By Eric Henson
Well, we just got some either excellent news for some of us and not so great news for others. Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has officially closed the harvesting of snook, redfish, and trout in our area until next year due to the previous year’s red tide. Although these fish are delicious to eat, I feel they made the correct decision. Now with everybody practicing catch and release on these species, and all of the other things going on to help our fish recovery, I believe things will begin to change for the better soon. Although, this doesn’t mean that you can’t still go out there and have fun catching and releasing these species!
This time of year, snook are one of my favorite fish to target. These fish will be hanging out in large groups in the passes and on the beach. Generally, lots of males up to about 20 inches or so and then larger females in the mix. My favorite way to target them is with topwater lures like the Yo Zuri 3DB and then soft-plastics like the Monster 3X X-SWIM or X-MOVE with a decent size jig-head depending on the depth you are fishing.
My other favorite fish to target this time of year is the redfish! These fish will also be schooling up getting ready to spawn. You can find them on the flats or near passes heading out to the gulf. If you take your time and are quiet enough you can usually pull a few fish out of the group before they are on to you. Once they are on to you they can be quite tough to get to eat artificial lures. They will eat a lot of the same lures that you use for snook. You just want to match the size of the bait that is swimming around you. Even with last year’s red tide, there are still plenty of fish to catch! Be careful and have a blast catching the best catch of your life!