http://www.tampabay.com/sports/outdoors/Captain-s-Corner-As-shallow-waters-cool-look-for-the-feeding-activity-of-fish-to-improve_172934598
Feeding activity for fish will improve as shallow waters cool. That can mean good fishing any time of day but consulting tide charts is always a first step to focus on moving water. It will bring food to lazy fish, and it helps determine their location. As water leaves a shallow flat, fish will follow, frequently hanging around in the closest deeper water. Low tide is now late morning. This gives you two great times to fish. When the tide begins to come in, fish will ease up on the flat to resume feeding on shrimp, crabs and baitfish. Reds, trout and snook will all follow a similar pattern. Good polarized glasses are necessary to see where the darker grass flat transitions into a lighter grayish color that shows the increase in water depth. Grass flats with the most irregular edges are always the better producers. Offsets and changes are high percentage places for fish to wait in ambush of their prey. Casting accuracy is imperative as some of these areas will have a small target where fish will be waiting. It’s also necessary to have your fly or small jig land with minimal disturbance as you are still casting to relatively shallow water. Since we use flies, they should have little or no weight. Keep your rod tip low and close to the water after each cast to allow better line control and an easy quick recast if needed. If your cast is less than perfect, continue fishing it rather than have a quick recast rip the water and scare fish. Many nice fish have been caught on less than perfect casts.
Fly fisherman Pat Damico charters lower Tampa Bay and can be reached at captpatdamico.com at 727-504-8649.
- Capiains Corner. Damico - December 26, 2023
- Pat Damico - December 21, 2023
- CaptainsCorner: Pat Damico - November 27, 2023
