The ‘Family Boating’ Beat

New for 2010!

We at Family Boating Centers are pleased to present our monthly newsletter.  We hope you will find it informative and enjoyable.  Content is compiled from our customers’ input, pro-staff experiences, and happenings around Family Boating Center and the Tampa Bay area fishing community.

We hope to add to its content as the reader base grows.  Photo contests, tournament information, “angling adventures”, etc. are all likely to appear in the future.

We welcome stories, input, photos and comments. 

The email version is sent before it is posted on the web site and contains additional content such as photos, articles, specials and announcements not not in the on-line version. To submit something for our newsletter or to sign up to have our newsletter emailed directly to you, click on the Contact Us link and email "Sales" to become one of the first to know all the latest information.

 

Frank Sargeant Outdoors Expo = A HUGE SUCCESS!

Thank you to all who attended the show.  We had a great group of captains helping us in the both.  We had an even better group of customers stopping by with friends and family.  We were proud to show off the “fresh” products and talk about the new models.  We had 12 boats at the show.  Four of the boats on display were sold.  

THANKS  TO  ALL  OF  OUR  LOYAL  CUSTOMERS!

All the boat dealers had fresh 2010 product to show and the overall mood from all dealers and vendors was much more positive than in years past.  Some interesting new products always debut at this show.  It was great to see people with smiles on their faces and new rods/t-shirts/etc in their hands.  It seems better days and warmer weather are not too far off!

 FBC now a Ranger Boats Dealer!!

We are pleased to announce the addition of Ranger Boats to our lineup.  We will be carrying their bay boats and skiffs.  The addition of the bass boat line may not be far behind. 

An addition such as this calls for a party!!  We are excited to invite you to the “Ranger / Flats Class TV” open house.  The event will be held here at Family Boating in April.   

Pro Staff Fishing Report

 by Capt. Jim Lemke

I got a last minute call from a client for a charter so I looked at the weather and the forecast was for “North at 10 knots” with a negative tide, so I told him “Sure, meet me at 10:00am”. I loaded up the Maverick with the fly rods and spin gear and headed down to the ramp.

My clients arrived, and we took a short ride to the creek to catch a few lady fish and trout while we waited for the tide to drop out a little more. The trout bite was pretty good-if you could get through the lady fish After 30 minutes the tide was getting right so we pushed the skiff up onto a plane and ran over to the Redfish flat on the last part of the outgoing tide. We started to pole down the flat and right in front of us was a nice school of 50 BIG redfish. My client started to cast an 8wt as we started to close in on the school. He made the cast right in front of the lead fish, started to strip and a redfish started to track the fly, it got 10ft from the boat and spooked. First cast = nil for 1. We started working down the flat looking for some more fish as the wind started to puff harder.  Time to switch up to spinning gear so we pulled out a 7’6” G Loomis with a gold flake Exude Dart on a 1/4oz Mission Fishing jig head. We poled down the flat a couple of hundred feet and saw a good school, it looked like 100 plus fish heading across the white sand next to us but we couldn’t get any shots in with the wind (now blowing 20 plus), so we decided to stake out one of the routes the redfish take with my Wang Anchor as the tide started coming in. Within 10 minutes from staking out the redfish school came by and we stuck a nice 28 incher that came to the boat in a few minutes. And the wind blew some more. We snapped a photo or two and released that nice Redfish.  And the wind blew even more. We stuck a double and got them to the boat for a quick photo and release, and by now we could not stay staked out with the wind howling so we went up into one of the creeks to chase a few more trout.   We then decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp.

  -Capt. Jim Lemke- (813) 917-4989   Fly Fishing Tampa Bay

      Capt. Jim is a native of Tampa.  He has been a charter captain for over 15 years.  Jim is known in these parts as the “tarpon tamer”.  Whether you want to catch a ‘poon at the beach, bridges, or Egmont; day or night; fly rod, live bait, or artificial – Jim will put a bend in the rod!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 1 – Thursday – 6pm-8pm – 1st Spring Seminar.  “Early Season Snook” by Captain Rodney Martin.  Early arrivers will be able to “shoot the bull” with a handful of locally renowned charter captains.   

 

We are pleased to announce that the ‘Spring Seminar Series’ will continue for 2010.  Full schedule will be e-mailed before the end of March.

 

The Family Boating Centers / Flats Class TV OPEN HOUSE will be held in late April.  We are finalizing the event now.  Further details, firm date and times to follow…

 

“Demo Days” – Coming this spring!  We will be doing demo rides on the new Ranger 2310, AND a Pathfinder 22 Tournament with the new Yamaha VMax 4-Stroke “SHO” Motor.  Further dates and times to follow…