Fishing Florida Flats

Fishing Report 12/24/2017 Now that Grouper season is almost over, we started to target Seatrout and Pompano. Today was a great day on the water even with the water level was so low (negative tide) we managed to catch lots of different kind of fish from Grouper to Seatrout, Black Seabass, Mackerel, Mangrove Snapper and Pompano and a few more types after that, so overall a great day. We started out in a couple miles out because of the low tide used chum and we must have landed about 15 Grouper mostly on the small side but one of them just short by an inch.  Water temperature went back up into the hi 60’s from a low just last week around 54. The tide started to move in, so we decided to target some backwater seatrout and ended up with a few Seatrout and landed a very nice Pompano and a good amount of Mangrove Snappers. The lesson for this week is even since the water temperature jumped a good 10 degrees you would think the fish would pull out of the backwaters, but they did not so

Fishing Report 12/14/2018 We had a cool down in the weather and it slowed down the bite for a couple of days, but it looks like it is back On. Fishing for sea trout has been great and you can catch your limit just by drift fishing in just 3 to 4 feet of water. But what I would do since the season is ending for now is to go after Gag Grouper, Black Grouper and Red Grouper you don’t have to go far but just make sure you are over some structure drop down a chum block I am a big believer in chum, and you can use frozen bait make you’re your bait makes it to the bottom, use the correct weight and correct size circle hook.  I have been finding some nice size gags in just 12 to 18 feet of water. Winter fishing is great just watch the water temperature and the colder it gets the more the fish will push in the back waters. Good luck out there and stay safe and will talk to you next week. Captain Jimmy Bitzas www.jimmysfishingcharters.com