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Warmer Waters Bring Fish Aplenty

Photo by FRED EVERSON

Terry Akroyd of Ruskin shows off a trout he caught March 6 south of Sand Key. For Angler's Almanac.

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By FRED EVERSON

Tribune columnist

Published: March 25, 2009

The spring solstice arrived a few days ago, and with it usually comes some of the best fishing of the year. Snook have already begun to move from winter quarters up river and from the mangrove backcountry out onto the flats. These fish are suckers for live sardines, but I have yet to see any in shallow water.

Most of the captains I spoke to this week have been making the long run to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to net whitebait. That should change any day. Scaled sardines come onto the flats to spawn this time of year.

Capt. Nick Winger told me he caught two tarpon last week. I saw a single silver king in shallow water last week while looking for cobia. With water temperature in the Gulf rising into the low 70s, anglers will have the greatest possible variety of fish available, and everything will be on the table as of April 1, when grouper season resumes.

Kingfish should also begin their northerly migration in the next few weeks, along with Spanish mackerel and threadfin herring. There are probably more fish in the bay in the next few weeks than at any other time of the year.

Thus far, March winds have been mild by the standard of years past. I went across the bay last week to Pinellas Point to see if the trout were biting, but we got there at slack tide and there wasn't much going on. I had a few trout follow the lure back to the boat, but no takers. I saw several other anglers throwing cast nets but didn't see anyone catching any bait.

At the mouth of the Little Manatee River that same afternoon, we had better luck. We caught a couple of small snook and a mangrove snapper on medium shrimp.

Terry Akroyd of Ruskin reported hot fishing in Little Cockroach Bay last week. He caught redfish, snook, flounder and trout — all on large live shrimp.

I'm still getting reports of a big school of black drum on the west side of the bay. Capt. Larry Malinoski said he boated fish up to 40 pounds.

There will be strong falling tides in the afternoon this week as the new moon occurs on Friday. A lot of water moving around sunset is a sure-fire recipe for catching snook. With the water temperature in the 70s, I like to throw topwaters at them. Trout also like the falling tide around a new moon.

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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