The recent cold front really put a damper on things on the shallower near shore waters this past week. We saw a really big storm that really stirred up the water from the bay bays out to around nearly 20 miles from shore. Luckily the weather eased off quickly and our local waters started to clear up quickly with each day seeing an improvement in water clarity. Behind these big storms when the water gets so muddy even if the fish are down there and are ready to eat it makes it nearly impossible for them to find the bait and do their thing. The only way to be successful behind a big storm like that is to get past that muddier water out to where the water starts to clear up, or you can wait a few days for the fishing to return to normal as the waters calm and wind lays down it still takes another 1-3 days for the waters to clear back up depending on the strength of the storm. In this recent case we had 8ft seas only 10 miles from shore Monday which made the local waters murky until pretty much Thursday when we saw a marked change for the better. Keep in mind, once you get deeper the water will not get as stirred up as the surface chaos will not get deep enough to stir up the sand and silt on the bottom. However, shallower near shore waters are more dramatically affected since the high winds and seas can more easily stir things up even on the bottom.
Prior to the blow we were having a really good near shore mackerel and kingfish bite and were hoping that will return to us the next few days now that the near shore waters are clearing up. We saw some really nice catches of kingfish and mackerel trolling in the shallower near shore waters over the past weekend. The kingfish were not huge but they were plentiful mixed in with some really good sized Spanish mackerel.
The hogfish bite really pick up yesterday as the water cleared up near shore the half day did very well on the hogfish in the shallower 30-60ft areas while the all day trip out a little deeper did not find the hogfish ready to cooperate. We are hoping this weekend’s nice weather gets the hogfish bite hot again like it was heating up right before this recent big cold front. Remember, the best action is always right ahead of the front or a few days after once the wind and waves have gone and the waters clear up and the barometer normalizes.
The gag grouper bite has been a little hit and miss if you can find where they are chewing you can really dial in to a good number of them easily. However, to our west in the Tampa area we are seeing more red grouper cooperation versus the gags near shore. Its not till you get into the bay or much deeper offshore until you find the gags cooperating more prolifically throughout an area.
