April traditionally kicks off our spring fishing patterns here on central Florida’s east coast. With the days growing longer and the Sun’s warming rays increasing our air and water temperatures, anglers can once again fish in shirt sleeves. Soon, my rain coat will be used only when it is raining instead of doing double duty as a wind breaker.
Rest assured the redfish and seatrout will become extra aggressive as our weather becomes more stable in the wake of February and March’s constant barrage of cold fronts and strong north winds. We are already seeing pinfish scurrying about the flats and our most important bait fish, the silver mullet should be invading the shallows in large numbers.
Our local shrimp run should continue for another month or two and if we’re lucky our spring blue crab population will be strong. In short, the eco-system will be booming with life allowing our predatory fish to gorge themselves at will!
Be prepared by rigging several rods differently to fish the entire water column. A top-water plug is a must on my boat and the Sebile Ghost Walker is a favorite of mine. Great mid-depth lures include weedless spoons by Aqua Dream and custom wood plugs by Banks Lures. Finally, Exude soft plastics (RT Slugs and Darts) will probe the bottom on weedless, but keel weighted hooks. These versatile soft lures can actually be fished on or near the surface if light wire un-weighted hooks are used. For a fine soft plastic shrimp imitation that casts well even into a breeze the Exude Shrimp is tough to beat and they work well on a standard jig head or wide gap keeper style keel weighted hook.
Fishers who enjoy using live and natural bait will have lots of choices. As mentioned earlier shrimp, crabs, mullet and pinfish will be abundant and pinning any of these critters to an appropriately sized circle hook will result in bent rods.