Trout, snook, reds among hot catches

Posted Apr 28, 2012 by TBO.com

Updated May 1, 2012 at 09:47 PM

By BILL MILLER

Inshore fishing continued to be good up and down our coast.

Captain William Toney reports that trout fishing in Homosassa is good northeast of the Bird Rack, on Chassahowitzka Point and around Bird Island near the Chassahowitzka Channel. Soft plastic jigs in watermelon flake, root beer and new penny colors have been working well. Redfish is always good these days on the incoming tide near the rocky islands.

St Joseph Sound has been the hotspot for captain Brian Caudill. Snook are showing up at the creek mouths, and the islands near the creeks, getting ready to move to the beaches. A few are already on the beach.

Behind Honeymoon Island, Caudill is catching reds by fishing cut bait in the mullet schools and catching trout over the deeper flats by the ICW.

Fly fishermen are having fun fishing the Sarasota Bay dock lights with captain Rick Grasset. Catch-and-release snook and nice speckled trout having been eating the Grasset Snook Minnow fly for their evening meal.

During day Grasset and friends are also catching trout and redfish at Long Bar and Stephens Point.

Speckled trout fishing has been good for me in Boca Ciega Bay and the Fort De Soto area. Fishing by myself the other day on a scouting mission I caught nice trout on motor oil colored Lil Johns with a 1/8-ounce head, on DOA Deadly combinations and Tsunami top water walking baits.

I was having such fun that I reached deep in my tackle box for some old school lures like the yellow Flowering Floreo jig and the top water John Dillinger and caught trout until I was tired on all of those lures.

Kingfish action has changed since the last blow. The fish that were in the Egmont Ship Channel, off Blind Pass and the Betty Rose, were few and far between this week. I don’t think the kingfish season is over but it may well be tapering off as the kings move north.

For more information, visit http://www.billmiller.com. To book a charter with captain Bill or his son captain Billy, call (813) 363-9927.