Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By ED WALKER
Published November 24, 2005

Cold morning temperatures and low tides will cause snook to be more active later in the day. These same conditions, however, can produce great fishing for spotted sea trout. Expect the specks to be in deep holes and channels that border grass flats at first light. If you find the right depression you can catch fish on nearly every cast. Jigs are the tried-and-true winter trout lures and can be presented effectively at just about any depth. Since these fish are not picky eaters it is easy to cover a large number of deep spots quickly while looking for the school. If you do not hook a fish in three or four casts they are probably not there, at least not in any good quantity. Keep in mind that speckled trout are closed to harvest until January if you are fishing south of Howard Park in Tarpon Springs.

Very low tides are also a prime time to target redfish in extra-shallow water. By poling or wade fishing, light tackle anglers are likely to find the reds tailing in areas covered by a foot or two of water. The best time to target these fish is the tide shift from dead low to incoming. Redfish that have been forced off the flats by the receding water will immediately push into the skinniest water at the first hint of a rising tide. When the water gets to about one-quarter of the way up, the tails of the fish no longer protrude above the surface and blind casting becomes necessary.

Ed Walker charters out of Tarpon Springs. Call 727 944-3474 or e-mail info@lighttacklecharters.com

[Last modified November 24, 2005, 00:18:19]