By Capt. Jamie Thrappas, Yellow Dawg Fishing
March is a great month to fish, the days begin to get longer and the water and air temperatures are on the rise! I’ll be focused on sheepshead in the beginning of the month as the bite is usually really good. Using the same strategy from February you want to use fiddler crabs and sand fleas when available on short pieces of leader 12″ or less and just enough egg weight to hold the bottom. I also will tip the hook with a small piece of fish bites sand flea flavor it seems to get these bait bandits to bite one more time even after getting my crabs! People have been using jigs like bottom sweepers and swear by them so give them a shot and see how you do.
As the month goes on and water temperatures rise, I’ll switch gears to focus on redfish and snook again. We had a pretty cold winter and our snook felt it so this year I’ll mostly be doing catch and release to try and help preserve the population. I like outgoing tides for snook, and I like using live bait like pin fish or mullet in the spring.
The redfish bite around the inlet will also heat up in March, I catch a good number of fish on both tides but outgoing usually seems to be the best. Live shrimp, mud minnows, mullet, and cut mullet are my favorite baits to use in spring for reds.
Get the boat cleaned up or if you don’t have one clean and grease your reels and get outside, spring is here. As always stop by our bait and tackle shop at High Bridge in Ormond Beach for advice and if you see us on the water say hello!
