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Outdoors

Cold will hamper fishing

By ED WALKER
Published January 14, 2006

Things are not looking promising for fishermen this weekend. The National Weather Service is predicting the passage of a strong cold front Friday evening. Winds Saturday morning are expected to be 20 to 25 knots from the northwest and only slightly lower Sunday. The associated heavy seas will stir up the bottom and eliminate improved visibility offshore fishermen and divers were reporting. By mid week things should begin to settle down. Once the waves are gone it typically takes a few days for the suspended sand and organic particles to fall to the bottom.

Offshore fishing has been hit-or-miss. The good news is areas of the "dead zone" off Tarpon Springs wiped out by this summer's red tide outbreak are beginning to show signs of life.

Schools of small Spanish sardines have been holding over the rocks and ledges outside 65 feet. On the calmest days these tiny but crucial links in the food chain can be seen dimpling the surface as they feed on plankton. The rest of the time they hold tightly to underwater structures for protection, providing a food source for mangrove snapper, red and gag grouper and a variety of other reef fish. Some larger wrecks are holding large schools of cigar minnows and a handful of larger sardines.

On a recent trip to a series of wrecks off New Port Richey our plan was to jig for amberjacks, which are normally very reliable this time of year. Unfortunately the three large wrecks we checked had none.

After spending most of the day looking for jacks we realized we better try something else if we planned on fish for dinner. Switching to grouper fishing we hit ledges and rock piles that normally produce plenty of gags during the winter months. The action in 70 feet was far from what it usually is but there were some fish. Spots that often produce 10 to 15 keepers held only a few.

Mangrove snapper helped fill the void. Even areas where we found no grouper were holding grunts, sea bass and porgies. Considering these same spots were completely lifeless six months ago, it appears a recovery is underway. We ended our trip with four nice gags and several giant mangrove snapper. Not an exceptional trip, but one that provided hope for a recovery of the reef fish population in our area.

Divers in 50 feet reported similar findings; not as many fish for this time of year, but a marked improvement.

Back inshore, speckled trout are still the top target species for many local guides. Good numbers of big specks continue to gather over the shallow grass flats and in the deeper holes when the temperature drops. Jigs, soft plastic jerk baits and live shrimp have been the best producers.

Redfishing has been decent with some bigger fish coming from rivers and deeper residential canals. Try working docks adjacent to deep water with good tidal flow. Due to dark water, cut bait has been a top producer in these areas, although it is likely you will have to pick through a fair number of catfish between reds.

Hopefully by the latter part of the week conditions will have improved enough to allow a decent day's fishing.

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

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:38:14]