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Updated 1/25/10
Following
Fish Kill Plenty
Of Trout Remain
The extent of the cold water fish kill has been much
worse than expected, with thousands of dead fish floating in
canals and all over the bay this past week. I do not ever
remember seeing so many large snook dead from any one single
event. The water temperature in the canal I fish from one day
was chilly 43 degrees, which is way too cold for some of our
subtropical fish to live through. |
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Talk about depressing. One deep water mangrove canal I fish
during the winter months was lined with hundreds of floating dead snook
of 30 inches and larger. Snook take years to grow to that size so it
could take a few years for our snook fishery to bounce back to what it
just was just a month ago. Nature works in cycles and this kind of
kill-off has happened before and will happen again. For whatever reason
this was the year to thin out the snook population and only the
strongest survived.
The Florida Wildlife Commission did take emergency action on January 15
by closing spring season on snook with is now not planned to open until
at least September 1. This should help out the snook and should buy some
more time for research and to give scientists a better idea of the
damage done to the stock. If needed the FWC could close snook season for
even longer. Whatever it takes to bring back the numbers of this premier
gamefish should be done in my opinion. As most people have known for a
long time, snook are a much more valuable resource than just a food
fish.
Sea trout fishing has really picked up this week with lots of slot-sized
fish caught all over the sound. Working edges and drop-offs of deeper
channels that run through or up to grass flats has been the pattern to
get on these fish. One of my favorite winter time trout channels is the
deep channel that runs on the east side of Chino Island. Either drift
fishing or sitting on the anchor have both been productive ways to fish
it.
When drift fishing it I have been using soft plastic shrimp on a 1/4oz
or bigger jig head depending on the speed of the tide. The faster the
tide the larger the jig head you will need to bounce the bottom. When
anchored, live handpicked shrimp fished on the bottom have worked best.
The trout having been hanging near or close to the bottom. There have
been some real big ones in the mix with a 26-inch "gator" being the
trout of the week on my boat.
The traditional way of drift fishing trout on the flats using a live
shrimp under a popping cork has also been a good way to go. Generally
live shrimp fished on the flats get stolen quickly by pinfish and
catfish but with most of the bait stealers killed off by the cold all
you're going to catch is trout and ladyfish. For kids and
not-so-experienced anglers this is easy fishing with hits almost every
cast once you find the trout.
The Cajun Thunder popping cork rigs which came out the last few years
are also an awesome method for catching trout. The rig consists of a
popping cork with a soft plastic shrimp/Berkley Gulp shrimp rigged about
threefeet under it on a jig head. This rig produces almost as many fish
as the traditional live shrimp/popping cork rig and you don't go through
a ton of live bait. Loudly popping the bobber draws the trout in close.
Trout are without a doubt one of the more angler-friendly fish and
popular gamefish in the state of Florida. They can be targeted year
round but winter time fishing produces some of the biggest ones of the
year. Cold clear water and bright sunny skies are the ideal time to
trout fish.
Another joy of the seatrout is that they can be caught by fishing so
many different ways from top water to live bait and just about any way
in between. What trout lack in fight they make up for in sheer numbers
and they have a very aggressive strike. They are a great species to
learn how to fish for with artificial baits or even a fly rod. Soft
plastics are at the top of the list for me though when I target trout.
Even if you have never fished soft plastic baits without too much effort
you can catch trout.
Regulations on seatrout are four per angler between 15 to 20 inches and
one of the four can be over 20 inches.
Click the links below to view copies of my other recent reports.
01-04-2010
- 01-11-2010
- 01-19-2010
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