By Capt. Patrick Smith Contributing Writer
Hope everybody is surviving the harsh South Florida winter. There is some great fishing to be had relatively close to shore this time of year. Throw a silver spoon or white bucktail jig off the beach for ladyfish, jacks, bluefish, and more.
Goofy jigs are another great lure that might get you connected to all the above plus pompano, permit, and palometa. If you wind up with some of the oily species, it’s not a bad idea to send one right back out into the surf and try to catch a blacktip or spinner shark; they should be roaming pretty close to shore and put up a spectacular fight.
Freshwater – your focus should be deeper of finding holes, deep bridges, and any type of structure. This is a great time to fish a big worm or even a deep diving crank bait retrieved as slow as possible to maintain action. A species that does love the upper water column this time of year especially on days where the weather seems to be nasty is the sunshine bass. People catch them on small jerk baits, shrimp, and shiners.
For the fly fisherman this is the perfect time of year to use a Clousers salt and in freshwater try different retrieves from working the bottom to a little faster paced erratic strip. The Clouser is one of the most effective fly patterns for everything from bass to tuna.