By: Capt. Dave Stephens
Well fellow anglers if you’re looking for a perfect winter in beautiful South West Florida, this just happens to be your year. It has been quite some time since I can remember us having this great weather this far into winter. I hope by bragging about it, I’m not dooming us for cold fronts that are going to make their way to us. Our fishery can be very tricky this time of year. This is largely due to our water temps. I know it is hard to believe that a small difference, such as 3-4 degrees can make a big difference but it makes a huge difference. This year we have been targeting snook, and doing very well. Over the past few weeks on my charters we have been putting some fish to the boat that we normally don’t catch till spring. Not only are we catching some quality snook, we are also putting good numbers to the boat. Let’s get back to water temps and what this warmer weather does to our fishery. The magic number for our snook fishery to stay active is 68-70 degrees. Most people do not realize these guys are a tropical fish, and need warm water to stay active. If we have major cold fronts that push down into our area and cool our waters snook will go dormant. They move into deep areas, and wait for the water temps to rise to feed again. However, if we do get some late cold fronts that push their way to South West Florida it’s not the end of our fishery. We actually have several species here that thrive in the cooler weather. The main one is sheepshead, these striped bait bandits love the cooler water. Actually, it is important for them to have a healthy spawning season. As our waters cool down these guys begin to school up to spawn they look for areas with large structure. For the anglers that are not familiar with these black and white bait bandits. They are a member of the porgy family, and are great table fare. Catching them can be a little tricky, well I guess any fish that feeds on small crustaceans can be tricky. Areas with structure that has old growth like barnacles, oysters and rocks will hold fish. I highly recommend using a small hook, such as a #1 or even a #2, with enough weight to make contact the bottom. Since sheepheads feed primarily on crustaceans shrimp is a great go to bait. However, if you can get some fiddler crabs its game on. I recommend to bring three times the bait you think you’re going to need. These guys got their black and white stripes for a reason. As we push down the home stretch of winter we will see what Mother Nature throws at us. Luckily for us we have fish that we can target on an outing tide on our beautiful harbor.
