Most of my clients are from out of town and often have limited flexibility in their schedules so it's always hard to call and cancel a trip due to weather. Mother Nature  sends cold fronts to Florida during the winter with wind being the key factor. The last 2 weeks I had to pull the plug on 4 trips!  

Shallow water heats up or cools off rapidly, you need to understand and adapt accordingly. The golden rule as temperatures drop slows everything down.

 Chuming white baits even on windy and cool days have been relatively easy the last month. Not getting wet has been the hard part. White baits and pinfish filled the live well, let the fun begin.

Wind was prevalent last week which always creates challenges. Casting live baits into the wind is never easy even for seasoned anglers. I look for and set up on locations my anglers can use the wind to their advantage. Wind also hampers sighting fish so most windy days require blind casting. I like to throw live chum baits as it pinpoints their locations when they blow up on baits. Quickly toss baits into the blow up zone and hang on.

We are also chasing grouper with live baits and deep diving plugs. These tactics are growing in popularity as the grouper population within Tampa Bay appear to have grown rapidly. On a regular basis I have had grouper in my cast net while gathering bait on the flats in 3' of water. They are plentiful to say to the least. We have been finding grouper in 25-30' mostly shorts with an occasional keeper. The hit is awesome, the first 20 seconds the grouper has one goal and that's to get back in the structure from which he came. Once you get the grouper 10' off the bottom you can take a quick breather!

The snook bite was ok in the usual winter haunts, rivers, canals, power plants. Trout were not as easy, trick was finding cleaner water. Look for grass flats to clean up quickly once winds abate.

Jacks have been super at times; large schools can be seen chasing bait from long distances. Several schools or late have to have 300-500 fish. If you have never caught a Jack you are in for a treat, pound per pound the fight is awesome.

Residential canals offer great protection from the wind. Combine that with concrete walls and muddy bottoms the water temperatures are appealing to many species. Focus on the sunny side of the canal as it warms the quickest.

Capt. Steven

Mother Nature has a way of messing with Capt. Steven. Today started by chasing bait which took longer than normal. White baits were very finicky and spooked very easily. If this occurs turn off live well pumps, gps the radio etc. It took the better part of an hour to fill the live well. It's about 7:45 am and the fog starts rolling in as the air temperature drops.

Next the rain started, then heavy rain on radar moved right over where I planned to fish. The prudent thing to do was call the client and give them the bad news. Better safe than sorry I cancelled the trip. I hate the disappointment for my anglers as you know they were excited and ready for a great day on the water.  At this point I hunkered down under my T top out of the rain. I tossed out a line, grabbed a drink and turned on the radio.

Not a minute had passed and a spotted sea trout took my bait. Next bait same results, keep in mind I am only ½ mile from the marina. Next bait resulted in a 19" gag grouper that hit like a freight train. I started dumping the bait so I could run back to the marina, well all that bait fired up several schools of ladyfish and mackerel.

I could not resist so I went back to fishing with lots of action, trout, mackerel, ladyfish and grouper.  So without trying I found a new fun area to fish. While no snook or redfish at this location the action was fun and steady.

Happy Thanksgiving

Capt. Steven

Friday\'s strong NNE winds made for challenging conditions. I already cancelled several trips this week. I always tell my clients the options when the winds kick up. Staying out of the wind is easy on Tampa Bay but finding a good bite in that area may be a challenge. Based out of O\'Neill\'s Marina I have a series of Island I can tuck into and out of the wind. Challenge of late is I have not found a decent bite in those areas and would have needed to run across Tampa Bay under poor conditions to get on the hot snook action I have been on.

I felt like Superman tossing the cast net with the wind at our backs. White baits were impossible to see so we would chum and blind cast the net. The first few tosses did not capture any white bait but gathered pinfish. Another 10 minutes of chumming finally got the baits popping the surface, 2 tosses and it was time to fish. Be patient, bait is key to your success.

With a brisk NE winds I targeted the protected side of Islands and canals around Ft. Desoto. We were greeted with a negative tide that exposed most of the flats nearby. Focusing on deeper water meant we were blind casting as we could not see into the murky water even from up in the tower. We found snapper the first stop along with several keeper flounder. Next stop we managed 2 redfish both 24\" and several trout. The next 2 stops adjacent to the area we took the redfish did not produce.

I made a move to a mangrove island that has a deep pocket that runs the edge of the mangroves facing the wind. With little water on the flats it was very difficult to get set up as to not scare the snook and be able to cast using the wind. After several attempts we finally got a bait in the target zone, quickly we were rewarded with our first snook a chunky 25\". The next bait we could get back in the hole found a redfish as quickly as a snook hit and it was game on. Just like that we had a Grand Slam.

We managed several grouper on my secret grouper hole and called it a day. As winter approaches Tampa Bay Snook are heading towards their cold water homes. I love this time of year as these fish are aggressively feeding for winter.

Capt. Steven