Our brief Florida cold fronts are finally dropping the water temperatures forcing the redfish, snook, and trout to follow their winter time habits!  Most of my time has been spent all over Tampa Bay fishing single and schools of large redfish on the shallow flats.  With cooling temperatures the bay water is starting to clean up, the grass in many areas is dying off, and the fish are getting super shallow in the attempt to warm up and feed.   Most fish we have been feeding flies to have been in the upper and over slot size category.   And occasionally we get shots at large snook sunbathing in the shallows!

Here are some recent pictures of red fish and snook caught by myself, friends, and clients.

For most guides August and September are among the two slowest guiding months. What most anglers don’t realize is that although the weather can be hot and sticky in this time frame, the fishing can be absolutely AMAZING!

Tarpon- August and September are quickly becoming my favorite months to fish for the large and small tarpon. Most of the local fly and bait anglers forget about tarpon and focus on other species. I choose to target tarpon, especially the juvenile fish. Creeks, deepwater basins, and canal systems provide opportunities to find rolling baby tarpon when the tides and weather conditions allow. You may also find large tarpon (very few) along the beaches and inside the bays as we believe the resident tarpon move back in to feed and winter over. I have given a few anglers the opportunity to throw at large tarpon in inches of water. Sometimes tarpon push onto shallow flats and can be seen with their backs out of the water as they crawl across a flat looking to ambush mullet.

Bonita- August and September have also provided excellent bonita blitzing action. When the weather aligns (light winds and clean skies) the bonita can be found pouncing the fry bait that is found in schools right off the local beaches and near large passes.

Snook- Night snook fishing is always an option but I typically find the larger fish this time of year feeding on the lights at night. Even when snook season is open and the lights are being pounded by bait fishermen there are still opportunities especially late in the night or early in the morning for some solid snook on fly! Every now and then you may find a dock light with baby tarpon circling the light, these fish almost always take a well placed fly.

Redfish- When the tides are low I have been finding large schools of redfish that will readily feed on topwater flies. I only take anglers to find schooling redfish when the winds are light enough as it may be tough for a new angler to place flies into a school of fish with strong winds blowing across the wide open flats of Tampa and Sarasota bay

I have attached a video I filmed and edited using a very simple app on my iPhone. The footage shows what you may be missing if you are not booking a trip with me in September and August!

I cant believe it is already November and we still have yet to cool down! Regardless the triple tail have been abundant in the gulf of Mexico and inside Sarasota Bay. I have noticed that most of the fish are on the smaller side, my guess is that when the crab traps were first set out the meat fisherman in the area pillaged the traps for the larger keeper sized triple tail. Occasionally you will find a larger triple tail that may seem a bit more educated than your typical fish.

In order to find these fish you need a few key factors to come into play:

1. Sunshine and lots of it! (Clouds hinder visibility)
2. Crab Traps the triple tails main home although you may find these fish under any type of flotsam on the water.
3. Light winds because in rougher seas the fish wont float as high as we need to be able to sight and feed them flies.

I like to throw small shrimp patterns when targeting these fish. I prefer to pull the fly towards the crab trap as if the presentation is trying to seek shelter under the buoy.  In my experience I have had the best luck with bring the fly right across the nose of the triple tail. Many times you may fed and hook the same fish a few times before landing it!

Along with triple tail I tend to keep an eye out for diving birds and churned up water from the feeding activity of mackerel and bonita. My typical charter when targeting these fish starts after day break and consists of constant running and gunning between checking the crab traps for trips to chasing bonita and mackerel. When done right it can be non stop fun that will challenge most any angler!

Sarasota Bay Triple Tail caught on a micro shrimp fly.

Tony with a solid tripletail found floating in the Gulf of Mexico while fishing the beaches of Sarasota

Bill Patterson with his first ever Tripletail caught on fly.