TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Recent Warmer Temperatures Make For Good Fishing

Photo by FRED EVERSON

Fred Everson caught and released this good-looking snook two days after Christmas off Sand Key.

ADVERTISEMENT

By FRED EVERSON

Tribune Correspondent

Published: January 7, 2009

Fred Everson

December was as unseasonably warm as November was cold. Water temperatures at the end of the year were in the high 60s, and that made for some very good fishing on the flats off South Shore.

I was out in my canoe on an extreme low tide early one morning, and the first fish I hooked was a 28-inch snook. By the way that fish cavorted about and took drag, you would have thought it was late April. I was fishing a trough just outside a sandbar throwing a plastic shrimp rigged on a 3/8-ounce jig head, and I also caught two redfish and a jack in a 100-yard drift. One redfish was oversized, and one just short. The jack was about six pounds and, like all the fish I caught that day, it was full of fight.

Two days later, I left the dock at 9 a.m. to fish the low tide at 9:54. As it turned out, I should have slept in. I didn't see the first fish until noon and spent more than an hour stuck on a sand bar. I could have got off the boat and pushed it into deeper water and continued poling, but I opted instead to stand on the poling platform and let the fish come to me. They never got the invitation.

So after more than an hour in one spot, the boat finally floated off the bar, and I motored out into deeper water to make another drift. This was more productive, as I saw several redfish right away. I made a cast with a plastic crab to a fish in two feet of water and hooked up. The fish was full of fight and, after thrashing about on the surface for a minute or two, the hook pulled. Minutes later, I poled up to another fish in front of the boat, and it reacted to the crab as soon as it hit the water. This time the hook didn't pull. The fish measured 22 inches, and I put that one on ice for dinner.

Capt. Chet Jennings told me he fished the Little Manatee River the same day and caught a few snook. Then he went down to Joe Island near the mouth of the bay and caught redfish and bonnethead sharks on cut bait. He also said he was still finding some local bait on the flats.

Capt. Tom Rinehart filed an offshore report, saying he caught a couple of keeper-sized red grouper and a limit of mangrove snapper while bottom fishing.

Trout season is back on. On the next calm day, I plan to cross the bay and fish Pinellas Point. I like this flat because the water is four feet deep and tap-water clear. This is a good place to throw artificial lures, and here I like a Mirrolure 52 MS. It's a slow sinker that requires little action with a slow retrieve and catches the heck out of big trout.

In late December, we caught big trout on the flats between Sand Key and Big Pass. Cockroach Bay is also good trout country.

Lower than usual tides will continue to be the norm for the next few months, and with prevailing winds out of the north, they often will be lower than forecast. Water temperature was above normal at this writing, but that could change overnight with the next cold front.

Fred Everson is an outdoor writer and rod builder. 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 ihunt snook@aol.com.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT