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Get Out For Trout, Sheepshead

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 24, 2008

GO FISHING is a daily look at the area fishing scene through the eyes of local charter boat captains and fishing guides. Today: Bill Miller.
Captain Craig Lahr says trout fishing in St. Joseph Sound has been fairly consistent along the grass flats. Lahr has been having good success fishing a DOA shrimp under a clicking cork. A baby-bream-colored jerkbait on a three-ounce jig head also has been working well. The early morning when the water is low has been a productive time for topwater redfish using the black-and-chrome MirrOLure Top Pup.

January and February are prime sheepshead time. Look for them around sea walls, docks and other structure. The Gandy and Frankland bridges, along with the Port Tampa reefs, are top spots. All of the bridges along the Intracoastal Waterway are also good places to find sheepshead. Fish on the bottom around the pilings. Scrape some barnacles off the pilings to sweeten the area, and then drop a fresh shrimp or a piece of green mussel into the chum line. Sheepshead are sneaky, so when you feel a nibble, set the hook.

These last full-moon tides, combined with a hard northeast wind, had many of the Bay area flats high and dry. Captain Geoffrey Paige likes to run his boat onto the sand bars in Terra Ceia and Sarasota Bay and wade to the holes and troughs. Using soft plastics, and on occasion live shrimp, Paige has been catching double limits on landlocked redfish, snook and trout.

Captain Bill Miller hosts "Hooked on Fishing" on Thursdays and Sundays from 7-8 p.m., and Fridays and Mondays from 11 a.m.-noon on Bright House Networks Catch 47.

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