Captain Zach's Manatee Fishing Report, February 15

CORTEZ – Water temperatures are hovering right around the 70 degree level, give or take a couple degrees depending on your location. This is just about normal for the date. At the point when water reaches 75 and climbing, it is usually "Katy, bar the door" time around this neighborhood. Most anglers await the arrival of white bait on the area flats with much anticipation and there are likely some out there right now. I spoke with a local guide the other day that did manage some shiners but was disappointed that the fish were not particularly interested in them. That situation will be changing very shortly with more and more bait around and a plethora of fish willing to chew on them.

In the meantime, the angling action continues to be quite good on the inside with trout, reds, sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, and pompano being encountered regularly. The open water species are being found cruising deep grass flats (5-7 ft.) and more and more trout and reds are moving away from their winter haunts. As the tide floods in the morning, the flats species are tending to move into fairly skinny water to pursue eats but those areas will usually be in close proximity to deeper holes and cuts where they will stage up on the extreme lows.

Prior to the high winds from the northeast, offshore boats had been reporting good action in the gulf with grouper, snapper, amberjack, and assorted grunts, porgy and triggerfish. While the gulf has looked really flat in the lee of the beaches, the reality a few miles out is a whole different story. The winds should be easing up  in the next several days. We are probably just days away from kingfish and cobia in this area. Usually our gulf reefs would be just crawling with big sheepshead now, but that fishery has been a little off this year. What sheepies there are on the reefs will be peaking in the next several weeks. The "coconut telegraph " has it that the best bet for sheepies is offshore of Venice and Englewood to our south and the Skway to our northeast.

Good luck and good fishing. Be careful out there! Capt. Zach, Cortez, Fl 941-795-5026 email: zachcap@aol.com. Give me a call for info about inshore/nearshore/offshore charters in the Anna Maria/Longboat Key/ Cortez area.