Tampa Bay to Sarasota, FLORIDA

    First I would like to apologize for being late with the fishing report this week, due to my computer crash last week.

   Any way lets start by talking about the water temperature. The beginning of last week we had a cold front witch dropped the water temperature on the flats to 67 degrees. This went below the magic number of 68, which sent all but the larger snook, scurrying for their winter retreats. Then starting Tuesday the water started warming back up to the 70s on the flats; the only fish left feeding were good size fish. As a matter of fact, 75% of the snook we have been catching since are better than 27 inches and every day since we have put at least one over 30 inches in the boat each day. The largest in the past week was 35in. at 18 lbs. This was definitely not the largest we had on; I believe a few of the fish lost this week to be in the forty-inch class. Snook season closed the 15th of this month, but if you don't mind catch and release, these big snook will be quite vulnerable until the next major cold front pushes them off the flats.

   Trout season starts January first and the gator trout are on the bite with plenty of trout in the 20" Class. We had a couple of 25 inch trout last week and plan on seeing more this size and bigger through the end of April.

   Pompano are starting to make their way up onto the flats and I expect this fish to start picking up as a great fish for my fly guys to target.

   The redfish are hit and miss right now, there are still a few lingering schools of giant bull reds out there.

   As for offshore fishing the little tunie and mackerel continue to crash the beaches, a great target for the fly guys, the little tunie average 10 to 15 lbs. and pull like a freight train.

   The inshore grouper fishing has been fabulous, with plenty of fish in the bay and out to 5 miles. There are lots of grouper in the 30-inch class, great for you guys who want to bring back some meat. I expect good fishing in the near future so give me a call when you're ready to go.

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