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Kingfish
Posts: 1201
 
Location: Tampa Bay | Ups and downs of temperature affecting fishing
By RAY MARKHAM
Posted December 01, 2009 by The Tampa Tribune
Over the past week, the water temperature in Tampa Bay and surrounding waters dropped 10 degrees. Bottoming out at 61degrees in the morning, it only rose to 64 in the afternoon. That’s definitely very cool for snook, and with the season closed as of Dec. 1, it should be obvious why.
These fish left shallow areas looking for warmer water with greater depths. Typically, as cold fronts begin their initial passage, snook move to areas close by that are deeper, such as channels, residential canals, creeks, and rivers. With a rapid drop in water temperature, a snook’s metabolism shuts down, and several days of warming with plenty of sun would be required before these fish will eat again.
No matter how we tried, the pursuit of an inshore grand slam, (snook, trout and redfish) was not doable. We caught and released trout and redfish, but snook refused to eat. Redirecting our efforts, we targeted flounder, bluefish, grouper, and Spanish mackerel. We even found pompano. By far, the most active species were ladyfish and bluefish, chafing and cutting our line.
Subsurface lures were tops in the catch department, with jigs out-producing everything else. CAL Jigs with shad or curl tails with the night glow color seemed to work best in the 3- to 8-foot depths we fished.
DOA Shrimp also triggered a good bite with trout, gag grouper, and flounder. Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and ladyfish took jigs that were retrieved quickly, while the remainder of the fish we caught zeroed in on our offerings that were dragged or bounced slowly along the bottom.
Tolerance to cold water is different with each species, so targeting your fish with the speed of your retrieve is important if you want to bend a rod.
Ray Markham runs the Flat Back II out of Terra Ceia in south Tampa Bay and can be reached for charter at (941) 723-2655.
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Temps & Fishing Fluctuations - Ray Markham | TBO
