Captain Steven Markovich – OnTheMarkCharters

I’ll start the top line with the bottom line, if you are looking to do some near or inshore fishing in the Tampa Bay area do not hesitate to book a trip with Captain Steven Markovich.
Capt. Steven took myself and my brother out on Oct. 14^th for a 4 hour trip from Oneil’s Marina in St. Pete. Our departure was set for 8:30 am and Steven showed up to the marina right on time at 8:15 am and we were already navigating out into the channels a bit ahead of schedule by 8:30 am.
We anchored about 2 – 3 miles out in front of St. Pete beach. It looked to be like a popular spot as there were 4 other boats all with in about 200 feet of us. The wind was steady at about 10 knots coming out of the east, blowing out into the gulf. The Capt. had told us we would be reeling in mackerel that were running from the panhandle down to south west Florida.
Within the first five minutes my brother had reeled in about 5 pound mackerel, which, even though it was rather large for a mackerel, was one of the smaller ones we caught through out the day. Captain Steven had brought a rather large amount of bait fish and was constantly chumming the water with them. He had also laid a chum bag into the water. Overall we caught about 12 fish, and of the 12 fish 9 of them were 5 – 7 lb mackerels. I caught 4 and my brother caught 5.
It’s important to note that the other boats around us didn’t seem to be fairing nearly as well we were under Capt. Steven’s directions and service. This success was do as much to his obvious knowledge of where to target and his guidance to how to let the fish hit the bait, but as well as his constant work making sure we had fresh bait on our hooks and that our lines were constantly in the water. I’ve been on a few charters in my life, Captain Steven was the most efficient Captain at getting the fish on the boat, getting the hook out, getting some snapshots of the catch, and getting your line back in the water. This was why we were the only ones catching while the other anglers around us were just fishing.
On the way back into the docks, Captain Steven took some extra time and we headed into a mangrove island area where he showed me some tips on how to target red’s. He had a lot of great tips that I know will help me out with my kayak fishing hobby.
Also, while I’m a decent hobbyist fisherman, my brother is a complete novice; and it should be noted that he actually had a slightly better catch than I did. So if you are a novice or seasoned fisherman you’ll do just fine and have a good time on Captain Steven’s boat.
Back at the marina Captain Steven filleted 3 large mackerel that we decided to keep, which he did a thorough job doing — Really clean fillets.
I will be fishing Captain Steven again this same time next year if he isn’t already booked. For a Tampa Bay charter Captain look no further than Captain Steven Markovich.