Most any time fishing is slow, guys will be singing the blues, but for me, the blues just brightened my day…blue fish, that is.  Fishing over the past two weeks has been very strange for this time of year, but taken into consideration that red tide has come and gone a number of times or at least presented us with near misses, I’m amazed that fishing is as good as it is.  Anglers aboard the Flat Back II caught snook, trout, redfish, bluefish, flounder, catfish, ladyfish, grouper, black seabass, and silver trout on a variety of lures.

     Prior to the weekend of the 9^th through the 11^th, I worked the backside of the new moon.  Good tides allowed for some decent action with snook being my number one target.  We managed about a half-dozen snook per trip, along with several other species.  Productive snookin’ lures were the CAL Shad tail jigs, DOA Shrimp, S7MRCFPR MirrOlure, and High Tide tube baits.  Most of the time we pitched our baits around the edges of the mangroves just after the top of the tide.  Our largest snook measured 30-inches.  All fish were released.  That weekend, I headed for the Florida Sportsman Fishing Show in West Palm Beach for the Riggin’ It Right Inshore Academy.  It was a good show and pretty well attended.

     The week of the 12^th through the 18^th saw some good action with a few redfish and more snook.  Spotted seatrout catches were minimal with sizes running less than 2-pounds at the largest.  Early and late topwater fishing produced the largest fish.  MirrOlure She Dogs and the new DOA Chug Head rigged on a CAL Shad tail caught the bulk of the speckled trout. 

     Redfish were in better shape this week, with some very good schooling activity northeast of the Skyway Bridge from Joe Bay to Port Manatee.  Unfortunately, the reds were pretty finicky.  The occasional red bit jigs, but some of the best action was with the fly rod while tossing Gummi Minnows and the DOA 1/20th ounce shrimp on a #4 hook.

     Several silver trout were caught in the holes north of the bridge while bumping the bottom with Love’s Lures tandem jigs.  These fish typically will show up in the winter.  The outside sandbars all the way up to Ruskin were holding a number of sharks.  Most of the fish were black tips along with a few sand sharks and bonnet heads.

     The time frame surrounding the full moon was a little slower during the day.  The big high tides pushed fish way back into the backcountry areas of Terra Ceia into the bayous and creeks.  The action seemed to slow considerably on the full moon with just a few exceptions.  Numerous jack crevalle and bluefish were caught on Gummi Minnow flies and CAL jigs as these schools of marauding feeders blitzed the backcountry waters in search of food.  It seemed that the top forage were glass minnows or killifish.  Again, the Gummi Minnow fly produced well, as did the CAL Shad.  If not for the bluefish and jacks yanking my string, I might have been singing the blues, the Backcountry Blues.  I’m not complaining, because the jacks and blues were a blast.  I’m just looking forward to when fishing returns to normal.  ‘Til then…catch ya later!

Capt. Ray Markham

(941) 723-2655