Meet fishing guide/captain Tony Matthews whom I have known for 3 decades. I never knew his last name until he gave me one of his cards yesterday. His passengers yesterday was me, Walt and his girlfriend, Stacey. His 22-foot custom skiff accommodated us comfortably with plenty of space to fish. We were all excited about fishing. There was no pressure as Tony took us along to scout the waters for the next day.
If you Google, “Old Homosassa Guide Service” his web site is number 1 at the top. There, you will learn about him and his services. We have a special relationship in that both of us were mentored by the late Fred “Fearless” Archibald. We shared special memories of him and time spent together. Freddy mentored several guides besides us and helped us along the way at the start of our career. He bugged me into fly fishing for tarpon until I said ok. I’m sure thankful he did. Tony was much closer than I, as he worked for Freddy helping him to build the Florida famous Shipoke flats skiff. You were a badass, if you were tooling around in one of those.
Cruising down the river, Walt and I felt great as we sat in the very comfortable chairs amidships. The ride out was beautiful with cedar and sable palm trees, carpeted by marsh grass that made for a picturesque background. What a treat to me, not being the guide and driving the boat. Tony slid the boat around the creeks, high jacking the engine and plying in mere inches of water was a ton of fun Tony’s TV screen-sized GPS track feature helped him to easily navigate the 4-foot wide channel.
As we came off a plane, the clear blue sky was perfect with the sun at our back, but an east wind was blowing us along a little faster than we liked. But Tony cleverly made adjustments with his 21-foot pushpole and the hydraulic Power-Pole anchor. We began site fishing with soft plastics and hard bodies and not even follow up, although, we put the baits in front of their nose in a foot of water.
Later in the day when the tide turned, the fish began to bite. We got into them pretty good a couple of times while covering more shoreline with Tony’s Minn-Kota trolling motor. We probably could have caught many more reds, but since this was a scouting trip, we called it a day early.
Upon on our return to the center of activity in town at MacRae’s of Homosassa, This place rocks at the Shed. Owner, Gator MacRae is a super guy and childhood friend. Upon arrival at the dock, I was greeted by Cathy and Roger Holland, who waited around for me to come in. What a surprise!
The picture above shows what will be representative of what redfish anglers can keep in the Northwest section of Florida.. Starting May 1st. The bag limit will be 1 per person instead of 2. Back in the day, many anglers lobbied tirelessly to have the amended rule to 1 per person. If you think there is redfish now, they will be at least twice as many a year from now. There are thousands of us out there fishing and 2 a day adds up quickly over a year’s time. In our areas we are seeing plenty of slot fish but not many bigger ones over the slot.
I endorse Tony as one of the top guides in Homosassa and I greatly recommend him.
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