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I flew into Tampa last evening. It was cold this morning for Florida (air temp was upper 30s; water temp 50s). I met guide Neil Taylor of Strike Three Kayak Fishing for breakfast. He told me we would fish today in a shallow mangrove-lined creek that feeds into the head of Tampa Bay.
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We launched about 9:30. We had a leisurely paddle for 30 minutes until we reached the area near the creek mouth where it widened out into a bowl shape. We cast 1/8-oz jigheads with gold and root beer colored 12 Fathoms Slam-Rs for the next four hours.
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Once the sun was up, the air warmed nicely. The wind was light today too, making it a very pleasant day on the water.
In some areas the speckled trout bite was red hot -- you could hook up or get bumped on every cast. We caught a few in the 16" to 17" range, but most were smaller. But all the trout fought very well on our light tackle spinning rigs. I caught about 60 specs during the day, and if we had stayed in the most productive area I could have caught over 100 trout very easily. We left the hot spot to try some other spots hoping for large trout. We never did find the big ones, and came back to the original hot zone several times to keep getting pullage. All trout were released.
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The air temp is supposed to get cooler tonight as another front passes through. It will warm back up again on Sun and Mon. I hope the bite remains strong for the other three days.
001.jpg
We launched about 9:30. We had a leisurely paddle for 30 minutes until we reached the area near the creek mouth where it widened out into a bowl shape. We cast 1/8-oz jigheads with gold and root beer colored 12 Fathoms Slam-Rs for the next four hours.
004.jpg
Once the sun was up, the air warmed nicely. The wind was light today too, making it a very pleasant day on the water.
In some areas the speckled trout bite was red hot -- you could hook up or get bumped on every cast. We caught a few in the 16" to 17" range, but most were smaller. But all the trout fought very well on our light tackle spinning rigs. I caught about 60 specs during the day, and if we had stayed in the most productive area I could have caught over 100 trout very easily. We left the hot spot to try some other spots hoping for large trout. We never did find the big ones, and came back to the original hot zone several times to keep getting pullage. All trout were released.
002.jpg 003.jpg 005.jpg
The air temp is supposed to get cooler tonight as another front passes through. It will warm back up again on Sun and Mon. I hope the bite remains strong for the other three days.
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