Captain Zach's Manatee Fishing Report, November 16

CORTEZ – Two trips this week produced excellent results on the inshore waters of western Manatee County. As I have mentioned in the past few reports, the flounder fishing is off the charts locally. Easily 50 flounder were boated in two trips. The majority were on the small side, but a number of fattie flatties found their way to the frying pan and a few doormats were encountered as well. The flounder were suckers for lead head jigs, shrimp, and especially fresh cut pinfish and grunts.

Another really encouraging result was the big numbers of below the slot redfish being caught just about everywhere. It is amazing when you consider that all summer long it was difficult to find a red below 28 inches and now our bays are packed with rat reds. The same lures and baits which worked well with the flounder were equally effective on the spot tailed brawlers. Other species coming aboard included black drum, sheepshead, trout, gag grouper, and a few small snook.

There was in fact a quantum drop in water temperature after the cold windy front last weekend. Temperatures that had been hovering around the 80 degree mark for weeks dropped to the 70 degree mark on average in my area. As suspected, the sudden drop triggered another push of pelagics that had been lingering to our north and the schools of larger bait fish are on the move south as well.

It appears we have another front on the horizon for mid week and every front that rolls by will only help fortify a winter pattern that is already in progress. Once the water makes its first big drop in November, the length of day and strength of the sunlight just isn't enough to cause a major rebound until next spring.

Good luck and good fishing. Be careful out there!! Capt. "Zach" Zacharias, Cortez, Fl 941-795-5026. email: zachcap@aol.com.Give me a call to book an offshore/nearshore/ or inshore trip in the Anna Maria/Longboat Key/Cortez area