HOMOSASSA
Happy Holidays Nature Coast Anglers, December is always a great month to be on the water. This month is the last to grab a gag grouper and the season’s last day is December 31st. With gulf water temperatures typically hovering in the mid to upper 60’s, this “IS” grouper time. From trolling, casting plugs to bottom fishing; if you haven’t hit your favorite grouper spots, you’d better hurry.
With the cooler water temperatures, our inshore trout population changes gears from being spread over the flats, and concentrate over hard, rocky bottom. This can either be a submerged oyster bar, rock flat or an isolated rock boulder. The good news is, the trout are concentrated and once one fish is located, there are generally more very close to the area. Slow suspending plugs like MirrOlure mirrodines and especially DOA glow jerk baits, are my go- to lures and I encourage you all to try them as well.
On the days when the NE wind is howling and it’s just too rough to leave the comfort of the river; well, stay in the river. There can be plenty of action along the rocky points, holes and springs. Live shrimp on a jig head is a simple technique to keep the rod bent and red fish, mangrove snapper, trout and black drum will be the winter residence in the rivers for the next couple of months.
I always like to mention too for the fly fisherman or upcoming fly fisherman; the ladyfish are in the headwaters of the river by the thousands. They can be a blast on a 5wt rod and will readily take a white clouser minnow aggressively. I like to pinch the barb down on the fly which makes for an easy release, and it keeps you and the boat clean.
The red fish can be a little tricky to get to during these winter months with the low tides. For those who have a shallow draft boat, the sight fishing can be really fun in the backcountry creeks and bays. Generally, a well presented dark colored soft plastic jerk bait will encourage a red fish strike.
The annual winter-time sheepshead migration usually first starts just around the holidays, and myself and several of the other captains really look forward to their arrival. Sheepshead are one of the few fish that really prefer the cold water temperatures. If we’ve had several cold fronts, you can bet they will start arriving on the various hard bottom structures. I’ll be talking more about them in the upcoming months and I wish you all a great Holiday Season… Capt. Dan