On December 21st, the winter solstice, the sun drops below the equator and starts heading for 23 deg. south latitude. This is usually accompanied by a condition of low water temperature (below 70 degrees F). The combination of short days and lower temperatures causes the fish to seek their winter habitat; generally a move into the backcountry, some coastal species moving into deeper water and offshore species moving closer in. This is generally true for species that don't migrate. Anglers need patience this time of year to keep track of the movements of the fish. Sometimes mother nature throws a curve ball and everything is up for grabs. That's what happened this year as we moved past the solstice date.
Just before Christmas the Gulf of Mexico was at 62 degrees and the fish were moving nicely into their winter habitat - and then came more than two weeks of 80+ degree weather! The Gulf temperature turned around and slowly made its way back up to 72 degrees before starting down again in the middle of the second week in January. This unseasonably warm weather was accompanied by very mild wind conditions and the combination of changing temperature and clear water really messed up the fish; they didn't know where they belonged. While the increasing temperature did turn the fish on to feeding, the clear water made them spooky, reducing their tendency to feed during the day. The stone crab fishery gave us a good indication of these conditions, with that fishery catch rate estimated to be off by about 80% (Naples Dailly News Jan.13, 1997). The end result was anglers really had to search hard to find the fish, as they were scattered from the extreme backcountry all the way out into the Gulf.
In spite of the conditions, we still had pretty good catches on a few trips during this period. Fishing south of Chokoloskee with Rich Pointer (Minnesota) it took most of the day to find the fish but we did get into six nice redfish using jigs tipped with shrimp. We generally fish two different colors to see which one works best. The best color for redfish was yellow (it often is), followed closely by white. The fish were near the shoreline, on a rising tide. One cast of mine offered a nice suprise when a 28 inch snook literally picked the white jig out of the air. I've had many times when a bass seemed to be lying directly under the point where the jig hits the water and that's what this snook did; the hit was instantaneous. Yes, snook know when the season is closed!
On another trip with Jack Connell (Michigan) we again had a hard time finding the fish but drifted into a school of large redfish. We were fishing the 10,000 Islands, casting jig and twister tails, letting the tidal current move us inside from the coast. Jack got a large fish on and, as he reeled it toward the boat he hollered "Cast behind the fish, there is a large red following it.". I cast about five feet beyond his fish and immediately got a large red on. We fought those two fish for about 10 minutes and finally landed them both. One was 30 inches and the other 34. We released the two fish and cast back into the same general area and this time I used a popping cork with a live shrimp. We immediately got two more fish on, they were 28 and 31 inches long. Things got a bit hectic for a while, trying to keep the two fish from crossing lines and the jon boat out of the mangroves. We should have those problems more often!
Redfish, or red drum, are a species that "drum" with their swim bladder. This drumming is a form of communication and they often drum when excited. Redfish are usually excited when you jerk them out of the water and our two large redfish were really drumming. It is a given that, should you get a redfish on, the drumming often attracts other redfish. We usually cast behind a redfish in hopes of catching another one. Some anglers will put a legal redfish on a stringer and leave it in the water, hoping to attract other redfish to the boat. Sea Trout are also a drum and I've had similar experiences with them.
Meanwhile, back at the catch site, the tidal current carried the school away and we lost it. I'm always interested in where the fish are so we changed tactics and decided to check out the backcountry. We moved inside almost as far as it is possible to go and began working jigs and twister tails again. Jack caught one more 30 inch redfish but that was the only action. What a day - we caught over 50 pounds of redfish and only had our bait to eat for supper!
On yet another trip, this time with Dewey Marron (Naples), we fished the 10,000 Islands and had a lot of trouble finding the fish. Finally, as we were drifting and eating a sandwich, Dewey caught a trout - and I caught a trout. We were into a school of fish and caught 15 or 20. Since they were biting well we decided to experiment a bit with the lures. Dewey had a yellow bucktail and I used white. The yellow outfished me a bit, and we did slightly better if we tipped with shrimp, though it didn't seem to make much difference. Then Dewey added a white four inch twister tail to the yellow jig (no shrimp) and he consistently caught larger fish than I did with the white jig. The larger bait definitely caught larger trout. On yet another trip into the backcountry, in January, Dewey caught a 24 inch redfish and I caught a rat red (about 14 inches long).
While it's dangerous to generalize about fishing, it seems safe to say that the warming trend around Christmas and into early January caused the fish to be scattered all the way from brackish water to the Gulf, making them very diffricult to find. After finding them, the low winds made the water so clear that the fish were especially spooky. These kinds of conditions lead to long days of searching and fewer fish being caught (though what we caught was fantastic!) For the remainder of the winter I would expect the water to remain cool (in the 60's), the fish to be located further inside than they were in late-December and early-January and the wind conditions to help by making the water less clear.
We need to check it out further but it looks like plastic twister tails on a bare jig head are at least as effective as the more conventional jigs. The four inch tails are available in bags of various amounts and each tail costs less than $.20 each, as compared to as much as $1.60 for a good bucktail jig. And remember, when the water is cold, USE A VERY SLOW RETRIEVE. Try the twister tails out and let me know how you do. E-mail me by clicking on: