Warm start to winter delays king migration

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

Historically, kingfish should have left our area on their southern migration by now. On rare occasion through the years, a few kingfish have been caught around Christmas. It appears our warm winter has made this one of those years.

Before the cold front, captain Jesse Mayer reports that kingfish were thick off John's Pass. Mayer and party caught more than 40 kingfish on a half-day trip, along with bonitos, grouper and hogfish. Live bait was the key.

Captain Craig Lahr had been catching monster kings off Clearwater Pass at the Clearwater hard bottom, slow trolling live shad. One of Lahr's kingfish weighed 53 pounds, two others were in the 40's and a few were in the 30-pound range.

The Peaks, south of the Whistler buoy, was the hot king spot for Jim Turner and friends. Turner says they caught their limits quickly and released 30 or 40 more kings in a morning using live white bait.

This cold snap may have moved the kings some, but when the weather warms up don't be surprised to find them in some of the usual places

The Graziano family was fishing the Times Square area with captain Billy Miller and had great action with catch-and-release grouper, hog snapper, sheepshead, triggerfish, mangrove snapper and white grunts. Miller has mostly been using knocker rigs and live shrimp.

Gag grouper season is closed in state and federal waters and will not open until late 2012.

Captain Richard Seward and I had an enjoyable day last week on a north Tampa lake catching speckled perch and bluegills, with a few bass mixed in. We used our electric motor to slow troll beetle spins around brush piles for the best action. A few of the bass were too big to land.

Speckled trout season is open all year.