Tarpon Springs Fishing Guide Service Absolute Florida Flats Fishing reports with the passing of hurricane Sandy and a couple mild cold fronts that turned our waters cloudy and cooler, have passed, with good tides of the Full-Moon flushing the inshore fishing Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey area Flats is back to high visibility and great Spotted Sea (GATOR) Trout fishing. The Clearwater inshore fishing is improving also, with Trout and Red-fish leading the way. The water temperatures dipped down to 63* F during the aftermath of the combination of weather systems. The white bait is scarce and going to start to head south for the winter, but those in the know will take the time to find and catch a net full of these predator fish favorites. Capt. Rich Knox also reports this time of year is a good time to break out your artificial baits, some of the Snook, Red-fish, Gator trout producers include Mirro-lures–Mirro-dine along with Mirro-mullet and all the- She Dog, Top-Dog plug’s, 1/16 t0 3/8 oz jig’s rigged with Berkley power baits like the Gulp in shrimp and bait-fish imitations, also Texas rigged or lightly weighted worm hook’s with jerk-shad in a number of color’s my favorite being silver glitter or chartreuse, work all these lures at different speed’s until you find the sweet spot, usually tide, temperature and available light all play into getting a bite ! Light tackle spinning tackle will do the job rigged with 10 lb. braid and 3 feet of 20-25 lb. fluorocarbon shock leader before lure or live bait used.
