Tuning up for the season, Florida style

Fishing the intercoastal waterways of Florida for redfish, snook, sea trout and sheephead is comparable to wetting a line in this neck of the woods.
Like fishing in Ontario, what you have to do is to target potential holding areas, say Brian Schmitt, a St. Petersburg, Fla. resident who has been my personal guide over the past few years.
And during the days of early March, when water temperatures begin to hover near the high 60F mark, that boils down to searching fish as they begin to retreat from their wintering holes headed for the vast waters of Tampa Bay.
Finding these places and timing your outing with the movement of tides can give you an outing worth remembering, as I discovered.
Escaping Old Man Winter’s wrath for a few days, I hooked up with my long-time fishing companion Bill Morrison of Oshawa and made our annual salt water trek with Schmitt aboard his new 16-foot skiff.
Venturing out the day before to net some baitfish and to check out some locales, Brian took us to a spot he guaranteed held some big redfish and sea trout. It was a boat dock on a point and adjacent to two back channels that emptied into Tampa Bay.
With the tide coming in early in the morning, we approached the boat dock with the electric motor and eventually dropped anchor within casting distance of the wood pilings.
Rigging up our seven-foot, one-piece rods with 16-pound monofilament line and florocarbon leaders, we hooked a two-inch greenback minnow onto a 1/0 hook and let the bait sink to the bottom before retrieving the slack line.
Just prior to casting, Brian chummed the area with some extra greenbacks.
“Pitch your bait as far back into the pilings. When you feel a hit, you will know,” Brian said.
I let my offering settle on the bottom and within moments after picking up the slack and holding a portion of the line with my index finger, I felt a sharp pull. Reefing back on instinct, I felt the fish make a small run before he let go of the bait.
Retrieving my bait, I had just a half of a minnow remaining on the hook.
With my heartbeat racing at a frantic pace, I rigged up another live greenback and tossed it back into the scene of the original crime.
Given a reprieve, I made the most of my second opportunity when another fish attacked my offering. Feeling the weight of a good-sized fish, I eventually got it to the surface and I could hear Brian yell “Keep the fish away from the pilings.”
I did as he instructed and, within a few frantic moments, had a nice redfish aboard our boat. Under Florida laws, anglers are allowed to keep one redfish that measures 18 to 27 inches in length. My fish just made the slot size and was put on ice.
Moments after that, Brian and Bill each had tackle busters on the end of their line.
Making another cast to the backside of the dock, I had another strike. This time, though, the fish came skyrocketing out of the water several times before I eventually landed it — a snook measuring 26 inches. Under Florida laws, anglers must have a snook stamp ($2) along with their residential or non-residential licence and the fish must be between 28 and 33 inches in length.
After taking a couple of pictures we live-released it.
For the next couple of hours we could see redfish and sheephead swimming underneath the dock and had our fair share of action before we elected to try another spot.
Motoring our way to the Wheaton wildlife preserve, we searched for pockets of sandy bottomed areas adjacent to weed growth. It was here, Brian said, schools of sea trout, snook or redfish could be found in search of live shrimp or shellfish.
While we saw plenty of mullet jumping all around us, which Brian said was a good omen, the water temperatures in these areas were not warm enough to hold the big schools of fish we were after.
Because of this, we motored our way into some adjacent back bays and searched the mangrove areas with deep banks. Anchoring in one potential area where the tide was coming in quickly, we hit the jackpot as Brian lost a good snook and I hauled in one that was under the minimum size limit.
Before vacating the area, we saw several other good-sized snook and some redfish that had a case of lock jaw.
Although the sea trout did not co-operate that day as what we had hoped, we did get our fair share at Bill’s winter residence, a channel off Clearwater Beach. Fishing from his dock late each afternoon, we employed two-inch shrimp imitation Berkley Gulp baits and hooked countless sea trout near the minimum 15-inch size limit. Like the redfish and snook, the sea trout were aggressive and put up a good tussle.
With March now upon us, Brian said fishing will only get better as the water temperature continues to climb.
If you get an opportunity to go to Florida, it sure doesn’t hurt to try your luck with these fish.
If anything, it makes for a good tuneup for the open water season here.