Fishing News Flash

It's hard to believe, but Tampa Area temperatures dipped back into the high thirties during the night of the February 13th.  The redfish and trout that had recovered from January's artic blast were, once again, put off of their normal feeding patterns.  On yesterday's trip, with water temperatures barely reaching 50 degrees, it was time for a new approach...time to target the fish that doesn't know the meaning of cold...the sheepshead.  Sheepshead tend to congregate around near shore structures...docks, bridges, pilings and oyster bars... in February and March and will eat when everything else goes on strike.   These fish are designed specifically to eat crusteceans...barnacles, oysters, shrimp, crabs etc. and will only respond to this type of bait.  With a bucket of crushed oysters, our trip took us to a local bridge with lots of barnacle encrusted pilings.  Once anchored near this structure, the crushed oysters and small bits of frozen shrimp were regularly dropped over the side of the boat every 5 minutes or so.  Once the area was initially "primed", split shotted shrimp were dropped to the bottom and then reeled up half a crank so that the line was taught.  After ten minutes or so, sheepshead began to show up and the first rod bent over.  The bite never got hot, but by patiently working our area were were able to hook seven or eight fish...ranging from fourteen inches to...well, several larger fish broke off in the pilings so who's to say...but fish exceeding five pounds can certainly be caught in these locations this time of year.  Looking like an overgrown black and white sunfish with a serious set of dentures, sheepshead will fight hard and are excellent to eat...and they'll save the day when nothing else feels like eating. The current weather forecast has this most recent cold front leaving the area by this coming weekend so fishing for trout and redfish should begin to improve in three to four days.