Anglers fishing aboard the Flat Back II experienced a whiff of winter fishing over the past week’s fishing.  While the weather was cooler, it was nice.  Snook that were in fall transition filtered into creeks, rivers, and residential canals.  This is exactly what they should be doing in order to survive cold spells.  The first blast of cold came on the heels of Hurricane Wilma.  The fact that water temperature dropped nearly 15 degrees in some areas during the past couple of weeks is enough for linesiders to react the way they did.  Now that the front has passed and temperatures are on the rise again, I look for snook to poke back out on to the flats and feed voraciously.   

     A variety of lures produced some good action on snook, with the DOA ¼ ounce glow color shrimp out-producing the rest of the baits we threw.  Following the shrimp, our top-producers were the MirrOlures, a 28MR and the new 19MR18 MirrOMinnow.  Our largest snook came on a MirrOlure She Dog, taping out at 31-inches.

     Trout fishing has been slow with mostly very small fish, and fewer than normal specks being caught and released.  Our trout fishery is closed through the end of the year anyway, so we don’t really target these fragile fish with the exception of completing a grand slam, (a snook, redfish, and trout, all caught on the same day.

    Redfish have been scattered since Hurricane Wilma blew past us.  We’ve caught a few each week but those we are finding are singles or pairs of fish.  It seems that the big blow took the schools of big breeders with it. I’m guessing these fish left for Gulf waters.

     On the big plus side, bluefish, jack crevalle, Spanish mackerel, and a few little tunny have moved into lower Tampa Bay working hard bottom areas and have been feeding on schools of small glass minnows.  I’ve been targeting them with glass minnow patterns like the Carl Hanson Monobody Glass Minnow and Gummi Minnows with fairly good success.  The 6 wt. fly rods we use are light for some of these fish.  Our Scientific Anglers Mastery Series floating Bonefish Tapers, and Scientific Anglers Mastery Series Wet Tip Clear invisible sinking tip fly lines are perfect for these fish when they are feeding at or just below the surface.  Our largest bluefish was around 3-pounds.  Most of our Spanish mackerels were up to 24-inches at the fork.  On several occasions the larger macks will take us into the backing.  The jacks have varied in size up to 6-pounds and are a real handful on light tackle and 6-pound tippets.

     The weather has been great and the fishing on the upswing.  This is a very productive time of year for using artificial baits and flies.  It’s also one of my favorite times of the year to fish.  With some fair weather for the week ahead, I’m looking forward to some good action.  ‘Til then…catch ya later!

Capt. Ray Markham

(941) 723-25655

E-mail: flatback@tampabay.rr.com