Cooling Waters Brings Action!!

   The water has cooled slightly due to rain and cloud cover in the North Pinellas area. Bait has been plentiful, filling the well with only a few casts of the net on our Clearwater Fishing Charters. The cooler water has stimulated the flats, giving anglers a variety of species to target. Trout have been extremely cooperative. Almost every grass flat has held a fair amount of trout, mostly in the smaller range. Moving around and fishing dropoffs and edges of flats near the passes produce the larger trout. Snook are still holding around the swash channels and around structure along the beaches. Sardines have been the bait of choice, producing not only snook but occasionally large trout and even a few redfish. Higher tides are also producing high numbers of redfish along the mangroves and oyster bars. Cut pinfish and even sardines under a cork near the overhangs are a great method. The nearshore reefs are starting to see Spanish mackerel and mangrove snapper. If inshore fishing is slow due to the lack of tidal flow, we often scoot just a couple of miles offshore and work the reefs. Sharks, Spanish mackerel, snapper and even cobia are possibilities. …