when
you go buy one of them, you know, you got
to know which way the current's going, and that tells
you where the chain is that's holding that booy and
you kind of want to stay away from that side
because definitely they're going to dive when they go down,
and they'll break you off on that chain every time.

(05:10):
I don't care what kind of tackle you got, but
targeting those right now. One nice thing is you keep
the boat moving a little bit of moving air. You know,
it can get super hot this time of year to
where you're you know, sitting out on a flat somewhere
trying to catch a trout or a redfish. Yeah, you know,
makes it a little bit easier when you turn that

(05:31):
ac on and start moving from booie to booie. Use
the boat to pull them off. And I'm going to
tell you one thing. The way me and Jerry Williams
used to do it. He'd pull that cast up there
that Kobea would hit and he would back off with
his boat, so he's kind of helping you pull it
that way. And as you know, Kevin, you've caught plenty

(05:53):
of Kobe. I got one in my store. I think
that's one hundred pounds that you'd caught. But a lot
of times they'll come to the boat first and see
what's got him.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
I'll tell you a lot of times you think you're
pulling something heavy and it's right there, right next to you,
and you're like, wow, that wasn't much of a fight.
And then as as you go to Gotham, they're gone.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Well, and me and Jerry, would you know, pull out
the three fifty seven and pop one in the head,
which is you know, smart, smart and legal. Yeah, if
you're not in the city limits.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Right on.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
So I'm sitting out there with Jerry one day and
we hit one by the mouth of the river pretty good,
one forty five fifty pounds, and he said, get it
up next to the boat, and I almost shoot him
to be ready, and I said, okay, so I pull
him up, we shoot him, you know, boom straight in
the boat. Let's go for the next one. And then
all of a sudden we see this blue light coming
to us and I don't know if anybody remembers. Years ago,

(06:52):
Jeff Foot worked at Marjorie Park for TPD Marine Division,
and he kind of came up and told us, you're
inside the city limits. You are aware of that, aren't you,
And you can't discharge a weapon and city limits. So
we learned that you need to be well away from
downtown if you're going to pop one like that.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Well, at least he was giving you education instead of
putting your putting your hands behind your back.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah. Well, and Jeff hooked me up a couple of times.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
One time, me and Jerry were running up the river
and it's a no wake zone in the winter, and
we weren't really throwing a wake, but we were running,
you know, yeah the boat. The boat wasn't in the water. Yeah,
you know, there was one little ripple. And he enlightened
us on that one too that it's not actually no wake,

(07:43):
it's no you know speed. Yeah, it has to do
with the speed of the boat and being able to
control the boat. So yeah, I think, thank you Jeff
Foot for explaining that to me many years ago. And
it's something I still remember today, of course, but I
want to hear about that big Kobe. You tell me
that story, Kevin.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
The Big KOBEA that is on the wall in there.
I probably really shouldn't tell that story. Well, it was
kind of behind lines, if you know what I mean.
But no, it was a I've caught a bunch of
big ones in in and around the power plant over
there at night time and uh, they just you know,
when it gets cold, they come in there and give
them the right baits. And there's big ones in there.

(08:23):
There's a lot of big ones.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
No, was that beyond the jugs. It was that was
back when they didn't mind that.

Speaker 5 (08:29):
You did that.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Well, they didn't mind if they didn't see you. You know,
I just got to get in there and before they
saw you. But you know, we'd hide in there a
little bit back.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
This was years ago now, oh yeah, beyond ten years,
so it's statue of limitations.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
I think I was still a teenager when I did that,
you know, my crazier years. But yeah, we had a
lot of fun in that power plant with those fish.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
And that was a small boat too, wasn't it, nne
with one hundred pound kobe. Yeah, that would be the
fun part, trying not to flip over.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Well, there was three more in the boat too, that
were over fifty pounds that night because there was two
of us and we had two eats.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
So yeah, they were in there. They were in there.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
What were they eating? Just a swimming jig, just a
little swimming jigs.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Long tail like they use, or just a regular one.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
No, just a three inch a little swim and shod,
we called them. And we made them ourselves and made
the little jig heads and everything. Uh, you know, And
that was a was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
A good pull for sure, little.

Speaker 4 (09:25):
Little lake commando fishing, you know, yeah, like commando because
you had to stay in there and all that dark
side wouldn't try that any anymore.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
No, No, I you know I used to slip into McDill. Yeah,
but I can promise you the ninja turtles will find you.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
It's a whole lot different.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, it used to be. You could you kind of
knew when to go in. I actually knew. You'd hear
the whistle and then you'd hear two or three more shots.
It was somebody at the firing range, and then you
could run in. You had a couple of minutes before
they started shooting again. Because there was a couple spots
in there that you know, the actual ricochets or whatever
they were stray bulleted here and tumbling over. So you

(10:04):
didn't really want to be on that straightaway. You either
want to be before the straightaway or after the straightaway,
and it was less likely wow to happen. But I
went in there. You know, it was a long time ago,
was after nine to eleven, and you know there was
ninja turtles didn't approve. Yeah, and they got me out
of there real quick and not.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Really security has changed everything, yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well, you know it was pretty neat. At the first
security they had over there was like an action craft
with a one fifty on it. Okay, so you had
the big two fifty or two twenty five. You just
didn't look back behind you, right, you know, and keep
on rolling out. But that's a different story. Today there's
twin engine boats and they patrol that pretty good. So

(10:50):
I would pretty much stay away from the power plants.
I know that when you were talking about going over
the jugs, I used to go over. I had a
little thirty five horse Johnson on the boat and I
would flip the lock lever up and then I would
aim in between the jugs and then the shut it
off kind of thing, and then the motor would kick
up and boom, I could hit the key again. You

(11:13):
hope it started right away. You know, you'd be all
up against the jugs, but then you could pull on
in there and shoot. I remember some of the workers
in there watching me fish. I'd tie up to the outflow,
that concrete pole that went across. I had just set
my anchor right there, and middle of the night we'd
catch you know, I don't know black tip, sharks, kobea

(11:33):
snoke or heads, whatever was feeding in there, but definitely
wintertime that place was. I think now them fish are
probably staying away from there this time of year. It's
so hot and that hot water coming out of there.
You don't want, you know, too much stuff over there.
But I think the transition's coming soon, you know, I
sure hope, so, I sure hope. So one of my favorite,

(11:57):
you know, time of year is September for big snook
because the snook's spawn all you know, summer long and
or during the summer months, and then they get on
the move no matter what the temp is. We're gonna
go to the phone lines. We got Captain Mike Perry
from down in the Keys. What's up, Mike?

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Here are you two on the radio?

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
No, no yogurt, no granola.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
No, no, no, eighteen.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I just thought i'd give you guys a report. Fishing
in the Keys has been pretty good. We got out
in the Wahu, they cooperated for a couple of days, Mike.
We got some twenty to forty pound ors, some really
good ones, and we got into the Mahi. Of course
they're still around and uh we even got one yellowfin

(12:53):
tuna about a forty five pound.

Speaker 5 (12:56):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
We got a yellowfin. He made an appearance and he
only had to bite once and he knew where he
was going. But the fishing has been really good. The
snapper fishing's been outstanding. The mangoes and the muttons and
the yellow tails has been just raring to go. And
we're getting ready to do two weeks of golf gag grouper.

