GO FISHING is a look at the area fishing scene through the eyes of the local charter boat captains and fishing guides. Today: Frank Sargeant.
What probably will be the last cold front of the year blows through this weekend, dropping overnight temperatures into the 40s. Yet, with the warmer afternoons before and after this front, the fish are likely to keep doing their springtime thing in fresh and saltwater.
At Okeechobee and other lakes in the Kissimmee Chain, the spawn is on and will continue into early March. The biggest fish are usually caught on live shiners fished near the beds, but plastic worms and creature baits flipped in potholes in the weeds also do lots of damage. Pre-spawn and post-spawn fish will crush spinner baits and topwaters at the edge of the spawning flats. Speck fishing is as good as it gets. Captain Richard Seward of Tampa and pals took a freshwater trip to Kissimmee and caught 50 in an hour, including many of a pound or better.
On Tampa Bay, snook are easing out of the rivers and potholes to take up summer residence around the sloughs and mangrove edges. There's plenty of whitebait around already and, as always, this is the prime way to connect with snook — chum a few live baits and then free-line one on a size 1 hook anywhere current necks down around island points and breaks in the bar.
Lots of big trout continue to belt topwaters on the flats and just outside the first drop, as well as in the sloughs and run-outs with the snook. A MirrOdine, which runs just below the surface, is a killer where there's a foot or more of water above the turtle grass.
The dark moon this weekend will mean exceptionally low tides, which will make it easier for wade fishermen to spot tailing reds on the shallowest flats, such as those along the South Shore from Ruskin to the Skyway.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement