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Outdoors
When winds diminish, fish increase
By JAY MASTR
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2003
Like to avoid crowds at the boat ramp? This is your week, thanks to a combination of windy conditions, frigid temperatures and extreme low tides.
When winds diminish, however, amberjacks will be among the best bets offshore. At times these brutes will roam into wrecks and reefs as shallow as 60 feet. Most though prefer structure in more than 100. Fish/dive charts are available that list these locations in GPS or LORAN coordinates.
Take along large live baits and your heavy artillery. The fish will hurt your feelings if you show up with 15-pound spinning tackle and shrimp.
Typically when water temperature hovers around 60 degrees for a period of time the majority of grouper that had settled in the 40-50-foot level tend to push farther offshore. It's not uncommon in January to find these fish in more than 100 feet, where the bottom temperature is more to their liking. While live bait is always a plus, don't be surprised if you do equally as well on those frozen sardines.
Silver trout are going to be hit or miss until the water has a chance to clear along Redington. Schools of glass minnows will gather over the rocky bottom just outside the swim buoys, and soon after so will the mackerel, jacks, ladyfish and silver trout. Tandem rigged jigs work best. Mix up the color of tails you use until you find the most productive. Tipping your jigs with shrimp won't be necessary when they are really thick, but can be enticing when they are not.
Sheepshead, probably the most dependable of the winter inshore species, are showing up in good numbers and are going to get better.
Though perhaps not as glamorous as those that can peel off a hundred yards of line, sheepshead can provide outstanding action on light tackle and can be found in gnarly conditions, often when others can't. As they fatten up in preparation for their spawning ritual, many baits may be considered.
Shrimp, which are almost always available and at bait stores everywhere, are easiest. Many prefer the "freebies," but you have to work to get them. Whether herding fiddler crabs, scraping oysters or barnacles, or digging tube worms, extreme low tides have made them more accessible.
Among the easiest to gather and the most effective have been the recently discovered Asian Green Mussel. Thought to have come over in bilges of offshore freighters, they are spreading like wildfire in Tampa Bay. A garden hoe and long handled net made short work of scraping a couple five-gallon bucketfuls of the 4-inch long shellfish at a piling on Gandy Bridge.
Considered a nuisance by many because of their rapid reproduction rate, they have been blamed for restricting water flow of intake and discharge structures of, among others, some of our electric utilities. Mussels from Tampa Bay may not be fit for human consumption, as much of the bay is prohibited for shellfish harvesting. Sheepies don't seem to mind, however, and whether good or bad, they have added a new dimension as worthy bait.
For more information on the Asian Green Mussel call the Florida Marine Research Institute Education and Information Office at (727) 896-8626.
-- Jay Mastry charters Jaybird out of St. Petersburg. Call (727) 321-2142.