Snook Transition
The water temperature on Tampa Bay has fluctuated wildly the last few weeks, from 73 down to 63 after our first cold front then bouncing back to 71 last week. And yet another cold front approaches this weekend. The snook bite is on; trick is finding them as they are on the move. We had the Fiato brothers Mark and Mike on board last week, goal and mission was to get Mark and Mike on the snook bite. Bait was plentiful on the towers 2 tosses of the net and the live well was packed. We fished the eastern shore of Tampa Bay and the Little Manatee River. Thursday bite was hit or miss, we did find if we chummed heavier than we typically do we were able to fire up some large over the slot snook as evidenced by Mark's 2 snook that bottomed out the Boca at 15 pounds each! We had a -05 negative tide that morning so we focused on the deeper areas, docks, canals and creeks. We found Ladyfish very eager to attack any live bait. We did manage one small rat red but the highlight had to be the monster snook Mike hooked on the last cast of the day. A large snook 38 maybe 40 inches blew up on 2 baits very near the boat then hammered Mike's bait. Sadly all too quickly the razor sharp gill plate shredded the 30 pound leader like it was nothing. Mike also landed a tagged snook; it will be interesting to hear the history of this fish.
Friday and Saturday was more of the same with bait plentiful and snook eager to chew, I firmly believe Snook feel the pressure changes associated with the cold front nearing and load up. Night snook fishing is as good as it gets with many large slot size fish taking up residence in the canals with winter just around the corner. We are also finding more redfish on the docks. Colder water means clearer water, down size your leaders and always uses a good fluorocarbon. Don't spend any more than 15 minutes in one location; move on until you find the bite.
