Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 17, 2002
The water temperature is a little warm for midday flats fishing, but mornings and evenings offer some opportunities.
If you don't mind getting up early, you may even challenge yourself to catch a "super slam' -- a tarpon, snook, redfish and trout in the same day.
To start a quest for the slam, be on the water before daybreak to secure a livewell full of live scaled sardines. Bait has been available on the east side of most of the barrier islands and near some of the outer markers. Try to get at least a few extra large ones for that big snook later in the day.
The first stop should be for tarpon. The fishing has been good in the rivers and residential canals. Most of the tarpon haven't been the giants that come to mind, but these 10-30-pounders are among the Nature Coast's most exciting gamefish. Some big tarpon have been caught along the beaches to the south off Clearwater and Indian Rocks if you have the time to run down there. If not, the Anclote or Cotee River may be all you need.
From daybreak until about 9 a.m., juvenile tarpon can be seen rolling in the deeper bends of the rivers. The fish can be caught by live-chumming and free-lining baits toward them. If unsuccessful on the morning bite, don't give up. The tarpon usually return in the same areas just before sunset. If you land a few of the little silver kings, the hardest part of the super slam is in the bag. Where to go next?
To the beach. Snook will cruise the sand bars until 10 a.m. or later depending on the conditions. If you're lucky, you may find a pod of fish that hasn't been bothered and is ready to bite. By casting live sardines to the snook, you should be able to coax them into feeding.
The best way to work the beach for snook is by walking. Trolling motors will get anglers to them, but your profile is much larger if you have a boat. If there are no fish on the beach, head for your favorite dock on the mainland side. The shade offered by docks, particularly the ones with large boats, gives the snook a cool place to sit. If this doesn't work, try the mangrove shorelines at high tide. Keep trying the snook because the slam's other species will bite at just about any time of the day. When you do get the snook, it's on to the redfish.
Redfishing has been exceptional along the North Suncoast the past several weeks. Many reds have been in large schools near the same areas each day at the same stage of the tide.
At high tide, the schools are close to the shoreline. They drop into the deeper potholes and troughs at low tide. In either location, chumming with live sardines will help indicate exactly where they are. A fat sardine should land the red.
If uncertain where to look, pole or drift along a shoreline while casting a gold weedless spoon. Artificials cover a large area in a short amount of time, so you can locate the redfish, catch one or two and move on to the trout.
Trout are the easiest fish in the slam. By drifting over grass bottom 4-6 feet deep, anglers should be able to catch plenty of small trout and the occasional gator. You might even get lucky somewhere during the day and land a big trout while looking for one of the other species.
If time is running short and you need that speckled trout, drifting live sardines off the west end of Howard Park in Tarpon Springs is as close to a sure thing as you will get
-Ed Walker, (727) 944-3474, charters out of Palm Harbor.