When examining fishing opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico, keep in mind that the subject is both varied and vast.
While exploring the area from the Panhandle to Key West along Florida's west coast, you'll find that the zone literally encompasses thousands of miles of saltwater coastline.
It includes not only Choctawhatchee Bay, Cape San Blas, Apalachee Bay, and Tampa Bay, but Sarasota Bay, Charlotte Harbor, the Everglades, and Florida Bay as well.
To compound the circumstance, these waters contain hundreds of fish species ranging from amberjack to zebrafish (sheepshead).
You don't even have to crank up your outboard when casting off in Pensacola during the late spring and summer months, the beginning of a long Gulf Coast fishing trek, before you meet perhaps the greatest of them all--the tarpon.
Often called the silver king or the "poor man's game fish," tarpon are found along the entire Gulf Coast of Florida, particularly in the spring and summer months. Folks catch them while wading the beaches, fishing from bridges, piers and seawalls, and from boats ranging from 12 feet to gee whiz lengths.
This brawler often shows up in creeks, rivers, estuaries, bays, passes, and in the shallow waters off the Gulf. It frequently favors artificial lures, jigs, and streamer flies as readily as live or dead baits, and it feeds as well or better at night as during daylight hours. It seems to prefer an outgoing tide over the incoming.
Generally speaking, the area from Crystal River south to Florida Bay has an edge over north Florida Gulf waters in the numbers and size of tarpon caught. Several annual tarpon tournaments held in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, and Fort Myers have adopted a 100-pound rule for entries. Fish weighing below 100 pounds are ineligible.
Year after year anywhere from a dozen to as many as 50 tarpon tipping the scales at between 150 and 200 pounds are caught out of Tampa, Fort Myers, and Naples but, thankfully, due to the recent $50 tarpon stamp put into effect by the state, most fish these days are released.
Given a choice for a tarpon fishing trip, I'd pick Boca Grande Pass in May, June, or July, or Key West in either the early spring or late fall and winter months.
Any list of popular Gulf game fish will certainly place snook at or near the top.
The year-around linesider is an aggressive fighter that has left more than one fisherman wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and shaking after experiencing its savage fury at the end of light- or medium-weight tackle.
Most of the state's snook action takes place from the Tampa Bay area, south to the Ten Thousand Islands. The water temperatures north of Tarpon Springs are just too chilly for linesiders.
A creature of habit, the snook's behavior and migratory patterns are predictable. During the colder months, you'll find them in the deeper holes of brackish rivers, creeks, and tributaries leading into the various saltwater bays and bayous dotting the Gulf coastline. During the spring and fall months, the scrapper will be located around the mouth of these tributaries or waiting in ambush along the edges of the inside passes. Warmer days find them probing nearby grass flats in search of a meal. In summer, the snook scatter throughout the bays, into the outside passes, and often cruise along the beaches, especially during nocturnal hours.
A pet theory of mine is that a good freshwater bass angler is automatically a good snook fisherman because the fish is often found around the same type of habitat and, when in the mood, will clobber a wide variety of bass lures as well as live bait. However, once you connect with a snook, all similarity ends. A linesider fights much harder, longer, and more spectacularly than any bass of equal size and weight.
Snook are found in most tropical waters throughout the south and central Florida coastline areas and have even adapted to freshwater lakes in a few instances. If in pursuit of snook, I'd bypass the Florida Keys and concentrate on the more productive spots around Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, Charlotte Harbor, Boca Grande, and the Ten Thousand Islands. I'd also suggest that the hours after dark are best, especially on the top or middle of an outgoing tide in and around bridge and pier pilings, or in a pass.
If limited to daytime fishing, your best bet might be to edge along mangrove shorelines and points making your casts near to the plant's exposed root systems, or anchor above a hole on either an outgoing or incoming tide and drift a live or dead bait back into the deepest part.
Often, these gamesters are where you find them and many Gulf Coast trout and redfish aspirants get a surprise snook bonus while free-lining shrimp or working the Cotee Jig, a particularly hot number on Florida's west coast.
Snook, tarpon, redfish, and saltwater trout frequently inhabit the same waters, along with jack crevalle, sharks, ladyfish, and a multitude of other targets. The spotted sea trout, one of three species of weakfish found throughout the Sunshine State, is the most sought-after saltwater prize.
More native and visiting anglers chase trout than all other species combined because of its numbers, easy access, and sporty qualities, not to mention its delectability as table fare.
A saltwater trout somewhat resembles its freshwater cousins in physical appearance and is at home on just about any grass flat throughout the Gulf of Mexico. It will readily take a wide choice of artificial lures and live bait with shrimp being the most popular among the naturals, jigs preferred among artificials, followed closely by Mirrorlures in the plug category.
Gulf Coast trout average from 12 to 16 inches and from one to three pounds. Five pounders are not uncommon and a few loners will drift from six to nine pounds.
Although cobia (or ling as they're called in the Panhandle) can be found anywhere on the Gulf Coast, few will argue that the best prospects for this fine gamester are in north Florida waters where they are often caught in great numbers and sizes off Pensacola, Destin, Panama City, and Mexico Beach, especially during the spring months.
However, few anglers worth their salt will fail to check out marker buoys from Safety Harbor to Naples in the warmer months for a cobia or an occasional tripletail that has taken up residence at such a site.
Redfish, especially those of schooling size, are worthy light-tackle targets throughout the year, but be sure to check the latest fishing regulations and seasons before keeping one for the dinner table.
Since redfish recently were given protected status in Florida, the specie has rebounded phenomenally. Today, it may even rival snook and trout as a fishing fraternity favorite.
Your normal bass tackle is more than adequate to challenge redfish, which are often abundant around inside oyster bars or on shell bottoms. Cotee's new 5/8-ounce gold spoon, Bagley's Finger Mullet, jigs, and M-series Mirrorlures are distinctively productive redfish lures.
Also, because of recent restrictions aimed at conserving fishery resources from commercial exploitation, kingfishing in Gulf waters has shown a dramatic recovery since 1991, to a point where anglers once again give kings rapt attention during their annual spring and fall migrations to and from Florida Bay to the Panhandle.
White bait, sardine minnows, greenbacks, and jumbo shrimp all draw a king's attention, as do trolled spoons and a wide range of plugs. Also, don't overlook some viable Spanish mackerel activity during this period either.
In deeper offshore waters, several members of the grouper family including the black, gag, scamp, red hind, red, and warsaw are ready, willing, and able to test an angler's resolve 12 months of the year around rock piles and reefs.
A five-fish daily limit and a minimum 20-inch size restriction are now in effect. Live sardines, pinfish, porgies, menhaden, and small grunts; frozen minnows and strip baits; jigs (with a piece of Tip-It added to the hook); and trolled spoons, Magnum Rapalas, and Rat-L-Traps are all used with success by Gulf Coast fishermen.
Jack crevalle--a rude, wide-ranging, pugnacious, and voracious brawler--is also plentiful along the entire Gulf Coast and can be found throughout backcountry areas, around bay bridges and piers, in passes, and off the beaches pretty much throughout the year.
A cooperative gamester, the jack will hit just about anything tossed its way in the form of live, dead, or artificial lures. It's also a dandy adversary for fly fishermen presenting a streamer.
Due to a statewide net ban that went into effect July 1, 1995, fishing along Florida's Gulf Coast is looking better now than at any time since 1975, and with so many varieties of gamesters lurking in its brackish and offshore waters, there's no reason to pass a rewarding angling adventure that will be remembered long after a trip to Disney World has been forgotten.
Copyright (c) 1996 Herb Allen. All rights reserved.
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