Nature Coast, Capt William Toney 3/15/2016

The wind has been blowing and the fish have been chewing. On our near shore rocks there is pelagic activity with spanish mackerel and the local trout, sea bass, flounder, blue fish. lady fish, and many others are in the same area. The best rocks are in the 6 to 10 feet. For the mackerel anchor near the rock and use a chum bag to concentrate the fish near your boat. If you do not have any rocks in your GPS you can also anchor near one of our outside channel markers ( not in the channel ) and use the chum bag to draw them in. The most productive way to catch spanish mackerel is to use live shrimp free lined on a Eagle Claw 1/0 long shank hook with a 20# fluorocarbon leader. The long shank hook will prevent most cutoffs from the macks sharp teeth and the fluorocarbon leader with get more strikes.

For all the other fish depending on the depth of water this is what I use for bait. In the 6 foot range I like to use a D.O.A. Deadly Combo with a glow shrimp. If it is a breezy day I will sometimes replace the shrimp with a D.O.A. Cal shad on a 1/8 oz. jig head. The extra weight will keep the lure in the strike zone in wavy conditions. A 24” leader is best between the cork and bait. For deeper water out to 10 feet I will just use a 1/8 oz. jig with a soft plastic body twitched near the bottom. MirrOlure LIL Johns and D.O.A. CAL shads are my favorite. Some of the best colors are bourbon, new penny, glow, watermelon red flake, root beer and electric chicken.

Back inshore the gator trout bite is very good and redfish are right in with the trout. Look for western facing points on the incoming high tide.  Look for high incoming tide in the mid morning this weekend. Capt. William Toney www.homosassainshorefishing.com