Friday we were welcomed with 62 degree water temperatures in the Ft Desoto area. The cold front last Sunday really impacted the area. Finding warmer water would be key. Our clients James and Kevin experienced anglers were up for the challenge. Fishing soft plastics on ¼ oz jig heads we scored our first trout after about 5 minutes. Typically when you find trout there are many more, what we found was the trout were moving between 4 and 8'. With 8 trout caught it was time to make a move. We ran to an area near the beach that has gin clear water and at times is stacked with trout. The water was still cloudy from the last cold front. We ran back inside and targeted deeper, warmer water. What we found was amazing, a large snook sitting in 2' of water that appeared to be starring at us. James and Kevin both fired a MirrOlure's MirrOdine and a soft plastic right on target. The snook totally ignored the offerings, seeing how lethargic snook are at 62 is a sight to behold. Not 100 yards down the shoreline we came across 50 maybe 100 snook both juvenile and large 30" + fish. Today's trip being all artificial turned out to be a big challenge. The guys tossed the tackle box at the snook with not so much as a look. While frustrating it was awesome watching these snook crossing our bow over and over again. James clearly a good angler is from the East Coast of Florida it was fun talking about how different the fishery is from coast to coast. James recently boated a 10 pound trout how awesome is that. We continued the same pattern fishing deep drop offs on the flats, residential canals. Occasional trout and ladyfish kept the day interested. In one canal Kevin got slammed but as quickly as the hit happened the fish was off. It looked like we did get a snook to finally take an offering. The outlook is bright with the 10 day forecast for warm days in the mid to upper 70's with lows all in the 60's unlike the 50's and 40's we had seen. We are quickly approaching the magical time when the snook make their annual march to the spawning grounds, Mackerel, Kingfish and Bonita invade lower. Night snook fishing one of my personal favorites will soon be an option both with eager snook but more importantly comfortable weather.
Capt. Steven
