Fishing Gets Better Between Cold Fron
January 29, 2018
Clearwater
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Trip Summary
Trip Summary
Fishing Gets Better Between Cold Fronts
Although our current weather pattern is ushering in three cold fronts a week, the cold fronts thankfully haven’t been as strong as they were at the beginning of the month. With that said water temperatures are slowly rising and brief warm-ups after the fronts pass through have helped for more consistent action than a couple of weeks ago.
Speckled trout fishing is holding strong in areas like Ft. Desoto and St. Josephs Sound. Fish areas around the main channel that have a bit of grass on the bottom. It seems as if the trout are congregated more heavily in that deeper water, also with the cooler water plenty of fish have moved into the canals around the passes. Colder overcast days will have the trout hunkering down on the bottom in the middle of the canals. Try fishing shad tail jigs in a variety of colors or a free lined shrimp for best results.
This week’s full moon should have the sheepshead preparing to spawn. Masses of sheepshead will make their migration towards near shore structure all through ought Tampa Bay and reefs and rock piles just off our beaches. Look for inland bridges and pass jetties to really start to load up with huge populations of sheepshead over the next couple of weeks. Anglers should target the sheepies with small pieces of fresh shrimp or fiddler crabs. It’s always a good idea to do some chumming with some fresh barnacles that you can scrape from any of the pilings at low tide.
Daytime dock fishing has been reliable when the wind is too high to fish the flats. Live shrimp either free-lined or fished on the bottom will work for any predators under the dock. Finding productive docks can take many trips of trial and error, a quicker way to find a good dock is at night. Lighted docks that consistently hold fish at night will also hold fish during the day. Use these docks as starting points and try some of the surrounding docks, as fish are likely to spread out a little during the day.