I took my friend Joe Savarese and “The Fishing with Bill Miller” film crew on a silver trout hunt this week. Good reports of lots of silvers along the Gulf beaches were trickling in so we gave it a try.

Starting off Blind Pass and working our way to John’s Pass we struck out on the silvers, but we did catch two nice Spanish mackerel trolling spoons around diving birds. Finally on some hard bottom in 14 feet, near the Redington Pier, we got into them good.

Using tandem jigs we caught one or two on every cast for two hours. Pink curly tail Love Lures was working the best. We tried silver, white and chartreuse tails but on that day, pink did the trick.

I was taught to modify the tandem jigs fishing in deeper water by putting a heavier jig head on the front shorter leader. It seems to keep the jigs from tangling as much and helps it get to the bottom faster.

Capt. Billy Miller had some great speckled trout fishing this week in Boca Ciega Bay.  Free lined shrimp and jigs fished over the deeper grass and sand potholes brought lots of keeper trout to the boat. Also included in the catch were flounder, blue fish, Spanish mackerel and ladyfish.

Spanish mackerel showed up thick at the Skyway fishing piers this week. Anglers casting silver spoons, silver Gotcha’s and cut greenbacks all scored with heavy limits.

Another Spanish mackerel report came in from Capt. Kevin Walton. Walton says the big Spanish are along the edge of the deep flats off Ft. Desoto and in Boca Ciega Bay. Jigs worked well, but white bait, when found, really did well.