I am hoping that all of you found plenty of fishy gifts under your tree this Christmas morning! I can tell you that my Christmas wish was for a little colder weather to settle into the bay area and stay. We have had some cold days but nothing long enough to keep our inshore species moving towards their winter haunts. We have fish spread out all over the place. There are still Snook on the grass flats down around Fort DeSoto which is not the norm for December. The Trout bite which should be awesome on the deeper flats is not all that great. Even the Bluefish and Ladyfish bites are marginal at best along these typically great winter flats. There are still decent opportunities in the residential canals and up the rivers for Snook, Redfish and Trout. If the cold arrives these areas will really go off. One species that is reacting well to the weather is Grouper. Great reports pouring in from all over the bay and offshore. The big Gag Grouper have pushed in and are feeding heavy. Capt. Larry Mcguire from down in Cortez reports that they are limiting out in 40 to 60 feet of water on every trip. Frozen squid and sardines working just as good as live pinfish, but the bigger ones coming on the live baits. The shipping channel and inshore wrecks are also producing good numbers of fish this week. The Mirro-Lure 25+ was trolling bait of choice and big white baits and pinfish were the ticket on the wrecks. Have not seen many Cobia yet as they usually show up in better numbers when the water temps drop a little lower. Maybe the new year will bring the cold?
Catch Capt. Michael Anderson and Capt. Billy Nobles every Saturday morning on News CH8 at 6:30am and Sundays at 11:00am for the Reel Animals Fishing Show and Sunday mornings on WDAE AM620 for the TA Mahoney Co. Reel Animals Radio Show from 7am to 9am or to book a trip call 1-866-Gamefish.
