By Jimmy Tomazinis
mail@floridanewsline.com
To be completely honest I haven’t fished the river much lately, so I don’t have too much firsthand information for you this month. I’ve been fishing — it’s just been a little farther from home than usual and you know, that’s not a bad thing. Not that fishing in the river is bad right now, but it’s nice to have some new water to explore.
Fishing familiar water is great, but you can easily fall into routines and fish the same spots over and over because you’ve caught fish there before, and you keep catching fish there now, but what happens when that stops? I think it can really hamper your development as an angler. I’d rather find a spot and then go find a similar spot and see if you can work out a pattern. Gain some understanding into what makes that dock or that shoreline the spot that it is. Once you do that you have something you can take with you, wherever you fish next. All I’m saying is don’t be afraid to leave fish to find fish. You’re never going to find them if you don’t go looking.
This is what I’d be looking for in the river this month: the shrimp will be bigger and I’d expect some eating-size shrimp to start being mixed in so you can cull a few for yourself. Those smaller shrimp will be great for the stripers and drum on the bridges and the reds, flounder, and sheepshead on the docks. I’d also see if I could locate some croakers or yellowmouth trout on the ledges and shell beds that I mentioned a while back. A trip into the fresher water with a few bigger live shrimp could be a great way to catch some nice bass and see why they’re my favorite fish to catch with shrimp.
I’ve also got to mention the surf right now because tarpon will be very active in the bait pods this month and a few mullet might even be showing up already — so grab a cast net and some heavy gear. Fish near the bait and you could find out why you really need that much line on your reel. It’s not a numbers game. Jumping one makes your day and landing one makes your month.
Maybe I’ll have some better intel for you next month but until then: Tight lines.
