Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Daily fishing report

Fall offers a great time to pursue the sometimes elusive inshore slam: snook, redfish and trout. The key to an early day's success is a live well crammed with scaled sardines.

Large snook still have not moved onto the flats en masse. Most are holding in deeper water, passes, river mouths and channels adjacent to flats, and strong tides still are triggering their appetite. My best catches are during the morning twilight.

When targeting snook, quietly move into an area and lower anchor. Squeeze a handful of scaled sardines and broadcast them upcurrent from your boat's position so they drift naturally with the tide. Once the snook start erupting on the bait, free-line nose-hooked scaled sardines.

Redfish are prowling every flat, mangrove shoreline and oyster bed throughout the bay. Using the same live-chumming technique, move in closely to any shoreline and entice a school to stay within casting range, using corked baits.

Though there hasn't been a huge influx of large trout, there are enough to finish off the slam. Target deep dropoffs on the outside edges of grass flats. The best technique now is drift fishing. While drifting the outside edges of these flats, either free line or cork the baits.

-- Capt. Wade Osborne operates Afishionado Guide Services out of Tampa and can be reached at 1-888-402-3474 or by e-mail at wade@wadefish.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright