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The Weather Just Won't Give Anglers A Break
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Published: March 3, 2009
Updated:
Where is that oversized female aria singer now that we need her? Anglers, like a Wall Street brokers looking for the end of the frosty market, are searching for the end of the 2009 winter. Though March showed up right on time, the warmer weather that usually accompanies it was nowhere to be seen and water temps are once again falling like bank stocks.
There is nothing to do but wait it out and let Mother Nature play out her hand. The good news is the fish appear as ready for spring as anglers. A few kings have been hooked at the Skyway Pier in Tampa Bay in recent days, a sign spring is coming. Gulf water temperatures remain in the low 60s, and it will take a warming to about 68 degrees to fire things up, something likely to be at least three weeks away - or longer, if cold fronts keep dropping in uninvited.
One Stop Bait and Tackle, 727-842-5610: Anglers have been picking up keeper-sized trout along the grass flats from the Anclote River south to Three Rooker Bar. Fish to 18 inches have been common, along with a few larger. Shrimp under floats in 3 to 4 feet of water have been working well. Marker 4, west of Gulf Harbors, was producing mackerel to 16 inches using shrimp and spoons. The U.S. 19 bridge over the Anclote River has been turning up some nice mangrove snapper and sheepshead. Shrimp has been best. Pompano and permit have been a good bet at the Anclote power plant outfall canal. Fish have been taking pompano jigs tipped with shrimp bits.
Salonika's Bait and Tackle, 727-849-6377: Anglers wading near the pier at Anclote Gulf Park have been scoring some reds to 24 inches. The fish have been taking free-lined live shrimp well. Some nice trout have been taken along with them, with slot fish to about 20 inches typical. The sheepshead bite at the U.S. 19 bridge on the Cotee River continues to produce nice sheepshead. Fish to 2 pounds have been taking shrimp well. Scraping barnacles from the bridge pilings has been the way to chum the fish and get the bite fired up.
Nick Stubbs is founder and webmaster of Bitetracker.com, a fishing Web site specializing in daily fishing reports displayed on animated fish tracking charts.
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