Winter Snook Blitz

Capt. Steven Markovich
December 28, 2008
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Winter Snook Blitz

The calendar says its winter but with temperatures in the 80's and the water temperature on Tampa Bay's eastside near 70 makes it feels like fall. Friday we specifically targeted snook, the conditions are prime and I was sure the snook would be feeding heavy for winter. Quick trip to the Sunshine Skyway bridge had us on the bait, 3 tosses of the net and we had the live well full with a nice mix of pinfish, threadfins and white baits. We arrived at our first stop near the end of the incoming tide, with a very low tide I focused on several mangrove shorelines that had a quick drop off to 6'. Within minutes we boated several snook to 10 pounds. The snook were very aggressive and were not sluggish in any way. We continued to catch quality snook and very large ladyfish for an hour before the action died. Our next stops were all in the Little Manatee river, the tide had change but we continued the same pattern fishing the deeper mangrove shorelines. Again we found the snook very aggressive. We chummed live whitebaits at regular intervals to keep the fish fired up. We finished the day working the flats near Pinellas Point. The trout bite was ok, we had our best bite on these feisty 14-19 fish on MirrOlure's MiirOdine. We also lost a true monster trout that looked like a snook at first as it was so large. If the weather holds look for more great winter snook fishing.

Tampa Bay Fishing Forecast:

As long as the bait remains in the area and water temps stay in the upper 60's look for more outstanding winter snook action.

Target Species:

Snook

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