About Us

Hello and welcome! I’m Capt. John Fischbach of Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and a local Fishing guide with a lifetime of West Central Florida Gulf Coast fishing knowledge here in Tarpon Springs, New Port Richey, Clearwater, Palm Harbor and upper Tampa Bay.

Family of four holding caught fish

Your fishing trip here 0n the Fl. Gulf Coast could be a backwater plunge into some of the best Snook fishing, Redfishing, and Trout fishing that Florida has to offer. Then, off to some of our breathtaking beaches and islands for some more Trout, Redfish, Snook, Flounder, plus Tarpon fishing.

As an expert fishing guide, Captain John Fischbach will go above and beyond to make your day on the water the most memorable and enjoyable fishing trip for you and your family 1-5 person, (per boat) novice to expert angler’s, private fishing charters. Groups of any size can be accommodated with multiple boat fishing charters,  from large corporate outings to family reunion’s, big birthday bash’s, fishing charters for every occasion. With 23 years of local waters charter fishing and a lifetime of fishing in Florida, we will give you the 110% effort and know how, fishing charter adventure you’ve always dreamed of.

GREAT YEAR ROUND FISHING!

We welcome Experienced, novice & junior anglers to some quality inshore/nearshore flats fishing, backcountry fishing with an experienced and seasoned fishing guide, that has a great attitude and a gentle nature. Safety is a top priority, as a United States Coast Guard Master certified captain I am equipped with an onboard EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) that many charter captains do not provide, VHF radio with updated weather information, radar, and cell phone capability and the latest in all other safety equipment. Do yourself a favor and make sure your fishing guide is USCG licensed and Insured for you and your safety,  equipped with all of these; they could save your life and are not required.

to men holding caught fish

All fishing equipment is top of the line including Diawa, Penn and Shimano reels, G-loomis and Star fishing rods with Berkley super braid’s or there top-notch mono’s, Spiderwire Ultracast Invisi-braid, and Berkely Big Game Monofilament. The leader used is Berkley Vanish or Seaguar Fluorocarbon (INVISIBLE) and only the best hooks,Mustad, Owner and Gamakatsu. My number one objective is to deliver the best service that the Tarpon Springs fishing charters and New Port Richey fishing charter industry has to offer while providing an extremely fun, safe and exciting fish catching atmosphere. All you need to bring is your food, drinks, sunscreen and appropriate clothing depending on weather conditions. All other gear is supplied including licenses and ice and a knowledgeable 1st mate on larger parties.

At the end of our day when we return to the dock, all fish that can be kept will be cleaned, filleted, skinned, and bagged. You may want to bring a cooler just to transport your fish home, or you can have your catch cooked fresh right then and there at the marina grill, famous Miss Vicky’s on the water, we welcome our customers like you who are looking to enjoy a relaxing lunch or evening in an old Florida atmosphere.

Two men holding caught fish

Absolute Flats and Tarpon Fishing charters with Capt. John Fischbach gives you and your party an excellent, better than average chance to catch your trophy fish year round and getting 110% and 23 years of area charter fishing knowledge.

Start your day on the beautiful flats of the west central gulf coast of Florida on a Florida fishing charter with shallow, clean, clear calm waters teaming with and fishing for tarpon, snook, redfish, speckled sea trout, cobia, mackerel, flounder and more with longtime local guide, Capt. John Fischbach. Novices to experienced anglers all receive personal instruction to get you started using top of the line conventional, light tackle spinning, plug or fly fishing gear and utilizing techniques, honed by a seasoned professional who is on these waters over 200 days a year with clients, guests and fishermen from all over the world, shared and explained in plain English.  Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters will lead you to the fish.  You will be rewarded hundredfold related to the size and power of these fish and the expanse of the fishable waters.  Florida Fishing Charters is the world of tidal flats – barrier islands, sand bars with distinct drop offs, beautiful turtle grass flats dotted with sand potholes, oyster bars, rock piles, deep channels, deep holes bumping up against mangrove shorelines, creeks and mouths of rivers, sand and grass points get awful fishy at times.  All this just minutes from the dock, not to mention the southern climate and sun that we have to offer.  It is an angler’s world where your guide’s knowledge, skill and experience combine to connect the unwary fisherman to the call of the sea.  Bent rods and smiling anglers are the norm on one of our professionally rigged, state of the art skiffs and bay boats.

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters will show you an excellent experience for everyone, whether it be a tarpon fishing charter, snook fishing charter, redfish fishing charter, trout fishing charter, plus catching many other species of fish on the same Florida fishing charter.