(13:22):
I got a lot of people that want to go
out and catch some gag grouper in the gulf side.
So September for the fourteenth, I'm busy.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, when they put that grouper season up, you know,
one of the the disc of course, there's a lot
of disadvantages, right, but they kind of gave us just that.
I think the full moon's the ninth in September, so basically,
I think all fourteen days you're fishing a little bit
different than you would on the new moon. Does that

(13:51):
affect you at all when you're group of fishing.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
I think I think it does. I think it's current.
It's all about current. Is I'm looking for areas where
I can get a good anchor heading, And of course
I don't pretty much use the anchor since I have
the power pole move on that big boat now, but
still an anchor heading and not moving around. And I
like to use the least amount of weight I can

(14:16):
start with six ounces and move our way on up,
you know, try to stay away from twelve ounces six
to eight ounces. But I think it has a lot
to do with the current. I really do. And that's
just my opinion when it comes to group of fishing.
I know there's a lot more better grouper experts up there,
you know, I have to know a little bit about
everything when you're fishing in the Keys, whether it's the

(14:39):
Gulf side of the Atlantic side. But we've been seeing
a lot of gags on the Atlantic side. I've just
sended a lot of big gags on the Atlantic side.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
So is that when you're fishing yellowtail and stuff like that,
you'll have gags come up on that charge.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, they'll come up on the chum, and then we
always get them on the ones we drop down to
the muntains on a and fighting a big group or
like a fifteen to twenty pounder on your standard fish
finder rig, like with a four or five foot leaders,
tough enough, but then you know, we put them twenty
thirty foot leaders for the mutting on and you got

(15:14):
to hand fish bring that fish in by hand the
last twenty feet and you know it's not a mutton
snapper yet. You know it's a bigger fish, and you
you kind of hope they're floating a little bit so
you can descend. You know, this time of year, so
you can descend them. But I don't mind between the
first and the fourteenth. I don't mind if they float
on up because they're only going to have to bite once.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
That's right. What kind of depth are you fishing.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
In, Mike one sixty to two twenty.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yep, that's about the same. Here we got a break
coming up, Mike. That's a great call from down on
the Floorida Keys, Captain Mike Perry, how do they get
ahold of you?

Speaker 2 (15:52):
A one three four three four eight zero eighty six
or called one eight sixty six? Game fish and Big Michael?
Shoot you our way? God, blessed day. Lions from the
Florida Keys, take a vacation.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Guys. Thanks, Mike, Hey, we've got a break coming up.
You got Mike Mahoney Kevin Crofton on the Real Animals
Saturday nine seventy. We'll be right back. No, Mike, no, Dylan.
You got Mike Mahoney and Kevin Crofting. Today we're gonna
go to the phone lines. We've got Donald in loots.
What's up? Donald?

Speaker 7 (16:23):
Hey, go on, Mike, go on, Kevin to hear you
on a Saturday morning.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, kind of surprised him. I guess they didn't have
anybody else, and I was last minute. You got to
cover for us. I know I'm usually low on the list, you.

Speaker 7 (16:38):
Know, Yeah, I don't think so. And who hasn't been
out there trying to catch those uh you know, lucid
tag redfish. Why is it that every year all these
anglers who aren't registered for Star catches them and us
who have been registered since its inception can't seem to

(16:58):
find one. It's so we But I'm going back out
tomorrow morning and closed. I caught some some good redfish
last week, so maybe one of them might be a tagged.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
So gotta keep at it. It's a numbers game, I
promise you. But I agree with you, you know. And Kevin,
he's sitting here with me. He's done a lot of
kingfish and I kingfished with him, and always the top five.
You'd hear people that are just you know, not really kingfishermen,
but they were in the tournament and all of a
sudden they win it or come in second. And you know,

(17:35):
luck has that once in a while.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (17:39):
It does. And you know, it was very excited for
this year's Junior Pro staff my grandson Henry. He took
first place in the bass division without twenty four in fast.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (17:53):
I put that on a watermelon fluke bait and that
was very cool. Well, let think he jumped in the air.
I watched it twice.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
You gave away as bait, you gave away as bait
the watermelon foot.

Speaker 7 (18:12):
It works. Those. It's actually a saltwater beat. It's not
even a best beat. It's a twelve fathom which they're
out of business. They's being Sandford. But I still have
a bunch of those and a great for trout and
greatful Lockmount bass.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's awesome, Donald. We appreciate the call, buddy. Make sure
you call in tomorrow to the other show. We'll be
ripping it up there.

Speaker 7 (18:35):
Oh absolutely, Hey you guys, take here's taiwan Is. Everyone
see see if out there and go catch them up.

Speaker 5 (18:41):
Yep, same to you.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Sounds good. We got music, Kevin. We got another break
coming up. We will be right back. I hope I
didn't disappoint you. You got Mike Mahoney and Kevin crofton today.
The two big men had uh, I guess had something
going on. They couldn't make it early this morning, and
they'll be here next eat to entertain you. No Facebook
video or any of that. We get to sit in

(19:03):
here and not worry about that stuff. What we're talking about, Kevin.
You know, one of the things I wanted to ask
you about was this time of year and what kind
of what kind of fish are you fishing for? What's
your target?

Speaker 4 (19:21):
This time of year. Shoot, I'm looking forward to the
Black Grouper season. Honestly, the gags are like everybody else,
you know, that's a table fair for me.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, what what depth you're run into?

Speaker 4 (19:34):
I think, uh, probably seventy five eighty foot probably, as
we will probably start kind of keep the trip a
little bit less expensive with all the gas prices and
you know, having to run too deep.

Speaker 5 (19:45):
I don't think we got to go that far, to
be honest with you, right.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
You know, one of the things I was talking to
some divers buddy of mine that goes down there and dives,
and he said he could not, you know, believe all
the gags that he was finding. And this is two
weeks ago in that sixty seventy foot of water on
them bait bait pods, you know. And Feewoks called in
last week to the Sunday Show and talked about every

(20:13):
almost every spot he hits where he sees a bunch
of bait on the bottom on the outskirts of those
he's seeing a bunch of gags, and that's eighty foot
to one ninety, you know, is where he's targeting. Depending
on how much, you know, how long of a day
they're going to spend. But the diver he told me.
He said they were out there and the deep stuff

(20:34):
and didn't have a lot of luck out there, and
they came in a little bit shallow or maybe to
catch some different fish, and they couldn't get away from the.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
Baits king You know, my dad was so big on that.
You know, we fished whatever, whatever species. You know, you're
looking for bait. He fished bait. That was I mean religiously,
you know, look for bait. Whatever fish he was fishing for,
he found bait. That's where he fished for him.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, the whole food chain. Yes, yes, you know. One
of the first times I ever fished with y'all was
in Louisiana. I think Fushan is where I went to
in one of the first tournaments. And of course there
we didn't have to worry about bait. I mean, it
was like everywhere we went. I remember one time we
were trolling, might have been in Venice, but I'm thinking

(21:20):
it was that Fushon tournament where we were trolling by
that rig. There was a bunch of bait there and
he had I guess he had heard there was some
kingfish in that depth or that block on the chart,
and every time we passed this leg, I think the
first one I called about a twenty five pound red
snapper trolling a blue runner on a down rigger next

(21:42):
to that. And then of course the next time we
went around, I think yours was pushing thirty pounds.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Well, yeah, yeah, I think was that the one we
actually placed in a tournament with it?

Speaker 5 (21:53):
You fish?

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, the bonus tournament fish. Yeah, it was I think
right at twenty nine something. And I believe that came
in third. And that snapper division over there, that was
a big one that came in third.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
That's what's crazy about Louisiana, and I talk about it
all the time. You know, you can be anywhere on
the West coast or East coast and fishing for kingfish,
and you know, forty pounders a good fish, Well, forty
and fifty pounders we'd shake off the hook, yeah, you
know when you're fishing Louisiana, because that wouldn't even be
top twenty.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Right, right, depending on the weather and the bite, you know,
if the right timing hits. Yeah, there's plenty of fish
over fifty pounds over there.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
And one of the things Kevin I know his family
crofton that their accomplishment. At one time, y'all had the
biggest kingfish ever weighed in SKA, didn't.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
You during tournament hours? Yes, my brother and my dad.
I wasn't actually on that trip, but they got a
sixty six.

