After a two month closure trout season is once again open south of the Flagler county line. Our trout season from the Volusia–Flagler county line north to the Georgia border remains open until February when it will close for the month. During the closure you can still catch trout but they must be released.
Presently the ICW is loaded with lots of small trout. You’ll have to go through the small ones until you get a few keepers. Live lining shrimp will work but since glass minnows seem to be the main forage for trout during the winter I find small diving plugs worked with an erratic retrieve work best. The majority of big winter trout are caught on plugs. Work the drop offs in the ICW, deeper canals and deep holes in the backwater. Trolling diving plugs along the drop offs of the ICW can also be an effective method of catching trout. Berkley gulp jerk baits on a 1/4oz jig head also work quite well along the drop offs and in deep holes.
The flats have yet to show any signs of large schools of reds. I did however hear from one person who ran across a school of about forty but the bite didn’t last long. It seems someone came by in a canoe and ran right through the middle of the school. The canoe proceeded to stake out and cast into the middle of the fish once again spooking them. All you need is for one fish from that school to spook and the whole school spooks. When casting to a school of reds work the outsides of the school, the fish will come out to grab the bait, rather than casting to the middle.
The surf and pier are producing whiting, blues and the occasional oversized redfish. The whiting are being caught on fish bites or shrimp that are fresh dead or frozen. The blues and reds are taking live, frozen or chunks of mullet.
Roy’s Bait House reports Brandon and Robbie Pressley had 32 whiting between the pair. Gene Davidson, 7 years old, had a big whiting and a weakfish. John Craig and Jason Longfellow had 7 weakfish. Derrick North landed a 5.03 lb sheepshead.
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports reds coming from the backwaters around Highbridge and the Tamoka basin.


Photo: Kathy Routh Sanchez of Palm Coast and her brother Randy Routh from Washington state show off a couple of flounder and trout.