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Careful Casting Is The Trick

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Great weather dominated the fishing scene in early December.

Light winds, blue skies and clear water made for great sight casting opportunities on the flats. I continued to target redfish and bonnethead sharks with success.

Early one morning south of Apollo Beach, I began blind casting pompano jigs and RipTide's Curtailers when I couldn't see well. As the sun climbed and visibility improved, I switched to free-lined large live shrimp. I caught fish on both baits.

The best time to sight fish is on the extreme low tides of the new and full moon, with the best time of day for sight fishing falling between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. A low tide at noon is as good as it gets.

Naturally, clear skies are better than clouds, and a wind that blows parallel to the shoreline makes for easy poling. If you don't have a poling platform, the best way to get at these fish is to wade.

Besides redfish and bonnetheads, other species encountered in December might be flounder, jack crevalle, ladyfish and the occasional snook.

All of those will hit artificials or live or frozen shrimp. The trick is not to hit them in the head. Rather, you want to put the bait close enough where they can find it. I generally cast beyond the fish and to either side, and then try to sneak it close in where they can see it or smell it.

There are now some big jack crevalles in the Little Manatee River. Capt. Chet Jennings reports catching some monsters in the deep bends, and I recently heard a school thrashing the surface at the mouth of the river. I put the binoculars on the south side of the river, and they were really tearing it up. I was tempted to drop my skiff in the water and chase them with my fly rod.

Capt. Dean Henry and I got into the jacks on the flats south of the river mouth one day two weeks ago and hooked four or five. They were only 2- and 3-pounders, but several fish got into the backing on my 7-weight fly rod.

There were bigger fish there - we saw another angler land a fish that had to be 30 inches after a prolonged battle.

The fish we did catch were finicky. Jacks like the lure to be moving, and it takes a big sweep of the rod tip to move the fly fast enough to encourage a strike. When they finally do take it, keeping the line taut is a problem, but it's a fun problem to have.

Fred Everson is a Ruskin fishing guide. Submit information and photographs for this column by calling (813) 830-8890 or sending an e-mail to ihuntsnook @aol.com.

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