Gone Fishin`: Winter Fishing

It was more like late Spring than the middle of January. 80 degrees and no wind. Smooth as glass as we motored out of the river Tuesday the 16th. I took 5 members of the fishing club from the Villages out that day to fish the shallow 'flats' for trout.

Winter water has less organisms in it and is quite clear. We could see down to the grass and sand 7 to 8 feet below us. We went almost to the end of the channel to marker #3 and then turned a little southeast to an area I call the 'Trout Ranch'. Grass and sand as far as you can see. Perfect trout habitat.

I must have found the nursery, because we caught a bunch of small trout. One after another. We used the Gulp scented lure with 1/4oz. lead headed jigs. Some of us just cast and retrieved the jigs and caught some and a couple of guys floated them and caught 'em too. Fresh shrimp produced a few also. We moved around some trying to find some larger'keeper' fish that are 15 inches in length. It was a beautiful day about 5 miles out of the mouth of the river and we kept busy catching small trout.

Howard, the fishing club organizer, caught a small pinfish. Great bait for a large fish. He told me to hook him up to a rod and throw him out( the Pinfish)and float him around and see what happens. I cast aways off the stern and placed the rod down to attend guests . I had not walked away 30 seconds when Bob, fishing the back end of the boat, called out, "hey, your bobber`s gone down under."

I turned around real quick and grabbed the rod off the rail and sure enough there was a large struggling going on the other end. I reeled it in and it turned out to be the largest trout yet. 17 inches. We only kept one more fish the same size that day. Caught a couple dozen and could only keep two.

I think its that time of year. Lots of catch and release. Fishing this west coast of Florida in the winter has always been slower than the Spring or Fall seasons. I've had much slower trips than we had last Tuesday the 16th. That`s fishing for you. I'm looking forward to the Spring time when the water temperatures warm up and all the schooling fish return to these coastal waters. Water temp for us that day was a cool 66 degrees. All those small trout should grow up into big fat meaty fish by then(I hope).

I have a comfortable 24-foot pontoon platform boat and all the rods and reels and bait you'll need. Plus I have a fishing license that covers anyone fishing with me. Just bring $50.00 and we'll do some real Florida fishing for 4 hours or so. Capt. Dan.......e-mail me at: shanadan50@hotmail.com or call 352-486-1656. Get out on a boat and go fishing.