By: Eric Henson
The cold months are here but the fishing is still heating up! Just about every trip I head out on this time of year I love to target snook, redfish, and trout which is called an “inshore slam” in our area. As long as you pick the right time, tide, and location, you can catch all three of these species in Southwest Florida. Some days you can catch multiple inshore slams and some days maybe only two out of the three will be chewing (for whatever the reason might be on that specific day). Although there is a freeze on harvesting snook and redfish at this time because of the red tide this year, there are plenty of big ole fish to practice good fun catch and release with. Most tournaments in our area are Inshore Slam tourneys for the simple fact that it is a great accomplishment to catch all three in the same day. Inshore Slam tournaments can be scored by weight but a lot of the time they will go by the total length of the 3 species. It just puts less stress on the fish. They generally issue you a measuring device and a token of some sort so they know that the fish were actually caught the day of the tournament. Now if someone comes in with two fish and they are larger than someone who has all three species, the “inshore slam” generally beats the two even if they are larger. So, on a day that I’m trying to complete the inshore slam, I will right off the bat try and catch a good size trout. Most of your larger trout like to feed early. Then I try and bang out a snook because they also seem to like the twilight stages of the day. Then lastly but definitely not least is good ole Mr. Redfish! Now this is just how I approach targeting an inshore slam. Sometimes mother nature likes to throw us curve balls and I’ll catch them in complete reverse! Hahaha! None the less, it is a fun and exciting challenge to try and succeed at while being out on the water this time of year. I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season. Tight Lines and Tight Knots to all!