Gone Fishing Charters

This past January was a historic month in terms of its cold temperatures. Overnight water temperatures dipped into the mid forties five nights in a row, killing many of the fish holding in the usually warmer backwaters. Snook and ladyfish seemed to fare the worst but, on the bright side, few seatrout and redfish appear to have been killed. To assess the damage on the snook, the season has been closed through September. This closure may be lengthened if it is determined that our population was seriously damaged and needs additional recovery time. Fishing for snook will, of course, still be allowed, however all fish caught must be released. 

Beyond the cold temperatures, the weather in general has been very uncooperative this past month. Typically, cold fronts will roll through on a weekly basis this time of year and will be followed by a warming trend. As temperatures rise, fishing gets better and better right up until the next front arrives. As this next front comes through, the fishing shuts off for a day or two and then, once again, improves. This last month, small fronts seemed to come through every three of four days, not allowing the fish to settle into any kind of a pattern. There is good news amidst all of this however. Fishing pressure has been extremely light for the last month, which means there are plenty of hungry fish to be caught as soon as the weather stabilizes.  

This very cold weather triggered some interesting seatrout behavior. First, many fish moved into shallow water. This makes sense as shallow waters warms faster than deeper water. Second. fish became more scattered, making lure fishing the preferred approach.  The most effective baits were longer, plastic jig tails in the darker colors; green, brown or root beer....Slammers, in particular. A slow, twitching retrieve seemed to work best. On shallow flats, using a very light jig head or no jig head seeemed to work best. When moving out into 4 to 5 feet, a 1/4 ounce head was best. Another productive approach in this cold water is slowly retrieving a suspending bait, such as Mirrolure's Mirrodyne. Mix in an occasional twitch in your retrieve. Vary your retrieve until you find something that works for you but remember, slow is the critical component. Whichever tactic you use, nothing beats the feeling of that rod loading up when a big trout eats your bait.  

Redfish numbers will improve as we head into February. Oyster bars and docks remain the primary locations to search for these fish, but random groups of fish may be located on the spoil islands and grass flats as well. As the month progresses, and slightly higher tides return, fish will start to school up better, and catch numbers should increase. Weather patterns and tides will dictate the best days to fish. Fishing the higher phases of the tide on the day before a cold front arrives can be a real bonanza...even during the cooler days of February. The best bait right now would be live or dead shrimp. Always have more durable baits in your arsenal however as, if the pinfish are abundant and the redfish bite slow, you will constantly be re-baiting your hook. These same bait stealing pinfish are a great alternate choice fished both whole and as cut bait. When fishing docks, always use enough weight to hold these baits in place. On the flats, using a lighter weight or no weight at all is sometimes better, especially in shallow water when the fish may be be easily spooked. When fishing deeper holes however, a good sized split shot seems to get your offering into the strike zone faster and keeps it there.

Sheepshead are probably the best cold weather option out there. Even very cold water will not prevent them from eating in most cases. Shrimp and fiddler crabs are baits that will garner their interest. Most dependably, these fish can be found near bridge pilings. Scraping barnacles off of these pilings creates a ready made chum slick which should convince any fish in the area that it's dinner time. Also, certain residential docks will hold these fish in numbers so keep your eyes open when redfishing. One other interesting winter phenomena is that these fish will invade the flats from time to time. On those low tide mornings when you're searching for tailing redfish, pay close attention to the shape of the tail you are looking  at. If it looks a little too pointed and has no spot, you may be looking at a flats roving sheepshead. Cast an unweighted shrimp in it's path or up current if you have decent tidal flow and wait for the big pull. With improving conditions and little recent fishing pressure, there will be some solid fishing days for trout and reds in February. So let the cold fronts go past, give it a few days and then get out there and cash in.