Outdoors

Captain's Corner

By Jim Huddleston, Times Correspondent
Published March 12, 2008

What's hot: With moderate weather, the snook bite should improve along with redfish and trout. Wind and tide have played key roles the last few weeks. The calming conditions will allow gamefish to settle into more predictable patterns. A good incoming tide will bring bait onto flats and behind sand banks where snook have been laying up to feed during the peak flow. Deeper sandy pockets with surrounding grass flats on the south side of barrier islands are ideal spots at the start of a tide.

The redfish are eating well on the higher tides late in the day. Tide levels over 3 feet are allowing reds to feed around oyster bars and into the mangroves.

Tips: When fishing grass flats, slow the boat's drift with the use of a pair of 3-gallon buckets. They can be tied on different cleats to steer in the desired direction.

[Last modified March 11, 2008, 23:19:21]