Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading. Brown Weed Barrier

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Welcome! We hope that you enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in or create an account to continue reading.

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribe purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Thank you for signing in! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Please purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.

Home delivery of The Union every Tuesday - Saturday in the following zip codes:

PLUS E-Edition and unlimited access to articles on TheUnion.com $19.58/month (will continue each month until cancelled).

E-Edition and unlimited access to articles on TheUnion.com $18.64/month (will continue each month until cancelled).

Sorry, no promotional deals were found matching that code.

Promotional Rates were found for your code.

Chris Miller with a sheepshead caught on a Tampa Bay canal.

Chris Miller along the edge of a mangrove island off the Gulf Coast.

Spanish Mackerel caught near Skyway Bridge, Tampa Bay.

Author trolling flies over weed beds from a kayak.

Author trolling flies over weed beds from a kayak.

Author with Spanish Mackerel near mouth of Tampa Bay.

Chris Miller with a sheepshead caught on a Tampa Bay canal.

Chris Miller along the edge of a mangrove island off the Gulf Coast.

Spanish Mackerel caught near Skyway Bridge, Tampa Bay.

Author trolling flies over weed beds from a kayak.

Author trolling flies over weed beds from a kayak.

Author with Spanish Mackerel near mouth of Tampa Bay.

Rain, rain, rain, what is an angler to do? Answer: go to the other side of the continent and fish in Florida. The water temps can be in the 60’s and the air can hit the high 70’s, not bad for a day in mid January. Although it might not be a place you want to fish in the summer.

A year ago my sister and husband became California expats and moved their business to Tampa Bay. An invite was all I needed to take my first trip to the South East. I heard it said that Florida is a sandbar between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico surrounded by barrier islands. It is the island waters and coastal canals that are prime fishing locales for kayak fishing.

My sister and brother-in-law now live on a tidal canal that connects to Tampa Bay. We would launch kayaks off their backyard and get out to open water in 15 minutes. There are mangroves along the shore of the waterways as well as small mangrove islands sticking up from the shallows in the larger bays. It is common to be as much as a mile offshore and be in a foot of water over a sandbar. The “inter coastal” waterway inside the barrier islands has a dredged channel for good sized boats but the majority of the waters are shallow with sand and crushed oyster shell bottoms.

Our first day on the water we fished with live shrimp, which is the bait of choice in the winter. In the canals the black and white “sheepshead” were under the docks in places you would expect to find largemouth bass in a farm pond. They were suckers for a well-cast shrimp allowed to fall to the bottom.

The second day we ventured out onto some open water bays with weed beds. It is the weed beds that attract the sea trout and lady fish. Dragging streamer flies over the submerged weed beds got the lady fish to hit. White, which is a good minnow imitation, was the preferred color.

Day three we traveled north of Tampa Bay to New Port Richie to fish outside the barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico. I expected to find deeper water beyond the islands but that was not the case. A half mile out there were a few places with water 5 or 6 feet deep, but most of the bottom was 3 feet or less. I could have stood up and waded. We did not do well out over the open water but we did pick up some sheepshead close to the mangrove roots inside the islands..

The final day we fished near the pilings of the Skyway Bridge, close to the mouth of Tampa Bay. We watched porpoises chasing bait fish while pelicans dove to pick off wounded minnows. It was near the pilings that we picked up Spanish mackerel while trolling white flies again. The mackerel were the hardest fighting fish, they looked similar to tuna in their body shape, streamlined, strong swimmers.

The most interesting thing about the trip was the variety of fish. I had never previously caught any of the species we landed. Our west coast saltwater species do not exist in the semi tropical Florida waters. We had to look up the Florida fish online to find out what we were catching. The sheepshead were excellent eating, white fleshed fish, similar to stripers or rock fish.

If you can make it to the waters of Florida, a kayak is an ideal craft for searching the nooks and crannies of the many waterways. A powerboat is not necessary. I thought that the closest waters we have in California to the coastal waterways of the Southeast is the Sacramento Delta. The Delta has tidal influences and many hidden coves and sloughs.

It would take weeks to explore any single Florida area to find all of the possibilities and the creatures that live there. In the canals and bays you can find manatees and a wide variety of water birds that we don’t have in our waters. If you are looking for a new adventure, look to the coastal barrier islands along the Gulf Coast or along the Atlantic side of Florida, you won’t be disappointed. I wasn’t.

Denis Peirce writes a fishing column for The Union’s Outdoors section and is host of “The KNCO Fishing & Outdoor Report,” which airs 6-7 p.m. Fridays and 5-6 a.m. Saturdays on 830-AM radio. Contact him via his website at http://www.trollingflies.com

Isolation Gowns Live scanner feed here: Your browser does not support iFrames.