Speaker 5 (22:54):
And high pounder over.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
They got it out of Mississippi, out of Mississippi and
got it on the rigs though, had a seventy mile trip.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
And y'all want a truck, I think, yeah, it's some money.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
No truck and an engine. I believe in some money.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, for the first place, y'all. Y'all won quite a few,
not necessarily winning in first every time, but always in
that top ten. It seemed like I know when I
fished with you, we were down in the keys one
time and we came in second I think in that
Hog's Breath tournament. Yeah, so it was definitely a team
to beat. We went through the lakes there, and I

(23:31):
remember it was almost like driving in a cab in
New York. You just don't look.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Yeah, you know, that was.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
A really shallow area there for many miles, but it
enabled us to get ahead of some of those fast
boats by cutting through there and getting to the tail
Enbooi is where I remember we caught that.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, it's following the little black line. Once you run
at once, you just stay on the black line, you know, you.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Better be zoomed in. Yeah, don't get off that line.
But it was all the hydrosport boats cut through there.
I remember that, and looking out there to the left,
you know it is where we were going, or looking south,
and we were running through there. You could see all
those other boats and that six foot stuff and they
were coming out of the water and we were in flat,
calm water and basically just poked out right from there

(24:19):
and the tail MBUOI was within a few miles I
think of the other side of that.

Speaker 5 (24:24):
Where we started fishing was.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
I'm not sure how far the buy is where we
come out, but yeah, it wasn't too far.

Speaker 3 (24:29):
No, we didn't have too far to run. Me and
Kevin were on the back deck. We dropped two down
riggers down and both of them went off, And I
remember at the time that was one of my biggest
fish I probably caught. It was probably forty pounds, and
I remember when they gaffed it, they stew it on
the deck of the boat, and I was like whoa,

(24:50):
you're not going to put that in the bag. We're
not going to weigh that. And you looked over at
me and said mine still pulling drag. Yeah, I think
that was fifty two or something.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
The one.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
I think it wrapped around the lobster, chaining, the lobster
rope and all that. It took us a few minutes
to get it in because it was not only a
big fish, but it got wrapped around the bowie and
we had to do some maneuver and to get it
out of there.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
I'll never forget that fish come up behind the motors. Yeah,
and somebody said, hey, don't gaff that fish behind the boat.
And as they said it, Rubio gaffed that fish. I'm
pretty sure he was on that trip with us in
Boom he hit it and came straight in the boat.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
Yeah, of course you don't.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
He's been around a bunch, so him gaffing, if he
reaches out there, he usually gets a hold of it.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
But man, what a great trip, and you know that
whole trip going to Fushaw and that kind of started
my whole deal with going to the Louisiana. I mean,
from that point on. It was like I couldn't believe
that fishery and how fun it was.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
And we went out right prior to the tournament and
went out there. We said we were going to go
sniper fishing. We'd never done it before. I don't know
if you remember that trip. And we came back in.
They were like, how'd y'all do that? We're like, we
were not telling you if y'all don't know how to
do it, you know.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
I remember the vallets. That was when I first met them,
Brenton Brandon, and they were kind of laughing at us.
We were leaving the day before and they were like,
what are y'all doing? Yeah, they were going snapper fish.
Oh yeah, Florida boy is going to go snapper fishing.
We'll see you when you get back. And we came back.
That was when I realized your I think it was

(26:27):
Larry Fowler's helper.

Speaker 5 (26:30):
Oh yeah, what was his name? Oh like Jeth Throw
or something.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, something he couldn't even bob. We were taking turns,
if you remember doing them, snapper to where we each
one of us drive the boat. Yeah, stay up on
the rig, that's right, you know, instead of tying up
to it.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Actually, if you remember, we didn't know what we were doing,
and we pulled up and we had the boat and reverse,
so we kept off the front of them but.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
Kept in reverse.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
And you know, it was this I guess my mind
of bass fishing or bridge fishing or what. I'd never
fished the rigs like that, so I wanted that bait
under the rig, when in fact, really the bigger fish
are behind the rig.

Speaker 5 (27:06):
You know.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Yeah, we didn't know, but we definitely loaded the box.
We had a good day, and uh that was what
hooked me. Yeah, for sure. I got a seminar coming up.
I think it's the second over at Fens and Apollo Beach,
and I'm gonna be talking big snook. You know. September
is a time where they start coming up in these

(27:27):
rivers where a lot of people want to target them
big snook in the spring, and they are easy and
you know, not easy, but they're easier to locate and
where they're at by throwing a bunch of chum out.
But I'll tell you one of my favorite times is
coming up September. It's hard to beat when them big

(27:47):
fish start going up in the rivers and following those
shad and yeah, you know Tampa Bays just loaded with rivers.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, and I have a hard time leaving the beach,
you know, when they're in August, and then when say
start making a transition. Yes, for sure, the mouths are
awesome to fish.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, and that's what happens. I don't think it's in
my opinion, and I'm you know, not an expert on it,
of course, but they when they spawn, it doesn't really
matter what the tempts are. They are moving according to
the daylight hours. I think all those fish do that
kind of thing. So as the days get shorter and

(28:28):
we start moving through that and it starts changing a
little bit, which you're not going to be too short
for a couple of months anyway, but I know September
there is a difference. Yeah, and that's when those fish
start moving. Now, they may move further up as it
gets cold. That's where they're going to want to be
with those rivers and springs and decay and all that

(28:50):
stuff brings the you know, warm water into there, and
that's why they're there. But also those shad they're following up.
So if you hear those shad flipping, absolutely, you know
they kind of flutter. They're a little bit different than
most baits, but you can hear them for sure. And
when you hear that flutter, you know those fish are
going to be there. And it's just like what you
were saying about kingfish. You know, you fish where the

(29:12):
bait is all of the bait, yes, a lot of
the smaller fish. And when I say smaller fish, you're
you know, thirty fours in under are going to be
up high and the lights on those rivers. But don't
hesitate to put a weighted lady fish or shat or
something on the bottom and make those those big ones

(29:33):
are looking for that opportunity to eat one time.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
And yeah, the big bait, big bait's always big fish
on them sick. Yeah, you can get the smaller ones
to get them to bite the smaller baits sometimes, but
typically the big bait will get the big fish for sure.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
Yeah, it may not be as many bites. You know,
when you throw out them green backs at the lights
or shrimp or whatever you're throwing, you know a lot
of times them a little fish will or really hit
it quick. A big fish down on the bottom. You'll
get less hits, but you know, and I know I've
sat there throughout the night waiting for one hit. That's right,

(30:10):
you know, and people that have caught big snook will
tell you that sometimes it's a waiting game, you know.
Sometimes you got to sit there several hours before that
bitele happened. But I know on the rivers, what I'm
looking for is moving water. Absolutely, that's the main thing.
And when you fish a bridge, I was telling a
guy about this the other day, when you fish the bridge,

(30:32):
you don't necessarily have to fish the structure of the bridge,
like you don't have to be like your group of
fishing and you want to be just off of it.
I fish as shadow lines. Yeah, from what I've seen,
those fish go up and down those shadow lines. Night
times about the best time to fish, and I like
the full moons. On your full moons, you get more

(30:53):
feed times in the dark.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
Definitely, definitely at nighttime in the full moon, in the
middle of the day, you know, to ensure obviously it's
good on the flats of stuff in the middle of
the day.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, we were talking during the break and I think
everybody's pretty excited about the whole group or thing. Gag
season open up. They only give us fourteen days, which
is kind of ridiculous, but it's what we have to
deal with. But also what they're giving us is that
two weeks right there, the ninth is the full moon.

