Mixed results as the area recovers from the cold

There's good news and bad news to report. A couple of trips this week produced mixed results.

Last Wednesday, a quartet of anglers and I took advantage of calm and beautiful conditions to head offshore a bit to see what was shakin' out there. The water had cleared substantially and the surface temperature was around 53 degrees. Although my bottom machine was indicating numerous critters below, we did not succeed in getting one decent hit out there. Big, fat, pre-spawn sow sheepshead should be firing off out there any day.

Heading back inshore there was excellent action with redfish up to 20 inches and black drum to 20 inches as well. All the action was midway through an incoming tide using live shrimp plied around the pilings of deep water docks in North Sarasota Bay.

While the action was hot and heavy for over an hour it stopped abruptly just before the top of the tide. We continued on to several different spots for other species, but the fish had just shut down.

Several spots in the bay registered water temperatures as high as 62 degrees, so if the weather continues mild things should get back to normal fairly quickly. There are still snook dying around the area that just couldn't make it from the cold of over a week ago.

I'm looking forward to trout fishing getting back on track, which it should when the water warms to the 60s.

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