By the end of May any thoughts of catching kingfish has long been replaced with thoughts of tarpon, redfish and others.

   But Larry Mastry changed all that by taking me and the “Fishing with Bill Miller” film crew on a trip this week to the Egmont ship channel. Mastry has been telling me for years that kingfish season is not over on the first of May and he proved it.

   We stopped at a range marker off Mullet Key and cast netted a good mix of good size white bait and greenbacks and off the The Whistler we went. The Whistler is the western most marker of the ship channel.

   There were tons of Spanish sardines around the can. We jiggled up a mess of sardines and put out a good mix of all our baits on stinger rigs.

   As we started slow trolling we instantly were greeted with fast action every time we went by the buoy. At 11 am we had six kingfish to 20 pounds, a dozen big Spanish mackerel and more little tunnys that we ever wanted, so it was time to go home.

   Chris Petry and Timmy Deacon jumped 6 tarpon in an hour on crabs during the incoming tide at Egmont Key. Capt. Jim Lemke has also been in on the excitement with fast tarpon action for his clients.

   Tarpon fishing at Bean Point has been good reports Joe Savarese. Savarese fishing with Brad Wheary jumped 3 tarpon and released 1 during the early morning tide.

   Capt. Billy Miller led Bud Taylor and Ben Moe to great afternoon of tarpon fishing by the Skyway. Combined with Millers morning trip the tarpon score for the day was 11 jumped and 6 released.

   Justin Ownby has been tearing up the redfish in Charlotte Harbor. Ownby reports most of the reds are upper slot size and bigger.

   Skyway fishing pier action for pompano and Spanish mackerel is red hot.

By Capt. Bill Miller