(31:26):
And it's kind of hard with a charter captain because
he's going to run his day like he normally does,
you know, meet at the dock at six or seven
or whatever it is when we come in at four.
I know, I do a little bit different around the
full moon. I want to get out there a little
bit later and stay later. It seems like it's a

(31:48):
better bite, you know, even a nighttime trip, which I
think Mark feewoks I'd been talking to him and he's
going to try to get one of those in during
that time. Now we're gonna be able to keep red
snapper and gags, which will be the first time this
year that we're able to do that, which makes it

(32:08):
kind of nice, you know, like you were saying, before
you burn all that fuel and there's you know, it
gets me over everything is you know, we got to
throw them back and then we can go to a
fish house and buy them. Yeah, you know that's right
with that picture, you know, And they try to tell
us all it's because of this or that, but it's
all bs. Hopefully, people like Dylan that are fighting for

(32:32):
our rights to fish are going to kind of straighten
that out. And they've already done, you know, pretty good
with what they're doing. So to get the right people
in there working for those you know, gags. Like I've said,
they're everywhere every offshore guy right now showing pictures of
gags being released trying to catch them.

Speaker 5 (32:53):
It just happens.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
We got music, we got to break. Mike Mahoney, Kevin
crofton seventy. We'll be right back. No, Dylan and Mike.
You got Mike Mahoney today and Kevin crofton and we're
gonna stay on the phone lines. We're gonna go over
here to our safe boating tip. Captain Jim Fogel, what's up, Jim?

Speaker 6 (33:15):
Hey Bud anyway? Yeah, you fake me out there. When
I turn the radio on, I go, wait a minute,
what happened to Saturday?

Speaker 3 (33:22):
You thought you slept right through Saturday?

Speaker 6 (33:24):
Huh did, Buddy?

Speaker 2 (33:26):
I did?

Speaker 6 (33:26):
Yeah? Okay, you guys are sounding.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Good though, Hell oken, how are you doing, sir?

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Good?

Speaker 6 (33:32):
Thank you? Yeah, Okay, this morning we're gonna talk a
little bit about passenger and crew safety. When you take
your crew and your passengers out, you know they're in
your hands. You want to warn them when you're making
a big turn. You want to warn them when you're
coming up on a plane, and you want to warn
them when you're slowing down. Make sure everybody knows they

(33:54):
need to hang on. They need just to have three
points of contact. Two on the floor and went on
the deck some where. Warn when warned them when you're
going to take awake or a wave, I take that
wave at forty five degree angle. If you can, don't
crash through them like some kind of nut job. You know,
it's not good for your boat and it's not good
for your people. Make sure any everybody knows if you're

(34:18):
opening a floor hatch, especially in the back of the
boat where people are fishing. Man, I hate those things
back there. You know, somebody's always stepping in one. They
get somebody's putting a fish in and somebody's hooked up
and somebody falls in. It's not a good thing. Oh man. Yeah,

(34:39):
I've even stepped into myself Hurst like you.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
You know what else is bad too, Jim, is when
they open up them hatches in the boat and they
got those little twist handles, and they don't twist the
handle where it goes back down.

Speaker 6 (34:54):
Nasty little tripping hazard thing. That's why, another reason why
you shouldn't anybody, you know, wear flip flops barefooted on
a boat. A wife tends to ignore that, but one
day it's going to hurt her.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
I agree with that, especially fishing, especially fishing.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
Oh yeah, yeah. Ask your people to make sure they
keep the boats and the I mean the boats, the
rods and the rod holders even when they're bating up.
And make sure you secure those lids and hooks in between.
Get the blood and gore and gunk and stuff off
the deck for somebody slips on it. That's one job

(35:34):
that mate ought to be constantly working on. And if
you see it, if you're a fisherman, you see it,
you know, bring somebody's attention. Or if you know where
the washdown is, take care of it. Get it out
of there. You hood up two an our Maha or
something like that.

Speaker 4 (35:51):
It's always good having a wet rag too. I like
to put a wet rag on the on the gunnel,
just for leave it sitting there.

Speaker 6 (35:59):
Fishing exactly exactly make sure you keep knives at a
place that's not going to fall or gig somebody. Everybody
should keep an eye on the weather. It's the time
of the year especially. Let the captain know if you
see something coming up that he might not see. Be
careful with that braided line. Loose loops, they're not tight.

(36:24):
We'll hurt you. Get your lying out. Keep flying out
of the mangoes with canda docs and so forth, and
be careful. And if you're pulling up a line that
is hooked into a mango over a dock or something,
be careful. I think we'll come back at you one
hundred miles an hour and there's no way you can
dodge it. So be careful and warn everybody if you're

(36:46):
getting ready to jerk one out of there. Absolutely good job, Jim,
the idea All right, guys, got to run here. We're
putting a couple of us are helping him with a
program up at the Saint Pete Yacht Club today and
ought to be fun. So we're hitded up that way.
Good luck, Thank you, Thank you for Cozillia and St. Peter.

(37:06):
Jim full will be safe out there.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Great call, Jim. Sometimes I feel guilty. Yeah, when I
hear him, like, I know, man, it's so much. There's
so much I think about times riding on the boat,
you know sometimes and I'm not telling you to do
this because I've just realized that maybe it's not right
to do. But everybody on the boat ought to be
paying attention. And if you're not, yeah, then you know

(37:32):
you kind of hit that wake head on to try
to jump it, which Jim said, I'm a fool.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
I think it's you know, you got to know who
you're who's on the boat with you. You know, most
of the time, if you've got somebody that's a greenhorn,
you're going to be thinking about it when you do it.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
Oh yeah, you know, you let them know. But you know,
paying attention is the most important thing, absolutely, I think.
So Kevin, let's uh, let's talk a little bit. Oh
we ain't talking a little bit. I'm going to do
that on the way back. We're going to talk about
crafton family meets up there in Landa Lakes. Kevin's running now,
but right now we got a break. We'll be right back. Well,

(38:08):
you got Mike Mahoney and Kevin crofton today filling in
for the big guys, they got something going on. But
if I were you, I would be out the occ
on Tuesday night. It's going to be a blast. I've
been to the last couple of them. Excellent place to
hang out, eat and talk fishing. But Kevin, something I

(38:31):
want to ask you about. What do you got going
on now? Crafton Family Meats.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
Yeah, we started a business out in Landa Lake's. Actually
that started took one over that was already going. I
was involved in the in the meat business my whole
life and just decided to name one after our name,
and I got my kids working there. It's kind of
like a starting a new family business like we had
forever with Crafton and Sons. Now we have a it's

(38:57):
called Crafton's Family Meat Market where Landa Lakes. We have
lots and lots of good, good meat, That's what I'll
tell you, and proteins.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Well, you know, one of the things I learned from
you when I went over there is you always think,
you know what's the best steak. READBI, you know it's
going to be the most expensive, right We've just been
trained that way. But listening to you and grabbing some
of the different meats that were lower costs per pound,
unbelievable flavor and everything else. And it I would suggest

(39:29):
anybody that wants something good to eat. And I know
this time of year for you is come. You know,
you got football season. As soon as you hear about
football season, the barbecues are happening.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah, the pork starts going a little better, obviously because
people can stay outside and grill a little bit longer.
You know, the steaks are quick, so all year they
go good, But the pork starts going good in the
wintertime because people want to be outside and feel good.
Grilling in Florida it's a little different, you know, our summertimes.
Nobody wants to grill. We grill in the winter, So.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, you don't want to be outside, you run out,
check it and run back in.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Yeah, I mean, what are we getting? A hundred degree
feels like like almost every day for a while.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Well, we got that one day that seemed like it
was right at one hundred, broke all kinds of records,
but constantly ninety.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
You know this morning when I woke up and we
were running over here, it was like seventy five and
I thought, man, what's this a cold front? But yeah,
it didn't last long.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
The humidity in the mornings over the last couple of
weeks has been crazy. Get up in the morning, walk
out and start sweating.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
No fun.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Hey, where's your place at in Landa Lakes.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
Some I'm up about around between three right at three
miles north of fifty four on forty one Landa Links
Boulevard is what it's called, fifty one thirty two Landa
Links Boulevard. It's Crofton's family meet markets.

