Flip-Flop Winter and Red-Hot Trout
Boy oh boy, has this been a funky “winter season” for the Gulf Coast. One day the water temp is 76, and you have to put sunscreen on, and the next it’s 56, and you’re all layered up. On the plus side, we haven’t had to be layered up hardly at all this season because the cold fronts have been spaced so far apart that it hasn’t stayed cold for long, and neither have the water temps.
The bite that has remained the most consistent this season has been the trout for sure. On the lower tides, they have been stacked up in channels or creek mouths from Hudson to Anclote and will eat most any swimbait or jig you throw their way. On the low-low tides, I like to get my boat as skinny as it can get on a grass flat and cast swimbaits or spoons into the potholes to look for bigger trout and reds that may be sitting in there ready to ambush. The shoreline from the Anclote River to just north of the Anclote power plant works really well for this tactic, as there are plenty of holes to choose from. Once the tide comes in a little higher, the trout will spread out across the flat, making for easy drift fishing on the flat with a bait that can cover some area.
While we’re trout fishing, we are keeping a watchful eye for pompano and cobia. It’s typical to find the pomps on the days where the water is a tick colder, and usually we can grab a few where the flat drops off into deeper water. The east side of the Anclote sandbar is a great place for this. Throwing goofy jigs or paddletails will work for everything, but a shrimp imitation such as a Z-Man Prawnstar shrimp works great too and is usually an easier presentation for the random cobia or tripletail you may come across on your drift. Make sure to keep the gear as light as possible! Nothing bigger than 15lb fluoro with this crazy clear water we have in the winter.
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.