Tampa Bay Winter Wonderland

Glorious is the best way to describe conditions Monday and Tuesday. Temperatures pushing 80 and no wind made for a perfect day on the water. Monday’s high tide at noon set up a great outgoing tide all afternoon.
No bait gathering as we went strictly with artificial baits. While there are many great lures on the market there are several this Capt. uses and has great confidence in. DOA shrimp in Glo white, Gold or Root beer are great for trout. On shallow grass flats I fish with a popping cork that allows the shrimp to fall naturally to the bottom while keeping it out of the grass. In rocky, sandy and deeper areas I remove the float and crawl the bait on the bottom. Keep the retrieve slow.
First stop was along a drop off from a shallow flat, we fish along the drop in 3-6’ and found spotted sea trout anxious to pounce on our offerings. Typical trout was 14” with several pushing 18”. Mixed in once again were flounder, this year for whatever reason flounder seem to be everywhere.
Next stop we once again found trout along with small grouper and Ladyfish. We got cutoff several times thanks to what had to be Mackerel. We did manage a small redfish and juvenile snook. Next we moved up into the mangroves and switched to sinking twitch baits that resemble white baits when retrieved. As is often the cast the first cast was hammered by a large snook. It was game on for 5 minutes, as the snook ran in and out of the mangroves. Sadly a big jump and head shake sent the lure flying. We took several snook in the 22-24” range.
Twice we ran into schools of Jacks, instant action and a great fight. Overall a fun and rewarding couple of days.
Capt. Steven