Speaker 5 (40:49):
Come see us.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
We'll get you on some some really good proteins, let
me tell you that.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
And you got some seafood over.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
There too, right, Yeah, we're bringing in lobsters from QY
now that they're only a couple of days old, so
they're nearly living and whole lobsters. And that's been a
pretty good hit. And I'm gonna start using some some
fresh fish from QS as well.

Speaker 5 (41:11):
Soon.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
I'm setting up a place where I could sell it
and be clean with it, you know, and keep the
smell down, you know, you want to. My market's are
very clean and smell good type atmosphere, you know. So
that's right, Yeah, bringing the fish in there, it's got
to be careful, you know, how that is.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
The fish market is a little bit different than the
meat market.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Yeah, you got to stay on top of that. I
know one thing. I had a buddy of mine one
time come back from the Keys during the lobster season
and I said, hey, why don't you give me a
few lobster I'll pay you for them. And he said, well,
we figured it out.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
This year.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
We spent about ninety seven dollars per pound on what
it costs to go down to the Keys. So much
more economical to run over there to Crafton's. It's what
I did. Yeah, are good and ready to go. Crafton
family meets up there in the land of Lake stop
buying and see them talking real animals sense you absolutely

(42:09):
get Mike and dialing up there. They end up buying
you out.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
I had to get a couple extra cows. Yeah, that's
for sure.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
You know another thing, I'm thinking of fish and wise
kingfish one of those, you know. I heard Dylan yesterday,
I think it was yesterday or the day before, talking
on the news about kingfish and mackerel kind of coming up.
He's got some reports down south. He thinks it's kind
of early. Are you what are your thoughts being that

(42:39):
you kingfish so many years out of here and everywhere
else around that has kingfish. When is the best time
here on West central Florida.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
Well, you know, obviously they follow the water temperature, and
seventy two is what they like. But you know you
can get fish in the different temps. But typically they'll
start showing up, we say here. I always satting around
you know Halloween. Halloween was really when it was starting to.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Go late October, yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
And November is really the blowout here, I think. But
you know, you got your rogue fishing deep offshore, you
got your plate. You'll get sure some every now and then,
but yeah, I think October mid October.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
Is when you really start looking for him around here.
And you know you'll hear about them.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
Obviously, they when they get here, they ravage every bait
they can.

Speaker 5 (43:27):
You know, coming through.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
Oh yeah, people that are out there group of fishing
start catching them, and that's when you know they're here, you.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Know, breaking off quick. Yeah, that's usually what happens when
you're not ready for him. But you know, we got
gag season coming up. You got fourteen days. I'd get
with my buddy Mark Feewalks and i'd also get with
Dylan Hubbard. I don't know how booked they are. There's
a lot of people that go out on that boat.
One thing about his boats they catch fish.

Speaker 5 (43:55):
Yeah, one of the.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Things when I ran my boat quite a bit, and
even now I always ask him that depth and where
they're at, because they seem to be pretty well tuned
into those offshore fish catching scamp And you know something
else I noticed it seemed a little early. There's been
quite a few people catching the hogfish you know that
I've seen, which seems kind of early. Let's go to

(44:19):
the phone lines. We got Lisa, Lisa Fitzgerald. What's happening Lisa, Well.

Speaker 8 (44:26):
Good morning, gentlemen. How are you.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
I'm doing great, trying to run the show in here
for the two big guys.

Speaker 8 (44:34):
Well, I hear that, I hear that I'm going Well,
that doesn't sound like Captain Mike and billan hovered.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
No.

Speaker 8 (44:41):
Well, and good to hear your voice. Things are going
great with Cca Florida Star. Just trying to remind everybody
that you still have until Labor Day to get out there,
go after any species of fish. You're talking about, hogfish,
kingfish group, all all the different species you do not

(45:02):
have to keep those fish in order to enter them
into the Star competition with a shot of the half
a million dollars in prizes. Your offshore division, the AFC
Offshore Division offers a brand new two point fifty Yamaha,
and it's not about the biggest fish. All you have
to do is catch any offshore species, take a picture

(45:24):
of it and submit it through our app. You have
a chance to win the same way with the inshore species.
It doesn't matter what inshore species you catch. You can
enter three in in a division a day. And the
Inshore division has a brand new, custom ge new the
LT ten with a twenty five horse Yamaha sitting on

(45:47):
a trailer. I mean, every single division has you know,
at least twenty five thousand dollars in prizes available. We
have a Lots of Spots tournament. If you don't think
you're going to catch a tagged redfish, my goodness, there's
an opportunity to catch it. A redfish. I see people

(46:08):
putting them out on social media all the time, but
they're not entering them in the Lots of Spots division
by drum spots. What a way to win prizes.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Yeah, for sure. How many how many people this year
have caught tagged redfish that aren't in the tournament?

Speaker 8 (46:25):
Oh my god, I'm going to tell you we we
have twelve.

Speaker 5 (46:30):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (46:32):
And one captain has had two different clients catch tagged redfish,
but his clients weren't registered. Oh if I were, If
I were chartering again and what I found one of
my clients caught a tag redfish, I would be advertising

(46:53):
the crap out of the fact that I released that redfish.
Because those redfish, according to the data that we have
from the tagfish right, don't travel more than not even
a quarter of a mile from where we release them.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
That's good to know for sure. I know you spread
them out all up and down the coast and really everywhere,
but that's also good to know that if somebody catches one,
you can go back to that same area and hunt
for what. I know, Donald's out there in his kayak
trying to catch that one.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Well.

Speaker 8 (47:31):
I will tell you. The cool listening about Star though,
is that this is excuse me, our eleventh year of competition.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (47:44):
We're going into this year awarding another one hundred thousand
dollars in college scholarships to kids. We've already awarded a
million dollars in college scholarship.

Speaker 5 (47:58):
That's super cool.

Speaker 8 (48:00):
So you know, these kids over the summer, all they
have to do they can catch any species. They can
catch a catfish, a ladyfish, pinfish, snapper jack, and along
with all of the other species, enter it. We do
a random drawing. It is the Guy Harvey Foundation Use

(48:24):
Scholarship Division, presented by Real True Fishing, and these kids
can win two twenty five thousand dollars scholarships or one
of ten thousand, ten five thousand dollars scholarships. There's just
so many ways for people to win. And if you
don't even fish, you can do something great for the environment.

(48:45):
Pick up trash right, go to your local shoreline, your
boat ramp man. You can go to a boat ramp
and fill a five gallon bucket full of trash really quick.
Enter it in the Coast of Sunglasses Division and have
an opportunity to win a trip to the Florida Keys.

(49:05):
You were just talking about how much it costs to
to you know, bring that lobster home.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (49:11):
Pick up trash. You can go down there for nothing.
Drink rum, pop us, meet Rum, while you're down there
and catch and catch lobster.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Yeah, that's awesome, Liza. Y'all are definitely walking the walk
with the CCA. Everybody needs to get involved with them
giving back to the community, conservation and fighting for the
recreational fishermen. We really appreciate the call.

Speaker 8 (49:35):
Yes, thank thank you, Mike, and just have them go
to our website CCA f L S t A R
dot com. They can get registered right there. It's really inexpensive.
And if you feel you got to do something for
the environment, get registered with us and come out and
help us do some good works. Thank you for all
you do for us. Mike and y'all have a great weekend.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Yeah, we appreciate the call. CCA Florida. You need to
get involved. Hopefully we got time for one more call.
We're going to go to Christopher. What's happening, Christopher?

Speaker 6 (50:07):
Hey?

Speaker 9 (50:07):
How you doing?

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Man?