Fish jumping out of water

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters offer a wide variety of Tarpon Fishing choices along the Florida Gulf Coast, Boca Grande area, backcountry, harbor, bays, sounds, passes and beaches. Unfortunately, Boca Grande Pass has become a very crowded area and much of the basic etiquette, rules on how to fish the Pass, tactics, techniques, attitudes and self control are not observed these days by many others fishing there. There is too much fishing pressure on these tarpon and these fish now tend to relocate up and down (North and South) on the Florida gulf coast.  They also use the sounds, harbors, bays and flats for comfort zones, and bite better.  As a result, Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters will be tarpon fishing on the beaches, bays, flats and barrier islands of the west central Florida gulf coast area.

The Florida west coast beaches from Homosassa to Marco Island hold an incredible concentration of fish from early May to July.  Yet on most weekday mornings, it’s rare to spot another boat as you cast your plug or live bait at seemingly unlimited schools of passing fish.  When they are 30 yards away, cast your bait in their direction, throwing ahead of and beyond the school.  Beach/flats tarpon fishing is buck fever time as the horse like fish roll toward the baits, gulping air through bucket-sized mouths.  It’s remarkable fishing and yet only a few locals regularly enjoy it.  It is ironic, considering that Boca Grande Pass, the world’s best known and hardest fished tarpon spot, sits dead in the middle of this stretch of the FL gulf coast.  While boats regularly bump rub rails to get to tarpon and chase back and forth in the big Pass, the thousands of west central FL tarpon that roam the beaches and flats are largely ignored.

Some nicknames for tarpon, most notably is the Silverking and also Sabalo and Grande Ecaille.  Their habitat is in nearly all Florida Gulf coast areas.   They eventually spawn offshore and migrate some to the north right around the Gulf coast all the way to Central America and some back to the south to the Florida Keys, Cuba and other Caribbean locations.

Some mid size 60 to 70 pounds return to all the Florida Gulf Coast backcountry fishing areas and are found in estuary systems, back bays, rivers and river mouths, power plants and very deep dark water canals along the west central Florida Gulf coast.

Tarpon has a back of dark green or grey, while the rest of the fish seems to be fashioned from silver.  The scales are huge.  The body of adult fish is deep and thick with a forked tail.  The mouth is large and scoop shaped.  There is a long streamer at the rear of the dorsal fin.  Florida tarpon fishing’s optimal water temperatures are between 75 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters offers excellent snook fishing in our home base out of Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Port Richey, Spring Hill, Brooksville, Tampa Bay, New Port Richey, Clearwater, St. Petersburg and close by Orlando, the Disney World area.  Snook fishing Florida in the backcountry, inshore flats, bays and barrier islands of the Florida Gulf Coast is the best in the continental United States.  Snook fishing offers one of the very best pound for pound light tackle fishing. There is no tactic a snook doesn’t use – powerful runs, jumps that are often spectacular, and an unerring eye for any kind of obstruction. Juvenile snook of 4 to 5 pounds leap high and often while the really big ones of 12 to 30 pounds manage to clear only about half their bodies trying to wear through the shock leader or throw the hook.  Florida fishing charter boats use the lightest leader possible tied to 10 to 30 pound braided line on light tackle spinning gear.  Florida snook fishing covers all the Florida flats fishing areas as during the seasons they migrate east to west on the Florida Gulf coast, not north and south as the tarpon fishing charters go.  Snook travel way up into the backcountry rivers and bayous to the near shore barrier islands and all the flats in between. Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters cover all of these areas with anglers using surface plugs, buck tails, plastic jigs, swimming plugs and spoons.  Any small baitfish makes good live bait as do live shrimp and small blue crabs.  Migratory schooling baitfish such as pilchards and thread herring work wonders when they show up on the fishing flats and beaches.  Large dead baits soaked on the bottom, such as half a small mullet or ladyfish, take some big snook too.  Nicknames for snook include Robalo, Sea Pike, Linesiders and Ravillia.  Snook fishing on a Florida fishing charter is as addictive as it gets.  You have to think like the snook to take the snook.  Sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit and higher is the magic number for water temperature, but snook will feed in peak warmth hours when cooler.

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters present great opportunities to catch good number of fish on the Florida Gulf Coast Redfishing.  Florida fishing charters for redfish are real fun for any angler and are available year round.  They are found in many of the same backcountry and inshore fishing spots any month of the year.  Redfish school up normally on the Florida Gulf coast and are willing feeders if approached in the right manner – Stealth, Stealth and Stealthy moves as they are found in the shallow gin clear waters around oyster bars, saw grass, grass flats dotted with sand potholes, sand and grass drop-offs, docks, flat rock piles, creek mouths, rather mouths on the Florida flats fishing areas in our home base for Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters of Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, Tampa Bay,  Palm Harbor, New Port Richey, Port Richey, Spring Hill, Brooksville, St. Petersburg and nearby Orlando, Disney World area.

