Nature Coast

After a week of hard labor I’m back on the water. What I’ve found is to be safe running your vessel any where along the Big Bend because of floating fire wood, 2 by 4’s and floating broken docks. A small block of wood could ruin a lower unit So keep that in mind when heading out of our Big Bend rivers. 

  On the outside keys there is hundreds of mullet each key has the potential of having a big school of redfish, you may have to work through some spots to find them but the effort is worth it. Live bait will get the bite but a good gold spoon can find them way ahead of the vessel that could run them over One of my favorite is the Eppinger Rex 1/4 oz. with the red hackle. 

 A fish that has just became legal to harvest is snook, one per angler and they have to be between 28 and 33 inches. They tend to hang just outside the edges of the keys and on the western points. Best baits are mud minnows, threadfins if you can find them ( try the old scallop rack with a sabiki ) and D.O,A, glow nose hooked jerk baits around areas that have not been chummed.

 Grouper is in season so starting around 8 to 18 feet can put a keeper in the boat live pinfish, cut mullet and shallow running plugs if the grass is not bad will get the bite. Look for incoming tide this weekend in the morning.