Speaker 9 (50:08):
I just wanted to stay hi to Kevin, And like
I said earlier, I just wanted to thank his father,
many many many years ago of teaching a bunch of
little stupid kids in his front yard how to tie
a hook on how to throw a hook. Yeah, and

(50:28):
and I think that might have been my first tackle
box in my entire life. His dad made it out
of his garage. He had these tournament worms he made
in his garage and Kevin Kevin remembers that.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, he had. He had a tackle
shop in his garage for sure.

Speaker 9 (50:47):
West neighborhood kids would go in there and just take
anything we wanted pretty much. And he was always laid
back about it.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
Man.

Speaker 9 (50:54):
He got a whole generation into fishing.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Yeah, he was special. We uh.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
I ran into somebody the other day that was a
bass fisherman and I said is I said his nickname
was hand Bone and I said hand Bone and his eyes.

Speaker 5 (51:07):
Lit up and he's like, I knew your dad so well.

Speaker 4 (51:10):
Used to buy all the all the lures to where
we couldn't get none when we go to Bastard of
It's how the good lures were.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
Gone because he buy them all up. But yeah, good memories.

Speaker 9 (51:20):
The first time he ever looked at us. And by
the way, Kevin, this is Chris Atho.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
Okay, hey Chris. I was trying to figure which Chris
and your your voice?

Speaker 5 (51:29):
Your voice? Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 9 (51:32):
Yeah, And man, it wasn't for him, man, he he
got every one of us in the neighborhood.

Speaker 5 (51:40):
So cool. That's a great memory, Chris. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yep.

Speaker 9 (51:44):
And I'm gonna come check your new store out, man,
come do it.

Speaker 5 (51:47):
We got some good protein. I know you're a big boy.
You'll you'll come down there and find something to eat.

Speaker 9 (51:51):
I'm sure, Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. Man, you guys, that's
all you guys have ever done is had awesome meats
your long as I can remember.

Speaker 5 (52:01):
Well, we appreciate it.

Speaker 9 (52:02):
Whatever happened, Casey.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Casey, I'm not sure, Casey, Yeah, Captain Chaos. He's out
there raising somebody's blood pressure. I'm sure calls. Yeah, he's
definitely an instigator, that's for sure.

Speaker 9 (52:18):
Oh yeah, I love him man, and your brother Darren,
I ain't seen him in forever.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Yeah, he's still doing good. He's doing good.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
He's does some photography and uh he does well. And
you know, good family man, father and all that. But
we fish every now and then, not as much as
we used to, but we still love to do it.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
We get out around with Mike and go whenever we can.

Speaker 8 (52:38):
Well.

Speaker 9 (52:39):
Like I said, man, if your father is the one
that really instilled it in me when I was a shoot,
I can't even we're riding big wheels.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
Man.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
That's great.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
Well, we appreciate that, brother, Thank you for the calling.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Great call.

Speaker 9 (52:54):
All right, man, have a good one you as well.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
That's a great call when you hear stuff like that
given and you know what your dad gave back to kids,
but he also gave back to adults. Yeah, he did
a lot for me. I can tell you that we
got music. We will be right back Mike Mahoney Kevin
crofton Real Animal Saturday. We're back Real Animal Saturday with
Mike Mahoney from Ta Mahoney and Kevin crofton. We're talking fishing, baseball,

(53:23):
whatever you want to talk about, hopefully big snook because
we've got we got a caller here. It's I think
it's big snook J. What's happening Jay?

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Well, hey, Mike, I don't know about big snook J.
But I love to catch them. Yeah, and I heard
you talking about big snook, And of course Kevin started
on the line. I said, I got to call that.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
I'm glad you called in, buddy.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 6 (53:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
I'm heading down to uh to work on a dove
field this morning. I don't know if we'll get much
work done with the rain.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
And what's that mean?

Speaker 4 (53:59):
Jay?

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Does that mean spread and feed all over the place?
Is that how you work on a dove field?

Speaker 1 (54:05):
That's how you do it.

Speaker 5 (54:08):
Absolutely, that's how I do it.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
No, No, no, no, that's that that is Uh, you
know that's one of those gray areas. But no, we're
actually planning a brown top in different stages and they're
praying Milo and then we're planting sword.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Great.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
We're trying to do it right, you know it. It
sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

Speaker 5 (54:32):
Well, you guys, you guys got that stuff down.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
I've been on your dove hunts before, Jy, and those
are they're usually pretty good ones.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's but you know what, Kevin is getting
harder and harder. I don't know why. Yeah, I mean
you drive around the neighborhoods, there's plenty of doves, but
but to actually have a good quality dove field is
is a real challenge.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
Well, I know where you guys do a lot of
years up there and Pasco we're used to And I
was driving around in Connorton and all the new buildings yesterday.
What they're building out there, and there's a million doves
out there, because it's all sand and little low grass
and uh, the power lines out there in the middle
of the fields.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
There was doves everywhere yesterday. I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Yeah, they must have. I think they must have planted
some some foot for the uh to prevent runoffs.

Speaker 5 (55:22):
Yes, what do you think that'd be it? Yes?

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Yeah, I've got a field of my neighborhood down here
in Ruskin. I'm trying to find the owner. Uh, it's
got it's got three to four hundred doves on these
high power lines, and of course it'll probably be over
with by the season starting. Yeah, but yeah, there's nothing
like a good dove hunt in the fall. You know,

(55:46):
you got your dog next to you. Just just a
fun time. Yes, but uh, Kevin, Kevin, I heard you
say that you've got did you say you've got live
Florida lobsters there in your store?

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Or I'm not keeping them alive, Jay.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
They're leaving qys alive on ice and I'm getting them,
you know, the next day, and a lot of times
they're still moving in the ice. You know, they'll live
in that ice for a couple of days.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Oh wow, Yeah, I got I gotta go. Yeah, I
gotta go to your store because I used to go
to the Keys, you know, I went for about thirty
years straight and just haven't been down there in about
three years. And I miss h I miss diving for him,
and I miss eating them. So we'll we'll stop by
your store.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
That'd be awesome, Jay, I'd love to see you.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
And I can't believe Mike hadn't giving me a hard
time that I steel hurt. So I'm gonna go ahead
and hang up and let someone else.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
Maybe I'll throw my jabs after I cut you off there,
I'm gonna say something about the world expert on props
we got, Jay, but I won't throw any jabs. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. I appreciate the call.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah, Mike, thanks Mike, I appreciate it. We'll talk to
y'all later.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
Always good talking, Jay.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
We got another break coming up, Kevin Crofton, Mike Mahoney,
Real Animal Saturday will be right back. No, not today,
Mike Mahoney and Kevin Crofton is all we got today
filling in for the big guys. They will be live
Tuesday night. Occ make sure you're going to be there.

(57:21):
I think it's a seven to nine something like that.
Great food over there, Kevin, have you been to that
venue yet?

Speaker 4 (57:27):
I've been there, I don't remember eating the food. I
went there for some live music before. Yeah, it was
a really cool place. I remember that, but I don't
remember eating there for sure.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Many this week if I get there, really good food,
I know. I last time I went, I made Slippery Pete,
my buddy who I took over there, and he tends
to ride with me everywhere and right on my coattail.
So I told him, Hey, you're buying dinner, and I'm
telling you I ate from seven to nine every appetizer.

(57:59):
They had a great place to go, great talk. Jeff
Hagelman's going to be there talking fishing. Who better to
be there and listening to than talking about the transition
of fish, because that's what we're getting into right now. Yeah,
you know it's coming up into We're in August, going
to be September before you know it, those fish are moving.

(58:22):
Gag Seasons open a great place to be.