Most redfish here run from 2 to 3 pounds to 10 to 12 pounds with some in the 30” and up range to 25 pounds.  Redfish on the Florida Gulf coast are one of the best gamesters of inshore fishing waters, displaying strength, stamina and determination not to come boat side with long hard runs.  Although redfish can be as moody and spooky as any fish, redfish are usually ravenous feeders on the inshore flats fishing scene that will gobble up live baitfish, small crabs, live shrimp and also dead fresh cut bait.  Most productive artificials are weedless gold spoons, plastic scented jig tails and noisy top-water plugs.  Redfishing charters offer some great sight fishing opportunities.  Water temps that are optimal is 63 degrees Fahrenheit and higher.  Short of hard cold fronts, there doesn’t seem to be a bottom range for their temperature tolerances, but the bite sure gets softer as the mercury plunges.

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters are well known in the area for year round excellent trout fishing charters on the west central Florida gulf coast.  From our home base of New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Spring Hill, Brooksville, South to Clearwater and all the way to St. Petersburg and the mouth of Tampa Bay, Anclote Keys are the last of the Mohicans in a string of barrier islands that stretch along Florida’s Gulf coast.  At the same time, the area is the starting point for the broad shallow grass flats that stretch northward from the keys to the main shoreline.  Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters frequently take good size trout to gator trout (nickname for big trout) on shallow turtle grass flats, rock piles, oyster bars and dump banks and virtually any inshore eater from the surf of outside islands to far up coastal rivers where they often seek refuge during cooler weather.  Other nicknames include Speckled Sea Trout, Specks, Truite Gris and Trucha De Mar.

The fight is positively showy with much thrashing at the surface and an occasional jump and grey hounding tactics.  Trout are not quite as powerful as the aforementioned species, but they make up for that with aggressiveness and just wait until they see the boat or landing net!

Florida Flats Fishing and Tarpon Fishing Charters all use light tackle-spinning outfits with light line and leader when on a trout fishing charter.  Pilchards and live shrimp to the list of natural baits, but small live fish are superior when going after big trout.  Artificial’s we use that also work well in certain seasons area plastic jerk baits rigged Texas style, jigs with shrimp imitation plastic tail, silver spoons and top water plugs and hard swim baits.  Trout on the coldest of days gang up in deep holes and short of the hardest cold front or Alberta Clipper, there doesn’t seem to be a bottom range for their temperature tolerances.

Put on a Happy Face and Catch a Memory!

Everything is included on our trips: license, bait, tackle, lures, ice, etc.  All we recommend you need to bring are sunglasses, camera, hat, sun block and favorite snack, food or beverage.  We take care of the rest.

WELCOME ABOARD one of two new modern charter boats professionally rigged & tournament ready with all top of the line equipment supplied, full electronics & cellular.

NOVICE TO EXPERT FISHERMAN can enjoy a 1/2, 3/4 or full day of friendly-guided fishing trips with a one to six person capacity for Tarpon, Snook, Redfish, Trout, Cobia Kingfish, Grouper, Snapper, Jack Crevalle, Flounder, and Spanish Mackerel & More!!!

LIGHT TACKLE EXCITEMENT on spin, plug, fly or conventional tackle. Multiple boat and corporate trips are welcomed with a variety of packages. Groups of up to 30 people.

CAPTAIN JOHN FISCHBACH are exceptional shallow water professionals with multiple tournament wins.  Guiding novice and expert clients on the west coast of FLORIDA fishing charters.

RECOMMENDATIONS on where to stay and best eateries in the area we are fishing.

VIEW OUR WHOLE SITE for more details and depths on these fish species and many more.

Absolute Florida Flats Fishing charters serve the FL Gulf Coast, West Central FL Gulf coast, FL West coast including New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, Tampa Bay, Tampa, Orlando (near Disney World attractions), Palm Harbor, Port Richey, Brooksville and Spring Hill.  Florida Flats Fishing offer fishing charters, inshore fishing charters, inshore fishing trips, bay fishing charters and fishing guides on state of the art charter boats specializing in Florida tarpon fishing, FL snook fishing, FL redfish fishing, FL trout fishing and many more inshore, nearshore and offshore fishing species and migratory fish that include cobia, kingfish, Spanish Mackerel, Amberjack snapper and shark.

Florida flats fishing in beautiful ecological settings from the famous Florida backcountry to the main shoreline, out to gorgeous barrier islands, big sand bars to near shore rock piles and inshore reefs and wrecks all on top name light tackle spinning, conventional and Fly fishing equipment.  These saltwater sportfishing charters in Florida, “the fishing capitol of the world,” are available from one (1) charter boat to twenty-five (25) charter boats with a 1 to 5 capacity per boat.  We can accommodate both small and large groups, business company outings, corporate groups, family reunions, birthdays and class reunions with the areas most experienced FL fishing guide’s.

Gratuities are Customary and are Appreciated

Florida Guides association logo Snook Foundation logo Coastal Conservation logo