Cold weather has chilling effect on fishing: Weekly cold fronts, fog, wind and declining water temperatures have made for some challenging fishing this month. Nevertheless, the bite has been pretty fair along the southern shores of Tampa Bay.
Mike Strickland told me he fished around the power plant in Apollo Beach last week and caught several short snook, redfish and some ladyfish and hooked – then lost – a monster of a jack crevalle. He was fishing with live shrimp under floats.
It was nice to hear there are some jacks in the canal at the power plant because I have yet to see any in the river. In years past, there were great schools of jacks throughout the river, but I haven't seen many of them since the January freeze of last year.
Bird Glass of Riverview fished off the docks at Shell Point last weekend and caught several short redfish and two keeper-sized sheepshead. It's great to see so many little redfish around because they'll all be in the slot this time next year.
Water temperature dropped precipitously last week. It had been hovering around 68 degrees for more than a month, but the last series of cold fronts quickly dropped it to 60 degrees.
With the latest cold front that passed early this week, it's not going to warm up any time soon. We can only hope it doesn't get as cold as it did last January, or we are likely to lose the few snook we have left.
Snook will tolerate temperatures as cool as 55 degrees, but any colder than that they go into shock. Last January, water temperatures dropped into the 40s in the Little Manatee River and that killed a lot of snook, jack crevalle, mullet, flounder and catfish. So far this month, the recurrence and severity of cold fronts is beginning to look eerily like last winter. Let's hope for a warming trend and a return to a normal Florida winter.
Years ago I can remember the water temperature being 70 degrees the last day in January and a snook bite that was simply on fire. Last winter the air temperature seldom got above 50, with morning lows in the high 30s up until March. That's way too cold for West Central Florida.
The one positive thing about cool water is that it sure clears things up. All last summer and fall, water clarity was unusually poor because of lots of rain and gusty winds. Right now, it's gin clear on the flats between Apollo Beach and Joe Island.
Plenty of sight-fishing opportunities abound, especially on the extreme low tides of winter. Redfish are the primary target, and they will tail at first light if it's calm – not as much if it's choppy.
Another species to target in the winter months is flounder, and recently we have had some remarkable flounder fishing. They like to lie in sandy potholes to ambush hapless baitfish.
I catch most of my flounder when blind casting for redfish. They will eat the same lures and can be very aggressive. The preferred live bait for flounder is chubs, a convenient choice because chubs are one of the few bait fish that don't disappear during the winter. I find them in shallow water around creek mouths. Chubs are also good bait for redfish and snook.
And, finally, a merry Christmas and happy new year to all who read this column.
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