September 15, 2016
Water temperatures dropped about 8 degrees in a day from offshore rain about five days ago.   This caused the larger trout to feed aggressively into the middle part of the day.  Just find a deeper grassflat where the current is running swiftly and get a lure down near the bottom.

The fishing has been terrific.  A few tougher days mixed in but overall, things are in an early Fall upswing.   As expected, the action for a few of the basic species has been very steady: Trout, redfish and flounder.  And for some other species that make a seasonal appearance, things have also been good:  Mackerel, jacks, bluefish and pompano.   It is now mid-September and so far we have dodged most of the tropical weather problems.  Should we stay in that situation, things should continue to fall into that situation of “easy fishing” common in the most temperate months.

The very best action has been on the ladyfish, mackerel and pompano at sunrise.   The massive baitfish schools have led to some interesting predation as the first glow of light in the east appears every morning.   That action lasts for an hour or more.   The plan after that has been to progress down the flats to find trout and redfish.     The best trout action has still been before 9 AM.   The redfish action has bounced back and forth: Sometimes the evening feeding has been better, other times early morning.     We are quite near that time period where the feeding of all species and the bigger size of those species will continue into the middle hours of the day.

Topwater action for trout has been decent.   One client did that on the “Topwater Adventure” charter I offer with is three hours and topwater lures only.   Roland caught 24 trout from 17 to 25 inches.   That is a bunch of big trout!!      He said he would like to do it again but try it on redfish this time around.

Like action:   Bluefish, mackerel, ladyfish and jacks are easy pickings.   You have to be where the massive baitfish schools are.    Before the full moon they were all the way up the Bay.   Full moon arrived “disappearo!”       Head to the central Bay on south to intercept this action.

Pompano are great if you know where they are.  Same goes for trout.  Redfish opportunities are improving every day.    It is mid September. The best months of the year are about to be staring us right in the face.

Sept 22 is a “Skool Night” at Bill Jackson’s in Pinellas Park.   The topic is “Efficiency:  Be better in everything you do” usually a very popular and well attended session of Kayak Fishing Skool.   Bring a friend along and enjoy visiting a great outdoors store!

Think about imposing your own “no kill” policy and try to incorporate some other practices.   If you catch a snook:  don’t take it out of the water for eight minutes taking pictures.    Don’t “get a weight” of the fish.    Enjoy the species if you cross paths, but take extra steps to make sure those fish remain in the living population.  As the late Captain Mel used to say “The fish are our partners.”   We both believed that and the snook can really use our help right now.

As always, be careful out there!
Neil Taylor
“Instructional Kayak Fishing”
www.strikethreekayakfishing.com
(Cell) 727-692-6345
LivelyBaits@aol.com
Co Host:  Capmel.com Radio, 8 to 9AM Sunday 1040 AM

Podcast:   http://tampafishingoutfittersradioshow.podomatic.com/

Neil Taylor
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