Nature Coast

Best action coming from shady locations

By ED WALKER
Published July 14, 2007

Flats fishing requires making some adjustments.

Hot weather has made mid-day heat a little too much for many fishers and fish. On the shallow flats, water temperatures have been climbing into the 90s between noon and 3 p.m. When it is this warm, most snook and redfish become lethargic and tougher to catch. At this time, the best action will come from either shady spots, such as under mangrove limbs or docks, or from deeper water adjacent to the flats.

Many anglers would be surprised just how many redfish will stack up under a single mangrove branch at high tide. It is not uncommon to catch a dozen or more that were not visible outside the shadow of the trees.

On several occasions when the tide was very high, we have donned snorkeling gear and swam along and into sections of mangrove shoreline. Venturing back under the leaves revealed a truly amazing ecosystem. There, out of the direct sun, are mullet, snook, redfish, juvenile tarpon, mangrove snapper, baitfish, crabs and many other organisms that one would probably never see from above. During the peak tidal stage, many, if not most, of the fish are farther back in the prop roots than could be reached with fishing gear.

Scalloping remains great in the area. Fishing scented baits along the edges and allowing the fish to home in on the smell of the offering is the best way to catch them. Live baits simply swim away from the trees as soon as they get a look at what lies in the shadows beneath them.

Speaking of snorkeling, the scallop reports from legal harvest areas north of the Hernando/Pasco County line continue to be excellent. The traditionally productive areas are giving up easy limits of the bivalves, and there have been numerous reports that many other more-remote places are loaded with scallops, too.

Six to 8 feet of water off Bayport is one such place. There is not as much grass in this area and the rocks there are unforgiving to wayward boaters, but if you can get the boat to the grass beds off Pine Island, you may find all the scallops you need without being around other divers.

Low tides late in the day have provided skinny-water fishers with great sight-casting opportunities. As the sun nears the Western horizon, snook and reds return to grass flats to feed. Low incoming tides are the best time to stalk tailing fish. Knowing that the water is going continue to rise, the fish work their way into inches of water, often tipping their heads down to root around in the recently dry bottom.

While hunting tailing redfish recently, Pete Katsarellis approached a large tailer with an 8-weight fly rod. After placing the fly just ahead of the fish, he stripped it one time and had a bump on the line. Feeling dead weight, he set the hook and a huge snook erupted from the water. After a long battle, a 38-incher was landed and released.

While tailing snook like this one are less common, redfish can be found just about anytime the tide gets unusually low and the sun is not high. Stealth is key when trying to sneak up on these fish, and more will spook than give you shots at them.

If you do not have a shallow draft vessel, wade fishing is a great way to hunt tailers. Keep a pocket full of lures or flies, and walk out on your favorite flat at the very bottom of the tide. Look just beyond where the water meets the exposed grass for slight movement in the water or the subtle protruding of fins above the surface.

The scallops are back. That's the word around town now that the summer season for these tasty bivalves is open.

Snorkelers from Bayport to Homosassa and various points in between have reported catching good numbers in the well-known areas near the Homosassa River and in more remote patches of grass away from the primary spots.

When the visibility is good, hunting for productive new scallop spots can be as easy as standing on the bow of the boat while idling over grassy bottom. When you spot a few, stop the boat, put up your dive flag and hop in for a look. During the good years you should find dozens within an easy swim of the boat.

Scallops are a fickle lot. For reasons few truly understand, they are cyclical. Some years there are hundreds of thousands and the next year there are not enough to bother diving for. Their harvest is tightly regulated to ensure they are not overfished and the population remains healthy.

Each scallop lives for approximately one year. It starts out as a pea-sized organism that attaches to blades of turtle grass, then drops off when it gets too big to be supported. Once this happens scallops become mobile. By squeezing their shells together and ejecting water, they are propelled a short distance.

Continuous shell contractions can lift the scallop off the bottom and it can move from one area to another. This "hopping" is believed by some to be the reason the prime scallop areas can support continued harvest even after crowds of boats work it over.

Once the boat catches its limit of scallops, some divers have been moving a little further offshore and hunting grouper and snapper over rock bottom. Jeremy Gamble reported that in 20 feet off Homosassa the water was warm on the surface but cold on the bottom. This unusually cool water has been showing up in various places along the west coast all summer. With it are fish normally associated with spring or fall such as kingfish, mackerel and shallow water grouper.

Gamble said if you could stand the chilly water on the bottom, the fish were definitely there. He and his crew speared kingfish and grouper while freediving. G.R. Tarr reported similar findings on the shallow rocks off Hudson Beach.

"The water was cold on the bottom but there were tons of gags down there" Tarr said.

There are a few big sharks swimming around out there, too. Gamble said a 10-foot hammerhead joined him in the water 15 miles offshore.

"He didn't threaten me really, just slowly came in checked me out and went on his way. Luckily I didn't have a fish at the time."

The peak tarpon season is winding down with fewer and fewer fish being spotted on the flats and along the beaches. Many of the fish that came here to gather for spawning have finished their business and are heading out of town.

Some of these migratory fish will remain in places where there are large quantities of bait such as small thread herring, menhaden or glass minnows. Watch for the birds diving on dense concentrations of the tiny baitfish, then check to see of any tarpon are rolling nearby or gliding through the minnows with their mouths open.

This situation can provide some of the most exciting tarpon action anywhere.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 20:40:52]