Nature Coast, William Toney

Looking ahead to a great Memorial Weekend of fishing and family fun. The weather should be pleasant and nice. For good action head to the waters west of the Homosassa and Crystal River channels to fish the structure in 8 to 12 feet of water. Patchy bottom with sponge, sand and rocks will produce sea bass, mangrove snapper, spanish mackerel, trout, small gag groupers, grunts, blue runners and possible cobia or flounder. If you have some rocks marked in your GPS then anchor up tide of the structure and use a 1/8th oz. chartreuse jig head with a fresh shrimp, tail pinched off and hooked backwards. This works for grunts, mangrove snapper and others. Be prepared with a heavy spinning outfit rigged with a live pinfish or soft plastic eel is a cobia appears by the boat. If you do not have any structure to fish then run southwest of the end of Crystal River channel or north west of Homosassa channel #2 for a few miles. Set up a drift and use a MirrOlure LIL John in dark colors with a 1/8 oz. jig head to cast ahead of the boats drift. Let the lure get near the bottom and use a vertical retrieve letting the lure fall towards the bottom again. Most strikes will be on the fall of the retrieve.

Inshore there are still a few trout on the limestone rocks on high tide hitting D.O.A. 5.5 glow jerk baits. The red fishing will be best on the last hour of incoming tide using live pinfish. I like to cut off the dorsal fin and the tail of the pinfish because it puts more scent in the water and with out the dorsal fin, I find my anglers have better hook sets. Free line them with the incoming tide on the western facing points and feed the bait plenty of line so the bait moves the same speed as the current. There will be plenty of folks out this weekend so expect long lines at the county ramps. Courtesy goes a long way on and off the water. Incoming tide will be midday this weekend. Remember to thank a veteran and all members of are armed forces, just not this weekend but every day.