Sports
Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Outdoors
Daily fishing report
By LARRY HOFFMAN
Published January 5, 2005
Good weather and calm seas will jump-start the offshore season. Grouper and snapper should be excellent in 55 feet and deeper.
Look for stacks of baitfish on a fishfinder and allow each stop at least 30 minutes to give the bigger grouper a chance to feed. Start with dead bait then use live bait toward the end of the feeding frenzy.
Dead sardines and squid are the bait of choice on this coast, and live pinfish are easy to come by. Use gold hook rigs for pinfish, get a pinfish trap or buy live bait from a tackle store.
Amberjack fishing over freshwater springs is excellent. This can be one-stop shopping because you usually can catch snapper, grouper and jacks in one spring. Start with heavy tackle and leaders of at least 6 feet for the jacks, and downsize for grouper and snapper.
Amberjacks take the live offerings while trying to get a live bait to the bottom for grouper. So bring small, biodegradable paper bags and put the live bait in one. Drop the bag and bait to the bottom. The bag with fall apart, allowing some bottom fishing.
The bigger the live baits, the bigger the jacks. Big, live pinfish and spadefish work well along with diamond-type jigs.
Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters out of John's Pass, Treasure Island. Call 727 709-9396 or e-mail him at huffyl@tampabay.rr.com
[Last modified January 5, 2005, 00:40:25]
Share your thoughts on this story
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor