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This past week started as warm as the previous weeks have been. Fishing remained productive for redfish and snook. Then in the middle of the week, a front came through. It was Old Man Winter peeking around the corner to give us a cool blast of arctic air. If it weren’t for the onslaught of Christmas traffic, you would have never known that it was December. After the front came through, the temperature dropped to the fifties. That brought the water temperature down to the low seventies.
Before the front, there was plenty of bait to be caught. All methods of fishing seemed to be working. I got reports of legal size snook being caught by just about everybody that I talked to. Please bear in mind that snook season closed on December 15. When snook season opens again, any snook that you plan to keep will have to have an overall measurement of 26 inches. You may still keep 2 fish but none can be over thirty-four inches. Guides may not fill their bag limit when they are engaged on a working charter. The redfish bag limits will remain the same. The redfish are still on the prowl. People have been catching them on live bait, jigs and shrimp. They have been showing up in all sizes.
Most of my charters were fly fishing in the past week. Although the tides were not the best for sight fishing, my clients did get some good action. We caught snook and redfish by beating the bushes. By that, I mean that blind casting as close to the roots of the mangroves as possible took most of the fish. There have been some king size jacks cruising close to the surface of the water. You can see their wakes coming from a distance. That gives you plenty of time to set up the boat and cast to them. Large jacks are a great fly rod fish. When you hook up with one, it will undoubtedly take you into the backing on your real. Then prepare yourself for a first class slugfest.
I have seen some catches of silver trout as well. Although they are smaller than the spotted sea trout, they pack a mean punch when they strike a jig. Sea trout are being caught on a regular basis as well. We are catching pompano too.
With the advent of the cooler water, the snook and reds will start to move to the back bays. My son came home from the Army for the holidays. We went out to do some fly fishing. It was nice to see that after a year that he had not lost his touch with the long rod. He caught some nice snook that day too. It was also good to know that the cooler water hasn’t run the snook off. I have a feeling that we are going to enjoy some pleasant weather this season. We deserve it after last winter. Whatever the case may be, I know that I can count on seeing some of the familiar faces that have been missing for a few months. It’s nice to see our winter residents coming back. I hope to see you on the water.