Speaker 5 (58:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
I was listening to one of the ads that they
do on here with Dylan and Mike talking about fish,
and you know, one thing about West central Florida. There's
twenty five to thirty different fish you could catch that
and most of them are good eating. Yeah, from tripletail
and kobea to blue marlin tuna. I've seen some yellowfin

(58:48):
tune out here, but I never got one, had one
to eat a bait. Yeah, I had one come up
in about one hundred and twenty foot usually the springtime,
but you know it's from about here, Kevin. It seems
like those yellowfin when they come through here and even
deeper waters, we'll see them in some of the big
offshore tournaments, the Loop tournament, that type of thing. People

(59:10):
will catch them. They're out there in the deep, but
they're not really hanging like where we go to a
rig like when you're in Louisiana. It holds the bait,
it holds the fish. They kind of stay there. It
seems like the fish here are moving absolutely rolling. So yeah,
with that structure.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
They definitely have, you know, with the bait around it again,
following the bait that stay where the bait is on
that deep offshore, I think they're just traveling up and
down with the current and following that the uh you
know the temp lines, you know the temperature that the.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
Matter of fact, we had a guide here. Mike was
talking about it, Captain Mike Perry down in the Keys
about you know, called a yellowfin this week down there.
Of course they were offshore, but I remember a guide
from Tampa getting one in a canal and the keys.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Yeah, will you see those every now and then? I
don't know how that happens. But every now and you'll
see a video of a tune of swimming in a marina.
And I don't know how they do that. I just
don't know how that happens.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
And you know, my only thought is they want to die.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
Yeah, I mean they're coming to get on the table.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
They're coming to get to the filet table. They've lived
their life. It's over with. But you know, a lot
of good fishing going on right now in this September,
moving into where the days are going to be a
little bit shorter, should hopefully get rid of some of
this heat. I think the heat affects us more than

(01:00:35):
it does the fish. Yeah, for sure, you know some
of the flats and stuff. I know you've done a
lot of inshore fishing. You're in a tournament circuit with
your brother in law there for a while, and what
would you do on these super hot days, just moved
a deeper water.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
I mean, you know, we the way we always fished is,
you know, we would try and see fish before we'd
fish them. You know, we're trying to actually not necessarily
scare them, but you know they'd swim off their spot
and find it where we could find a congregation and
then slip away and come back.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
And fish the spot. So yeah, it gets a little more.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Difficult for sure in the shallower water because it's so
hot up there. But I don't know, these red fish
are the same thing. If there's good bait, you know,
they kind of follow those mullet schools and there's good bait.

Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
Out to stay there.

Speaker 5 (01:01:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Yeah, I don't know how years ago, back when you
never even saw a tower, you know, there was a
few of us in Tampa Bay that had gotten one,
and I was riding with a buddy of mine, Captain
Ernie Rubio, and he had you know, a lot of
people complain when they buzz that shoreline, and I understand,
you know, everybody's got their own opinion on how they

(01:01:42):
catch fish and the best way to do it. But
I'm telling you from witnessing it, we would be running
a shoreline and run over a bunch of fish, whether
they're redfish or whether they're snook, and he would circle
around and just like you said, they're sitting there for
a reason, yeah, whether it be the bait or the

(01:02:03):
water tamp or whatever it is. And it seems like
they would come right back to that and you could
catch them. Yeah now happy spot. Now maybe with more
boats and more pressure and constant running over, they could
move on down the line. And I understand that also.
It's a lot different than it was twenty five or
thirty years ago catching fishing Tampa Bay.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Oh yeah, than it is today, you know. So we
would not necessarily buzz them. I remember in the old
days kind of how you know, Ernie would do that
and so with other people, and that's that was a
good tactic. And but we would, you know, most of
the time in the tournament times, we would just do
it real slow with the troller motor, just looking, yeah, looking,
and you know, you start scaring one off here, one

(01:02:45):
off there, and then when you start scaring three or
four off at a time, then that's where you're kind
of wanting to target, you know, especially with the artificials.

Speaker 3 (01:02:52):
Now, when you did that. I'm just curious. You're running
down a flat, you got to have an idea that
fish are on that flat, or you're looking for them
and you're going slow two or three run off, you go, hey,
we're going to fish here. Would you fish right there?

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
Or sometimes yeah, sometimes you put the power pole down
right there and you know, fish it a little bit.
But sometimes a lot of times you just keep moving
and like like you said, make a big circle and
come back and just let them relax the let the
tight or the wind pull you into that spot and
then start fishing it like that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
And one of your favorite baits was crab.

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
Right yeah, and that's again you know, if you're doing that,
it's a lot easier just to pull in and you know,
get your line out there and on the bottom instead
of trying to throw them.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
Motor Now you would do that with blue crab.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
Yeah, blue crabs.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Just cut them in half, take all the legs off,
cut them in half, pull the top off, just like
you're drum fishing.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
And just throw it out there on the flat and
let it sit and they would find it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:45):
You know it's like you know, the scent trail I'm
sure just brings them right to.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
It well, and that's what that scented bait works, so
good for them, but also dead bait. And it really
surprised me when you told me about that and how
you were catching them, because it's a relaxed way doing it.
You know, normally, when you're fishing in a tournament, it
seems like you constantly got a rod in your hand
and it's high pressure. You're making every cast count, you're

(01:04:12):
trying to get as far as you can, cover as
much area as you can, but really getting into and
you were really successful with that. It wasn't like you
just won one tournament or something. I mean you were
always there in the top three in that Redfish And.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
Yeah, we did both the artificial as well. It's definitely
a different style of fishing, like you said, with the
with the tournament style. On the artificials, you're making a
you know, one hundred thousand casts in a day, you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Know, and you had to have super light combos. Yeah, yeah,
wear you out for sure, pushure you out on something big,
you know. I know that we fished that Redfish Cup.
There was no it was all artificial. Yeah, So that
was and you can cover ground and when you only
got a two fish in a day's time. Makes it

(01:05:03):
a little bit easier in catching a lot of fish.
But you know, like you said, we never even thought
about some of the other tournaments where they do allow
live bait. To put that half a crab, now, you
wouldn't you wouldn't cut that crab until you were ready
to fish, right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:18):
Yeah, I like time of life, you know, we bring
them out their life.

Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
And where do you buy them live or where do
you catch them live?

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Well, I can tell you this, just like everything else,
prices are so high. We used to I used to
could get like I'd get ten dozen crabs sometimes, you
know for a hundred bucks, you know, and have the
whole cooler full, and we chum with them and everything.
But now there's become such a commodity. It seems they're
very hard to buy them. So I don't use them
too much unless I go catch them myself, you know,

(01:05:46):
put a few traps out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
Right, regular traps, Yeah, and catch them and yep and
head out.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
And a lot of times it's changed to where we
can you can use them, you know, after you frozen them.

Speaker 5 (01:05:56):
But it's just not as effective. But it still does work.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
And most of that was summer time fishing, am I right?

Speaker 5 (01:06:01):
Yeah? Yeah, mostly summer, So.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
When things are slow and that heat's on, it's kind
of good to use those dead baits. Yes, on the bottom. Now,
would you wait it with.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
Just a jig head, just put it right on the
jig head, just like your trout child or whatever, and
just put it right through the crab, the half a crab,
and leave it out there on the bottom.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
And when you normally hook them, like where the leg
socket is or we can go out to that point.

Speaker 4 (01:06:24):
The big the big hole, the big leg in the back,
I forgot what they call it, like the flapper hole
or whatever back there in the back.

Speaker 5 (01:06:30):
Just slide it right through there.

Speaker 3 (01:06:31):
And something that can come out quick and into the fish.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
And if you throw it out there and it's getting
pecked by a lot of pinfish, they'll eat them off.
You probably should move because them pmfish aren't going to
be there. If the red fish are there typically yeah,
you know they're hiding.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Yeah, they don't want to get eating right on. Is
that something when they hit that you have to give
them a little bit or would they really just nail it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:52):
And take them you know, to be honest with you.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
Put them in the rod holder, turn the radio on,
chill out, you know, and turn over and you see
the rod going over. It's not a whole lot of
fish into it. It's just chilling, you know, chilling and
cat catching. Yeah, chilling and catching.

