Flats Fishin' the Front

I've loved fishing since before I can remember. I guess I started fishing when I was a little baby and there has never been a time in my life that I have taken a break from it. I can thank my Grandpa for my fishing heritage. He lived on the water in Treasure Island, Fl and fished every day. He taught me how to fish. I can't tell you how many times he untangled bird's nests from my reel. But because of his patience, his love for me, and the time he invested in my life; I am much more blessed for it. He's 93 years old now and hasn't been able to fish in years. When I have a good offshore trip, I love to send a bag of fresh snapper his way; my way of hitting him back for all the hours he invested in teaching me to fish.

Now I have little boys of my own and they love to fish as well. Sometimes I chuckle when I'm on the other side of tangles and getting hooked when they cast. Just when I start to lose my patience, I think of the patience my Grandpa would show me when I was a youngster. One of the greatest things that has come from my boy's love to fish is their idea for a Christmas present this year. They wanted a boat. I thought it was a good idea and so did my wife, so after keeping my eyes open on Craig's List for a bit we picked up a little J16 Carolina Skiff, just for the kids mind you. It's a great little boat for cruising around the bay and polling in the shallows. I've taken the boys out a handful of times. Great times of untangling lines, putting them on the lady fish and watching my 4 year old feed the bait to a cormorant he named "My Buddy". It wasn't until last week that I got to really break it in and catch some fish. A cold front was on its way and it was a warm, calm and rainy afternoon. I was sitting in my office watching the dark cloud lines push through, bringing a steady drizzle, when it hit me. I knew that the fish were biting and I wanted to be catching them. I had finished the pressing needs for the day and there was no need to open the skatepark since it was raining, so I took off a little early in the afternoon and headed home to grab the boat.

Front clouds moving over the bay

I felt like I was a on a NASCAR pit crew as I hitched the trailer to the ball in record speed. In a matter of minutes I was at the Jungle Prada boat ramp. I quickly backed the boat into the water and went to push it off the trailer, oops, I forgot to put the plugs in! Back out of the water it came to drain. Plugs in this time, I was off! I headed towards Bay Pines in the steady drizzle as I admired the fact that dark front clouds were sweeping across the bay and yet it was flat calm, the best part was that I had Boca Ciega Bay all to myself. First stop, I drifted a grass flat on the edge of a deep channel. The trout were hammering my small gold jig and after weeding through a bunch of little guys, I had two nice eaters in the cooler.

Next I cruised over to a mangrove Island that has a good oyster bar around it with nice holes and a couple of old sunken boats lining its edge. Putting the motor up, I began push poling very slowly and casting the same small gold jig along the edge of the oyster bar tangled with mangrove roots. Right away I connected and felt the strong steady pull of a redfish. With a smile on my face, I worked in my first redfish of the year, a pretty little 16 incher. After snapping a picture while sheltering my iphone from the rain, I slipped her back in the water and watched her cruise away. I continued to push my way around the island and came to a deep hole with an abandoned flats boat sunken in the middle of it. On the second cast I got slammed by a redfish that had a little more fight than the first one. After a fun little battle I swung a beautiful 20 inch redfish into the boat, perfect size for the frying pan. I decided to turn around and take a cast out into the grass flat surrounding the oyster bar and caught a big fat gator trout that joined two other trout and a redfish in the cooler. I can fish for sport all day long if I have to, but I love eating fish and my family of six does too, so if I can keep a limit, I'm going to. I decided to leave the redfish and try to catch a fourth keeper trout before heading home.

I thought it would be as easy as stopping where I caught the first two trout, but after 20 minutes of catching little guys I decided to try a flat I used to fish a lot as a kid in South Pasadena. As I arrived it brought back memories of my first inshore slam when I was about 10 years old. My mom dropped me off to wade fish and when she picked me up I had a stringer full of trout, a redfish, a big flounder and a 32" snook. As my mind came back to present time I began casting at the deeper edge of the flat and caught a couple little trout. As I retrieved my jig, I was about to pull it out of the water when a big trout came up behind it. I let the jig dangle next to the boat and through the clear water I watched the trout inhale it. I gave it a good pull and yanked the jig right out of its mouth. After a few drifts with no further luck I push pulled my way along the mangroves to the mouth of a small lagoon. On the first cast I caught another nice redfish who was very lucky I already had one in the cooler. Deciding that I wasn't going to get that fourth trout in the cooler, I pushed back into deeper water and motored toward the boat ramp. The sun was setting behind the overcast clouds, the rain was still steadily coming down and I was more than satisfied with the way a rainy afternoon looking out my office window turned out. Spring time seems to be coming early this year and already the February fishing is starting to feel like March madness. Sure there may still be a couple more cold fronts coming this year but if you can get out in front of them the fishing will be hot.