Absolute Florida Flats Fishing a Longtime Guide Service for the West Central Florida Gulf Coast serving the Tarpon Springs, New Port Richey, Port Richey, Hudson, Spring Hill and Clearwater Florida, area reports water temperatures both on the outside and inside of the coastal shoreline has risen and is currently hovering in the mid 70’s, the trout along with Snook and Redfish are meandering everywhere, without any change in one type of their usual temperature or food driven locations such as oyster bars, depressions, barrier islands, beaches, in potholes on open grass flats or springs.
One stop produced almost 20 trout and 1 landed Snook along with 3 missed Snook pops and another 30 missed trout slurps in 2 hours of a half day charter. The latest influx of scaled sardines has kept these fish eating yet when they have been encountering our offerings they are ambushing with the utmost carelessness, knowing that finding their next meal is as easy as a few waves of their tails. The pilchards have made their way beyond the shoreline into the estuaries making the gamefish stay in the mood to feed on them. Juvenile tarpon have also been in the mix deep in the estuaries.
A slight cool down in water temperature will occur in the next few days as a cold front has passed through West Central Florida today bringing cooler air temperatures and gusty days until early next week, putting the fish in a more aggressive mood to feed as the pilchards start to thin out in the backcountry waters, rivers, creeks and channels. A waning moon will also help with better tidal flow which will help the spotted sea trout and redfish to school up tighter increasing cast to catch ratios.