Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Dave Pinkham
January 7, 2008
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cold weather should improve bottom fishing
The first real cold front of the year blasted over the state last week. Generally when we experience a dramatic chill like this, the bottom fishing will do nothing but improve. Not to say that the grouper and snapper fishing hasn't been decent because it has.
Over the week between Christmas and New Years Day we ran a lot of charters offshore aboard the Legacy. On just about every trip we managed to make sure our clients went away happy with some decent catches.
Up till now we've been catching just about everything that swims in the Gulf, such as kingfish, shark, Spanish mackerel, grouper, snapper, little tunnie, amberjack, and cobia. The great thing has been that depending on the day and the length of the trip the catches have been a good mix of all the mentioned species as well as others.
Now with the big cold front, I'm betting that we will see a change in what is going on out there.
First of all the surface action may slow way down as the pelagic species are pushed farther south. The good news is that the bottom action for grouper and snapper should really start improving.
Generally this time of year as the water temperature drops the gag grouper move closer to the coastline. This enables us to catch keeper grouper on the half-day charters. To make matters better, the mangrove snapper action has been good all fall and usually this time of the year it just keeps improving into the spring.
Right now I'm fairly optimistic that when the winds and seas allow us to get offshore there will be plenty of fish to catch all month long.
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