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Good Fishing Precedes Cold Front

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 26, 2007

The run of fair weather that continued into the middle of the month turned colder and windy a week before Christmas. But there was a good bite ahead of the season's first major cold front.

I got out with my buddy Gabe Krakowski from Brooklyn, N.Y., and we had a pretty good day of sight fishing on the flats. He caught a redfish, a snook and a cobia on the same Berkley stink bait, while I hooked and lost another cobia on a Riptide Curtailer.

Prior to that, I spent the the week fishing for sharks and redfish. I had Tom White of Skipper's Smokehouse on board for another fine day of December fishing on the South Shore, and we were the only boat on the flats all day.

The weather was exceptionally mild with a light breeze out of the north. We were able to drift the flat without ever having to take the push pole out of its holder. We caught and released two short fish on jigs, before finding a couple of keepers. There were pods of fish marauding through schools of baitfish and I mistakenly thought they were jacks. When we finally got into casting distance of one such disturbance we both hooked up instantly with middle of the slot redfish.

Farther south on the same flat, White cast a pompano jig to a shadow that turned out to be a 4-foot blacktip shark. The fish turned on the tiny lure and struck. The rod bent and the drag screamed for a few seconds and then the fish came off. It straightened the rather stout hook of the pompano jig, and had that not happened, I'm certain the fish would have spooled the small reel.

Later in the day we came across a pod of bonnethead sharks. I put the Power Pole down, and re-rigged my long spinning rods with 2/0 circle hooks to free-line large live shrimp. You don't need wire for bonnetheads, so I cut off the jigs and tied on the circle hooks.

The idea is to cast a live shrimp about 6 feet in front of the shark - any closer and the fish may spook as the shrimp hits the water. Large shrimp are wanted for this work because they are heavier, they cast better and are more secure on the hook.

Water temperature was still in the low 70s in mid-December, and that made for some excellent offshore fishing. There were still some king mackerel around, and Capt. Billy Jordan said he even caught some bonito in the Bay.

I haven't fished the middle of the Bay lately, but my guess is that there is still Spanish mackerel around the range markers. There are some resident fish that stay in the Bay all year long, but most will migrate when the temperature drops.

Fred Everson is a Ruskin fishing guide. All South Shore fishermen and guides may submit information and photographs to be included in this column by calling (813) 830-8890 or sending an e-mail to ihuntsnook @aol.com.

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