Inshore Fishing Report
Snook season opens today in our area for two months, but remember, they must in that narrow slot of 28-33 inches to be able to harvest one per angler per day. Now typically in order to find one in this slot can be challenging, and especially for now it would be even more difficult. They are still very much in the back bay waters and back country areas. They will come out of those areas more as waters warm and days get longer, and that movement or transition is beginning now. We are seeing more and more bait around which will help spur them along too. Between days lengthening, bait present and warming trends these are all variables that will ‘lure’ the snook out of their back country, back bay, river, creek and bayou hiding spots they have taken refuge in during the ‘winter’.
Trout action still going well around the area too. We are seeing lots of trout action around the islands, flats, and dock lines. However, now that things are starting to warm a bit I would imagine we should see them more frequently around the bridge and dock lights at night and moving a bit deeper on the flats out of that super shallow areas we have found them the past few months.
Sheepshead are still super prolific and aggressive around the area structures and that will continue awhile until things really warm up. This is a great time to targe them prior to their annual scatter back to the back bay and upper bay areas which thins out the numbers we see concentrated typically this time of year.
Redfish action has been a bit spotty but going well once you find them. Now that things are going to warm a bit they should get more active and aggressive. We are going to see some nicer weather too allowing you to be able to ‘see’ the fish better when cruising our back bay waters.
Pompano action has been spotty but going well. We had some good numbers caught a few days this past week around madeira beach, johns pass and treasure island. Great time to go pompano jigging around local sandy edges, jetties and passes to try and find some of these great eating fish.
Triple tail are around too, and we should start to see more as spring they get a bit more easy to spot around the floating debris, buoys and markers of our area.
Nearshore Fishing Report
Hogfish action is still going to be the key to our near shore fishery as we move through our spring time frame, but as waters warm they start to spread out and be more tricky to dial in. I would recommend getting out there to capitalize on the better hogfish action now prior to that slow down that comes around end of march into April every year as the near shore waters warm up. We are doing best for the hogfish on our 10 hour all day, but you have a shot at them aboard the 5 hour half days too. The best shot at hogfish would be doing a private fishing charter to specifically target them, but if you can’t swing that a ten hour is still a great option for a chance to land a hogfish. They are typically biting live shrimp or other crustaceans, and typically you need some good patience, a lot of luck, and the right bait to get them. Lighter tackle helps, live shrimp helps, but like most things in fishing there’s no set science to guarantee anything.
Lane snapper action has been going well for us near shore too especially around that sixty foot area to the deepest near shore waters. We often get them on our hogfish tackle and live shrimp while targeting the hogfish, but we see them even on squid and threadfin too when using dead bait. They will bite just about anything its just more common to see the big ones take a shrimp or chunk of threadfin while the typical size and smaller don’t mind taking squid chunks all day.
Mangrove snapper action, like the lane snapper action, is a bycatch for us while targeting the hogfish. This past week we saw a number of the 10-14 inch mangroves on our near shore trips with a few over that 14” line but not as many compared to the number of larger lanes we see. Seems most of the mangroves are all about cookie cutter versions of the others coming up
Red grouper are possible near shore, but we aren’t seeing huge concentrations of them on most trips. However, like yesterday, we had a ten hour private HUB charter for a handful of folks who absolutely crushed the red grouper around 70-100ft of water landing over 9 keepers with some nice lanes, mangroves and a few hogfish in the mix! Great time to get out there near shore for a chance to land them all.
Offshore Fishing Report
We have the long range trips rolling once again and we are enjoying getting back offshore on a variety of trips. Then twelve hour extreme trip has been running strong and doing well, but now that the 39 hours and 44 hour full moon trips have returned its allowed us even more communication about our deepwater fishery and allowing us to dial in on the depths, and locations among our fleet even more so. We are finding the red grouper, some nice mangroves, plentiful other heads and tails and the occasional scamp grouper. Now, starting today, the triggerfish are now open once again too! However, the triggerfish have to be large over fifteen inches fork length which is a very big overall triggerfish.
Great time to get out with us to hunt some red grouper during the day and mangrove snapper at night with a chance for scamp grouper, triggerfish, and many more other species throughout the trips. We are seeing some mangrove snapper action during the day but behind this full moon it definitely was a bit tough.
Another big challenge offshore right now has been the prevalent red snapper that are seemingly invading areas they haven’t historically been. This makes it challenging for us to avoid them on certain trips, but we are always learning, communicating, and working as a team to compile real time info like this to help our trips be as successful as possible. Along with the red snapper, we are trying to avoid the big gag grouper too and they are seemingly more prolific and aggressive then ever.
Pelagic action should start really heating up for us as we move into this spring time frame when we typically see them really pick up in prevalence. We should see the big kingfish offshore first and with them some nice blackfin tuna action too.
