Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By JIM HUDDLESTON
Published March 31, 2005

With sardines starting to invade local flats, the snook bite has accelerated.

Transition areas such as channels, river mouths and spoil islands are great places to start looking for early linesiders. Working the outgoing tide as it flushes out warmer water along with crabs and small baitfish stimulates these fish.

Fishing the spoils along the Intracoastal Waterway is still producing a good trout bite, but upsizing your fluorocarbon leader to 25 pound test is a must. Now that snook have started moving out there, you don't want to miss the opportunity by having too light of a leader. Freelining your bait will get more strikes and allow the fish to swim around naturally. If you find there is too much current, place a No.4 or No.5 split shot about a foot above the nose-hooked bait of choice to slow down the pace.

A welcome surprise has been the huge schools of black drum invading the flats just inside the passes. These tackle busters are averaging between 40 and 50 pounds and taking 20-plus minutes to bring boatside. If the water clears up, they can easily be found by looking for a big muddy area around crab traps created by them stirring up the bottom. A half of a blue crab or a bright colored jig set in their path is working best on these massive fish.

Jim Huddleston charters out of Tampa, Palm Harbor and Clearwater and can be reached at 727 439-9017 or at jim@captainhud.com

[Last modified March 31, 2005, 01:29:09]