By Jimmy Tomazinis
mail@floridanewsline.com
Happy shrimp season! While it will be a few months before we get any larger ones for ourselves, we get to enjoy some of the best fishing the river has to offer while we wait. I’ve started to take June 1 off every year just so my wife and I can go out and fish on the first day of the season together. It makes the start of the season a little more special that way.
You can fish the shrimp just about any way and anywhere you please, but we fish docks 80 percent of the time with the shrimp on jig heads. Match the jig heads to the size of the shrimp as well as current and depth. We’re throwing 1/4 to 1/8 oz. most of the time. If you can get them in chartreuse, you might be onto something.
I’ll probably throw mine on just an unweighted circle or live bait hook to encourage any up-feeders to come take a look because as I write this, I’m still in search of my river tarpon. There were already reports of some smaller ones at the end of April. They’re around, but I have not found any in my searches … yet. I did find a very nice snook on one of the hunts though. I can’t be too mad about that one. That could’ve been a goal itself, but honestly, I’d say a tarpon would be more achievable. That statement could also come back to bite me, but I’m still optimistic. How are you coming along on your fishing goals for this year?
The stripers should be ready and waiting for a live shrimp around the bridges and even some docks. I’ve caught more on artificial than I ever have this year, so I anticipate the bite to be even better when they’re offered the real thing finally.
Redfish have also been fairly consistent on live bait and artificials. The river has remained saltier than normal, so their seatrout cousins have been around too. Mostly on the small size, but I suspect some bigger fish could move in when we have more forage for them and if conditions allow. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen too much eel grass yet this year and the increased salinity could be attributing to that as well.
Dust off the nets, ready the wells, the river crickets are here. Time to go fishing.
Photo courtesy James Paris
Bonnie with her youngest son Christian caught her very first fish by Six Mile Landing at Guana on Mother’s Day. She hooked him and reeled him in as Christian netted and pulled him into the boat. They released the baby red back to his mom, so he could grow up to be a big fish.
