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Roller-Coaster Weather Returns

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2008

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

Rapid warming trends followed by plunging temperatures are creating havoc on freshwater fishermen.

Those who time their trips with the end of a warm-up ahead of the next front are having excellent results, especially speckled perch fishermen on the Kissimmee chain.

Limits are becoming more and more common on Lake Kissimmee with water temperatures now in the low 60s. Specks are schooling in tighter bunches, making reaching limits easier. Crooked Lake near Babson Park is also reporting limits of specks on minnows in deeper holes with fish up to 2 pounds.

Recently I slipped my smaller boat in one of the phosphate pits that dot the Alafia State Park south of Pinecrest. With a morning low in the 50s, I decided to try to pick up a few specks.

I was dipping a small 1/32 -ounce jig below a small cork around grass lines while trolling another bait behind the boat. Not long after starting I went to pull my jig back up when a bass rolled but missed the jig.

I grabbed my bass rod that was rigged with a Zoom junebug lizard and threw it back in the small spot where the bass rolled. After a good fight I boated a healthy 3.5-pound bass appearing to be a female filled up with roe.

Thinking I had hit paydirt, I fished the next two hours without any results. On the way back to the launch, I found a high grass bank near myrtle trees and caught three more bass, although they were smaller buck males.

For charter trip information, contact Mark Cook at (813) 846-9277 or send an e-mail

to tribfishing@aol.com.

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