Cooler weather has dropped the water temperature down a little so the school trout will be bunched up in the deeper edges of the flats. Usually when you find a couple trout in a certain zone, meaning water depth and temperature, there will be plenty more around. The bigger trout will be loners and on the hunt on the outside edges of the grass flats and deeper water close to mangrove pockets. A D.O.A. Jig Head and CAL Shad in root beer or motor oil green is a good color to use this time of year. I expect the redfish bite to be hot during January. The cooler water fires them up and they have no fear of a good north wind blowing down the river. It is my experience that redfish like colorful soft plastics like pink and white or red and gold. Redfish are becoming a common catch in the Indian River Lagoon and the fish are fat and healthy. The reds of the St. Lucie River tend to be bigger but not as many fish as the Indian River. Flipping docks in the St. Lucie River with shrimp and jig combo is a productive method. All the bridges on the Treasure Coast will be holding black drum and croaker. A simple rig to use is a naked jig head and live shrimp fished near the pilings or around underwater rubble. The flounder bite should turn on with a couple good cold fronts. The Sailfish Flats and Willoughby Creek flat are consistent places to fish for pompano by boat. Relief bridges on the causeways are ideal for pompano; you just have to zero in the tide phase when they are coming through. The back waters still produce snook action even with the cooler water. Try trolling a green Broke-back Bomber or chrome Rattle Trap and see what happens. Take the family down to Peck Lake and enjoy the Spanish mackerel attack going on.
Enjoy the New Year and catch’em up. Wear your Bullfrog.
FORECAST BY: Capt. John Young
Bites On Guide Service
Snook, Trout, Redfish, Tarpon, Kingfish
Phone: (772) 708-3593
Email: snoooky12@yahoo.com
[easy-social-share]