Full Moon

One of the benefits of this blog is that I can keep track of my fishing trips. While my last trip was not really a regular fishing trip, I did check with a few others anglers in area. All the reports I heard where the same. We saw fish but they would need bite. This pattern seems to occur around the the full moon.

We left at the top of the tide which makes it difficult to catch mud minnows and we really did not have time to catch whitebait, but I did net a few pin fish. When using live bait you can tell when there is something close by that the bait fears. This did happen a couple of time and I did see a couple swirls around the bait.As well as seeing several redfish in the area. The anglers that I did talk where seasoned, so I would have to take them as valid reports. A few more full moon reports like the past reports and I will have to conclude that during the daylight hours the redfish and snook do not feed aggressively if at all around the full moon.

The next step will be to see how the redfish and snook feed at night around the full moon. That was the plan for this full moon but the storms are not falling into the summer weather pattern, maybe next month.

Any comments on inshore fishing around the full moon I would love to here them.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide : Falling 3.5 @ 1:19pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 100% full
Temp: 87 F
Water Temp : 78F
Wind: 10 WSW mph
Bait: Pin Fish
Results: Boat Ride

Snook Attack

Today a friend was visiting and wanted to go catch a few redfish. We headed out of Jenkins creek so we could pick up some whitebait on the way. We checked the area around the first turn maker and did not see any so we headed to tri-pod, nothing but big ballyhoo and pin fish. Checked smith rock, nothing. Went back to the turn marker and finally found 3 pods of bait. Over the last few weeks the turn marker is the only place I have found bait.

Once we loaded up with bait, we headed back to Centipede Bay. We spend too much time hunting bait and now the tide had turned. We only had about an hour to fish in the bay and hooked up with two redfish and lost them both! (That's called and auto release...)

The next up was the Hernando Beach Channel in the "cuts". The cuts are the deep reliefs between the rock piles that protect the channel from filling in with sand. I see many anglers there most seem to understand how to fish this area,. Today there was a couple of guys fishing and they anchored up in the middle of the cuts. This is where we catch fish, as you can image they left with out catching anything.

There is about 20 "cuts" along the north side of the channel

The place to anchor is about here and fish between the rocks

We moved from cut to cut tossing out live chum at each stop. One cut down from where the other guys where fishing, there was a big response from the chum. We could not tell what they where, but I suspected that they must have green backs that blended in well with the sea grass on the bottom. The one fish that size with a greenish back is a snook. We pitched a couple of baits with hooks and both of us hooked in to big snook.

The first pair broke off since I had trouble releasing the anchor and fighting the fish to give chase. The next one, I was ready and released the anchor and off we went. I use a trolling motor to chase the fish so it will not spook the other fish. We came back to the anchor thinking that we must have spooked the fish. Only to find another big response to the live chum. This went on for about an hour, then everything stopped. We ended up releasing 5 snook all the 10-12# range. The one draw back to this kind of actions is no one wants to stop and get the camera out to take pictures... Maybe one day I'll get a helmet cam...

The next cut we caught a couple of trout for dinner and decided it was time to call it a good day.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide : Falling : H 3.0 10:01 am : L 0.40 6:21pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 78% full waxing gibbous
Temp: 78F
Water Temp : 85F
Wind: 5mph SE morning- 10mph W afternoon.
Bait: Whitebait (green backs, greenies)
Results: 5 Snook release - 2 Red Fish (auto release) - 2 trout

Gulf Snook Season: Closed

Snook season is closed for the Gulf side! I had hoped to snook fish the last day of the season. But my boat trailer had different plans and had me running all over Hernando county getting parts to keep the axle from falling off. And now the weekend is here and my daughter has more projects for me than my wife. That is unfortunate, but when duty calls you have to answer (or else)!

This year I have seen and caught more snook than any other year and most anyone I talk to that fish for snook agrees. Unfortunately for my snook loving taste buds the snook that I did catch where over or under slot limit size. But if it helps the snook fishery then I am all for it.
The local marine biologist had told me he saw 200+ snook back in Jenkins creek in late January of this year. With that I would have to guess that this will be the year of the snook and I'll have to wait until Sept. for grilled snook.

FYI: I was verbally flogged for holding the pictured snook by the lower jaw. I was told never hold any fish by the lower jaw if it is to be released. The reason is; their lower jaw can become dislocated and/or their internal organs rearranged. While the fish looks fine when released, if the jaw is dislocated it could starve over the few weeks and die. For more information you can check out UF's catch and release web site.

Good Luck