Let’s take a look at the year in review for our inshore fishing. We’ll start with trout. For me the daytime trout bite was slow. Trout were caught but not in the quantity and quality that the last few years have produced. I’m thinking that maybe the lack of rain this year had something to do with it, just a wild guess. It wasn’t until late October through the middle of November that I began to get gator trout and most of those were caught on topwater plugs and flies.
Flounder. The flounder run that usually takes place during the month of November never materialized. However, flounder in the 14” to 16” range have produced most of the year. I even had a report that one angler had 65 flounder in one day during the month of October.
Redfish. Redfish have been their usual steady self but have not yet begun to school on the flats. Probably due to the warm weather we’ve been having. I do expect this to change as we head into January “07”.
Snook. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate this year as a 9 compared to previous years. I had some clients lose fish in the 15 to 20 lb range. Because of this I have switched to braided line. I also did good using topwater plugs and flies for snook. Daybreak was the time for flies. During the middle of the day live lining shrimp was the ticket.
Blackdrum. I have never caught as many blackdrum as I did this past year, why I don’t know. Live lining shrimp or shrimp on a jig head did the trick.
Tarpon. I’d rate this year’s tarpon run a 10. They showed up in the beginning of July and were around through the end of August. The run south in August was a sight to behold. Massive bait pods with large tarpon crashing on them and people pulled over on A1A witnessing the show.
So there you have it, my first hand year in review. My new years resolution: Do more fly fishing in “07”. And, oh yea, but what else – go on a diet.
Last week Randy Routh from Washington state and his sister Kathy Routh Sanchez of Palm Coast fished with me. and the pair had action most of the day. The majority of the trout were under sized but they did manage a couple of keepers. They also had a couple of keeper flounder and mangrove snapper, ladyfish and Small reds.
The word from the pier is whiting and blues.
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports reds in the flats around Highbridge and snook up to 25” in the Tamoka basin and smaller ones in Sanchez creek.
Good fishing to all in “2007”