Speaker 3 (01:07:06):
Yeah, that's a good way to do it. That rode
holder has caught many a good fish. I promise you that.
You know, I always think about the trip we went out,
and it's probably the biggest gag I've ever seen come
in a boat. You know, We've all seen pitchers and
our buddies and different fish, but your son had caught
a big one and we were out there and you

(01:07:27):
had a cowbo at the time, and we were fishing
the pipeline, and I remember I was if anybody knows
me or's fish with me, they know that I don't
normally race to drop be the first one down, you
know what I mean, Because I know people are gonna
make mistakes, right, so I kind of just sit back
and watch and if this side of the boat misses

(01:07:49):
a few fish or maybe break a line, and I
know there's a big fish, I'll step right in when
that guy's retying and I remember I was sitting there
that day, and everybody runs to the back as soon
as we hook up. Okay, rod's down. Well, let them
get them rods down, because usually them bigger fish hit
after a period of time. They're usually not the first

(01:08:10):
fish from my experience. And somebody, I think it was
you or somebody said, hey, man, take a piece of
that Benita belly and put it on that jig and
drop it down on that rod and reel up when
you hit bottom, reel up twenty cranks. And I thought,
what are you going to catch twenty cranks up with
a spinning reel? You know, I'm thinking, you know, that's

(01:08:31):
where the big grouper are. So I dropped it down,
I reeled it up twenty cranks. I sat there, left
it in the rod holder, and all of a sudden
it's been over double Well, I grab it and I
fight it. I'm thinking, all right, I got me a
good fish, and we pull up a shark. Not real fun,
okay when you catch a shark, because you know what
are you gonna do with it? I mean, you can't

(01:08:51):
eat them, but it ain't the best, especially if you're
fishing for groupers. So we dropped down again. I set
the ride in the rod holder and step back, and
your son was standing there, and all of a sudden
that rod bent double, and I I kind of poked him, said, hey,
get over there and get that. Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking
you go get the shark this time, boy, yep, and

(01:09:12):
he reels up.

Speaker 5 (01:09:12):
What was it, fifty fifty pounds? You have fifty pound gag?

Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
Fifty pound gag. I couldn't believe it. He came to
the surface and you know, blew all that air out.
I mean, his head looked three four foot diameter when
he came up, and I thought, what did I do?
I gave the kid the big grouper And yeah, that
was a heck of a fish. And is that fish
hanging up in the meat market now, or you got

(01:09:38):
that fish mounted for it?

Speaker 4 (01:09:39):
It is, it's hanging the meat market. And there's a
picture right next to him where they hold it.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
And that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
Yeah, that's a really cool to store, you know, being Crofting's,
we got some fish hanging in some deer mounts and
I have pictures. It's you know, kind of the family
store of family stuff, you know. Yeah, a lot of
my dad's stuff in there and my grandfather's picture, you know,
kind of the old bringing back the old school and
the meat. You know, that's where we came from.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
Yeah, that's awesome, man. I hope you're the best out
there in landa Lakes. What is that address again?

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
It's on fifty one thirty two Land of Licks Boulevard.
It's on the would be the east side of the
road going north, on the right hand side, three miles
north of Highway fifty.

Speaker 5 (01:10:19):
Four on forty one.

Speaker 3 (01:10:20):
Crofton Family Meats. Make sure you look them up, man,
good people and good food.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
Thanks, doesn't get any better.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
And you know what I noticed when I was there, storytelling.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Yeah that's the story. It's good man.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
People coming in knowing you talking, fishing, hunting, all that stuff.
But we got music. I don't know if it's the
end of it or not, but I hope we'll be
right back. No, Mike and Dylan. You had Mike Mahoney
and Kevin Crofton today. What a great show. I appreciate
you coming out today. Kevin Crofton family meets. Look them
up out there in Land of Lakes. Some good food, lobster, seafood, steak,

(01:10:56):
whatever you need to cook for your family. I've been
using them here for last month now, and uh, definitely
good food, so I.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Appreciate that, Mike, really do.

Speaker 4 (01:11:06):
Yeah, we just try and get out the best product
we can, you know, and uh, the way prices of
meats are going, it's crazy. It's hard to keep a
really good state cheap, you know, if you know what
I mean. So you know, we're trying to keep some
of them more affordable stuff in there, but we also
have you know, the Japanese A five wagou all the
way up to that. So yes, but uh, yeah, we

(01:11:27):
just strive to give out a good quality product.

Speaker 5 (01:11:29):
That's basically it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:30):
This week coming up, don't forget Tuesday occ Mike and
Dylan Hubbard with Jeff Hagelman. They're going to be there
talking fishing. It is a great time, probably one of
the best venues I've been to as far as a
fishing conversation goes. Good food, good people, just a dynamite place,

(01:11:51):
plenty of parking, I mean, everything about the place is
a plus for sure. Occ Over there on forty ninth Street,
just off Highway nineteen. They call it Clearwater. I'd call
it Largo, but the mailing address is clear Water. Close
to Gandy. Hasn't really been that bad driving there for that,
you know, six seven o'clock traffic that you normally get

(01:12:14):
when you're heading that way. I think I've been traveling
at about five thirty heading that way and really not
that bad.

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
Yeah, it's just after the traffic, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
Well, and it's getting away from the the heart of
the monster. Yeah, downtown Tampa. Once you get through that,
it's smooth sailing and definitely a great time, A fishy
place for sure. Any questions you got. Captain Jeff has
been offshore success, inshore success. Really a great guy. I'd

(01:12:45):
known him and his family I'd say over thirty thirty
five years. Dad definitely probably been shopping at my store
before I was born. So some good people make sure
you get over there. But we're talking, we're talking fishing
Tuesday night at the OCC What else you got going

(01:13:06):
on this week, Kevin? Just getting ready for that gag season?

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Oh yeah, yeah, well I think everybody's getting charged up
for that, and uh yeah, the table fare of a gag.

Speaker 5 (01:13:16):
Grouper to me is, you know, it's hard to beat.

Speaker 4 (01:13:19):
You know, there's some other good ones, but that season opens,
I can't wait to get one on the table because
they taste so good.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
Yeah, maybe we can get a black cat ken to
take his fishing.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
Yeah, yeah, I know he's bring.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
Us to the honey hole. You know, every time he
takes me, we have a tough trip, and then he
takes you two days later and you're showing these slabs
of fish. What's the deal with that? You think he's
worried about putting me on the honey hole.

Speaker 5 (01:13:42):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
He might think you got one of those pocket gps
is or something, trying to steal a spote. You know,
I don't know, it's just worked out that way because
I don't think that's ever planned to go out there
and have a good day.

Speaker 3 (01:13:55):
You know, we work hard and make sure we were
by the book and hopefully we can get out there,
maybe even get Darren on the boat.

Speaker 5 (01:14:03):
That'd be good.

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
Yeah, it's a it's always a good time when we
all get out there.

Speaker 5 (01:14:07):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (01:14:08):
We can talk, we can talk stories and catch fish
at the same time.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
It ain't much better and it's fun. But you got
to kind of watch Darren. You don't want to push
him too far. All of a sudden, kung fu start
spinning and and whacking people.

Speaker 4 (01:14:20):
Yeah, as long as he's as long as the fish
aren't coming off his hook right up near the top,
you know, when he fought them all the way in
and they come off.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
It just you better be wearing safe togs.

Speaker 5 (01:14:31):
He could be crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:14:33):
Well, Kevin, that went quick, buddy, Yeah it did. And
I appreciate you coming out here today. Mike Mahoney Ta
Mahoney crofton Family meets Kevin Crafted. And I'm headed to work. Yeah,
me to Mike and Dylan. Will be back next week.
We'll see you then I'll be at the store.