Head out early or late for the best results

At the top of the tide most of the backwater gamefish are going way back in the shade to feed on all the goodies there and then drop off to the edges of the flats on the huge outgoing tides to feed. Finding any hungry fish in between has been a challenge.

I made a trip out to Egmont Key on Thursday. We fished the Hillsborough County reef just southeast of the south point of Egmont and got tore up with some big grouper, caught some nice snapper and spanish mackerel.

We moved over to the deep grass edge between the pilot boat docks and the Coast Guard dock and had some good action with more mackerel, snapper and trout.

A half-day trip Friday morning found large numbers of mangrove snapper in North Sarasota Bay. They were the bulk of the catch; however, we tried several spots for redfish to no avail and by the time we went after some trout the tide had pretty much maxed out high and they were not biting very good.

Concentrating your angling efforts very early or very late in the day will produce the best results right now.

Good luck and good fishing. Be careful out there.

Capt. "Zach" Zacharias

(941) 795-5026

E-mail: zachap@aol.com

Docked on Palma Sola Bay at Parrot Cove Marina/Sunny Shores

115th Street West and 36th Avenue, Cortez, FL 34215