Florida Angler Television - Joe's Fishing Tips

Citrus County
Friday 8:00 PM
Channel 49
WYKE-TV Broadcast
Channel 16
Bright House - Adelphia Cable

Ocala -
Marion County
Wednesday 7:00 PM
Channel 21
Cox Cable

Gainesville - Alachua County
Sunday 11:30 AM
Channel 21
Cox Cable

Phone:
352-637-2150

It is the early morning of an overcast day in April. The air temperature is in the low 80’s and the water temperature of the Gulf flats hovers somewhere around the mid 70’s. There’s a light breeze coming out of the northwest at about 10 miles an hour. The outgoing tide is just beginning to move and the spotted seatrout are starting to turn on.

As our 20 foot aluminium boat straightens from one of the last turns on the Chassahowitzka River channel we can see several other boats scattered around the many sand and oyster bars and shallow kelp areas that comprise this excellent estuarine fishery.

Spotted Seatrout
Florida Record: 15 lbs. 6 ounces

Our captain found a concentration of large seatrout the previous day in an area where two bars form a sort of funnel which causes the current to empty into a wide expanse of kelp. We’re all looking forward to hooking up with some big trout. A long swing to the southwest brings us to the desired spot at the narrow end of the funnel. As the boat loses momentum we ease over a mushroom anchor and we all bait our hooks.

Our rigs are spinning tackle spooled with braided line and have a small float about two feet back from a 1/0 hook on a fluorocarbon leader. For our primary bait we’re using tail-hooked, live shrimp. Our anchor takes hold and all three of us cast into the current. This has the advantage of giving the shrimp a natural movement in the flowing water but it also has the disadvantage of causing the angler to continually take up the slack as the float comes back towards you.