February gave us our pretty typical patterns for the month. It began with the usual, technical winter time fishing, and ended with a warm spell that saw feeding fish almost anywhere you went.
The early part of the month saw big schools of fish scattered sporadically through the area. Areas that held big schools of fish were holding a tenth of what we saw the previous year. For some reason fish populations were seemingly very spread out. Similar to February, the lack of shots did not necessarily translate into harder fishing. The fish we found were cooperative especially with good angling. Redfish were very eager to take a well presented fly as well as any small jig. We did very well throwing small presentations such as the Z-man TRD Worm and the 4" Sea Shad from Saltwater Assassin. Cloudy and windy conditions called for power fishing with a gold spoon or a small paddle tail and covering water on those days also gave us a few fish.
The later portion of February always gives us a small glance at spring before March follows it up with a surprise cold front or two in the early portions of the month. The warmup gave us some stellar fishing over the last week and a half of February into early March. Water temps began to push 80 on some flats on sunny days. Negative low tides in the morning with sun and incoming water allow areas to heat up very quickly. This will put happy fish on a flat that was dry just a few hours before. If you find an area that was holding crustaceans prior to being flooded it can give you some excellent red fishing. Numbers of fish seemingly doubled overnight in these areas and concentrations of hungry fish could be caught on any presentation that worked earlier in the month. Look for the fishing to be stellar over the next couple of months, especially after March brings its last cold front around the middle of the month.
The spring time offers some of the best opportunities to sight fish redfish and snook. It's a great time to come down and experience what the Tampa Bay area has to offer!
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