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The Spotted Seatrout season reopens with the first of March. I will give a full report tomorrow once the angles return to the dock. One lucky fisherman landed 11 trout yesterday, four over the limit to keep and needless to say he was quite sad to throw them all back! He said try the cut just south of Bow Legs sandbar. The get there turn south of the Steinhatchee River marker number 5 and travel 5 miles. Pass over the sand bar and the bottom should change to a grayish looking mud. Try top water jigs. The channel and flats are loaded with Flounder at this time. Be sure to drag some stuff on the bottom too!
This Week's Steinhatchee Report 2/17/00
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enlarged!
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The Spotted Seatrout season reopens with the first
of March. The flats north of the river mouth and east of the Steinhatchee
Reef will be producing most of the trout, the large being caught in 6
to 8 feet of water. Try the Saltwater Assassin Sea Shads and Split-tail
Shads in the colors of electric chicken, chartreuse diamond, and opening
night along with 5M Mirrolures, Top Dog Lures, and milky white with a
red head Long "A" Bomber Lures. Be sure to throw a Johnson gold spoon
occasionally with hope to land a nice Redfish too.
Sheepshead fishing has been slow this year. Fishermen say they can see the fish swimming around but are having difficulty getting them to take a hook. You can expect to catch Sheepshead to best on the new and full moons when the tide fluctuates the most. Sheepshead cling closely to structures so be sure to hunt them down and anchor over them at the Steinhatchee Reef. Use a sliding sinker rig with a 3/4-ounce egg weight and one to two foot mono leader of 30-pound test line. Mustad makes a special Sheepshead hook that does not straighten with the strength of their bite. Try a hook in the range of size 6 up to 1/O. Be ready to set the hook quickly as the Sheepshead is notorious for stealing bait very quickly. Sheepshead love fiddler crabs and sand fleas but may also feat on live shrimp very often. Offshore the grouper fishing has been fantastic as long as the weather is cooperating which has not been very often this past February. Most anglers are bottom fishing in forty-five feet. The fishing has been a serious hit or miss, with fishermen either bringing in their limits or nothing at all! At least on the bad days you can load your boat with Black Seabass and Grunts . The top baits for Grouper are thread herring, Spanish sardines, cigar minnows, and squid. Trolling the Stretch 30+ lures are still producing larger fish than bottom fishing. The chrome with blue back and the pearl with black back are working best. Troll Stretch 30+ at 3 to 4 knots using a 25lb. or 30lb. test line (I recommend the 30lb.) any heavier and the line tends to pull the lures towards the surface. |
Click photos to enlarge! 
A REAL Nice Flounder! (or TWO!) 
Grouper! 
More Grouper! 
Can you say, "Grouper?" 23.75lbs! |
Well I can't say anything about the inshore fishing
-- it is just not happening! Do I sound like I'm repeating myself?!
This weekend finally calmed down enough to let the fishermen go offshore.
Captain Paul Cronk's charter caught their fair amount of grouper (middle
picture of groupers) with the lucky gentleman left landing two very nice
size flounder! They caught most of their fish on the bottom using sardines.
The Stretch 30+ are still pulling the big grouper in. I still cannot say enough about these lures. Each week someone raves about another color. The two most popular this week were the chrome with the blue back and the fire tiger. Look for this cold snap to move in the Sheepshead. Catch those around bottom structures particualrly the Steinhatchee Reef and most channel markers. Use fresh live shrimp with a 3x strong hook and be ready to set it because these fiesty fish are very good at stealing you bait! Looks like the trout will not be traveling into the river this year. Although the weather may get cold enough to move the fish, the trout are not on the flats at this time so no movement in our area is likely. Maybe try your luck on redfish using a gold spoon around oyster bars that show tidal movement. GOOD LUCK! |
This Week's Steinhatchee Report
1/21/00
Well
I can't say anything about the inshore fishing -- it is just not happening!
Do I sound like I'm repeating myself?! I saw only one trout and
one redfish this weekend (and I did not get a chance to get a picture).
Offshore, grouper are still biting away but with this tremendous wind, no
one has ventured offshore this week. Expect the wind to settle down
as well as the tempurature (expect 35 degrees this weekend) making the weather
great for offshore grouper. If the seas do not settle down enough
to anchor, troll Stretch 30+ or Rapala lures to catch "the big one!" New
in the store we are selling and giving away eels that are approximately
4 to 6 inches long. We are trying them out as a new bait since we
get so many in the shrimp trolls. Ask for yours to try when you come
in. So far one guide caught a Hog Snapper with one! We need
to know the results of the bait so that we can determine whether to continue
to collect and sell eels.