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Right Place, Right Time, Right Bait

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2008

GO FISHING is a look at the area fishing scene through the eyes of local charter boat captains and fishing guides. Today: Mel Berman.

It was one of those calm, glorious autumn days that motivated captain Pat Damico to run his 18-foot flats boat from the Pinellas Clam Bar to fly fish the South Shore area across the bay. The tide was just beginning to run out as he and his clients arrived. Casting chartreuse-and-white Clouser minnows, they let the flies sink, and before they hit the bottom, everyone was hooked up with a trout.

"We must have caught and released way over 100 of them, and many of them were well over 20 inches," Damico said.

In addition to the trout bonanza, they caught good numbers of late-season bonnethead sharks plus some impressive pompano and flounder. "These are the kinds of trips that keep an angler coming back for more," he said. "Of course, it always helps to be in the right place at the right time with the right bait."

Certainly, these toasty days that come between cold fronts help motivate the fish. Water temperatures are in the upper 60s, and this weekend looks like we should again be coming out of a cold snap into more seasonable conditions. The last of the full moon period will drive some good tides.

This week, I fished the North Pinellas Intracoastal Waterway area and hooked some impressively large winter trout, along with several frisky bluefish. The grouper bite is excellent in nearshore rocky structures, along the shipping channel and the Sunshine Skyway. There are also good numbers of sheepshead at most barnacle-encrusted pilings.
Silver trout are beginning to move in from the Gulf, and plenty of whiting and other cold-weather species available to keep all lines tight.

Hear "The Captain Mel Show" Saturdays from 6-9 a.m. on 970 AM. Also, visit "Fishing Florida OnLine Magazine" at capmel.com. Hear "The Captain Mel Show" Saturdays from 6-9 a.m. on 970 AM. Also, visit "Fishing Florida OnLine Magazine" at capmel.com.

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