This is the time of year when the trout and reds stack up because of the cold water temps. The past week has been great with some nice trout in the backwaters and bull reds in the pass.

Although the bigger red snapper are out of season, the vermillion snapper taste just as good and are very plentiful through the winter. They prefer cooler water temps making this an excellent time to fish. We’ve also been catching amber jack for sport but unfortunately they are out of season.

The fishing this past week was very good. I ran a couple of offshore trips Saturday and Sunday and there was no shortage of action. We primarily targeted vermillion snapper, white snapper, red snapper, and triggerfish. The red snapper are out of season, but they are a lot of fun to catch and release as they are strong fighters, all of the other species listed are currently open for harvest. Earlier in the week I ran several inshore trips. I’ve been targeting the same species for the past four weeks which are sheepshead, pompano, spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper, and sharks. The sheepshead action is starting to slow down, so I will be focusing more on the other species listed along with spotted seatrout over the next couple of weeks. This should be a great week ahead with the full moon waning.

Triggerfish and speckled trout season opens back up on March 1st. The sheepshead are starting to spawn and will be availbe to catch through the middle of April. Once the water temp climbs to above 65 degrees in the next two weeks the spanish mackerel will start running. Overall fishing is getting better by the day as the water temp rises and things will only get better as the weather stays in the 70s.