Spring is finally in the air after an uncomfortably cold start to the year. Fish that we haven’t seen since the Fall will be showing up towards the end of this month, and the usual suspects will be fired up, ready, and willing. The snook will be out of their winter slumber and ready to gorge on pilchards before making their way out to the beaches. The redfish will leave the canals and deep water to scour the flats, and the trout will be pre-spawn and stacking up on the grass flats. As the water temperatures approach the upper 60s and low 70s, the cobia and Spanish macs work their way into water depths within range of almost every recreational fisherman.
Cobia are my favorite fish to target in March as they move around the grass flats, following stingrays, sharks, and manatees. Sight casting them with bucktail jigs or swimbaits is about as much fun as you can have on the water around here. Elevated platform boats increase your chances of seeing them before they see you, but they aren’t exactly the most spooky fish when they’re following along behind a ray or manatee. Another easy way to target them is to drift the grass flats and fish for trout while dragging a popping cork behind you with a pinfish a couple of feet underneath it. A large enough pinfish eliminates most of the bycatch that you’ll get if you use a shrimp or pilchard.
This is also your last chance to venture into the nearshore waters to find giant sheeps before they head west for the year. Pasco public reef #4 is a great jumping off point, and then cruise along the stone crab buoys from there looking for the rocky bottom.
Captain Bill is a Florida native who grew up fishing the Gulf Coast. Being a proud Army Vet himself, he founded a charity called VetCatch that takes disabled veterans on cost free fishing trips in the Tampa Bay area. He guides out of New Port Richey fishing a 24-foot Shoalwater tower boat as well as the custom 25-foot VetCatch pontoon if needed for elderly/disabled fisherman. www.rustybucket.fish. 