- November 25, 2024
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The Intracoastal Waterway is loaded with bait at the present time. Menhaden, mullet, glass minnows and shrimp make up the majority of the schools of bait to be found.
It’s one school after another swimming with the tide. The bite is good when bait is moving with the tide. Once the tide slows down, so does the bait. And once that happens, the bite slows down, too. When the tide completely stops moving and goes slack, the fish stop feeding. The bite won’t pick up again until the tide switches and starts moving again.
The trout bite remains strong, though. There are a lot of undersized fish around, but there’s a lot of keeper-sized also. They will eat just about anything you put in front of them. Just try to use whatever they are feeding on. In other words “match the hatch,” and that includes when fishing with artificial baits.
I don’t mean to bore anyone with my tales of fly-fishing, but it’s what I love to do. In three days of fly-fishing, I caught 13 trout. Of those 13, only one measured smaller than 15 inches. The other 12 were all between 16 and 23 inches. The fly is purple/black and has a rattle tied in. I’ve even caught a mangrove snapper on it. I also had some people get a few snapper on live shrimp. It’s good to see they’re coming back from the freeze of two years ago. The only fish that has avoided me this year is the snook. I know they’re there, so it’s just a matter of time until I hook up.
In regard to the weather we’ve been experiencing lately, you should start checking the weather report before heading out to fish now that the afternoon storms have arrived. Nothing is worse than getting caught in a lightning storm. I don’t think I have to explain the ramifications of you or your boat being struck by lightning. What’s also bad is being caught in a downpour while running the boat back to the ramp. Those raindrops can feel like needles hitting you. It’s wise to carry rain gear on your boat at all times during the rainy season.
If you have a smartphone, go to the Internet and type in www.weatherunder ground.com. You can go to “local weather” and get up-to-the-minute weather conditions. You can also get animated radar of the area.
On the same site, you can also get tides for Smith Creek, Bings Landing and the Matanzas area. You can find the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offshore conditions on the site, too. Believe me, I’m no computer genius, but if I can find these things and figure them out, so can you.
