August 26, 2020
By: Bill Aucoin
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla.- Welcome to Angler Insider sharing the best spots and plots to catch fresh and saltwater gamefish each week in Central Florida.
The Brief
- Weather: Hot and dryer. Fewer late-day rainstorms.
- Release snook, redfish, and spotted seatrout south of Hernando/Pasco line.
- Revive fish before releasing them.
- Mangrove snapper: Keep up to five 10 inches or longer.
- Bass: Keep up to five but only one 16 inches or longer.
- Panfish: Keep up to 50 of any length.
- Crappie: Keep up to 25.
- Flounder: Keep up to ten 12 inches or more.
- Spanish mackerel: Keep up to three, 12 inches or longer.
- Covid-19: Keep distance, wash hands, don’t share lures.
Freshwater
First things first. Watch weather radar to see which lakes got rain then fish the creeks and passes leading to those lakes. Fan cast spinnerbaits to explore and to invite reaction strikes. Work a floater/diver lure parallel to the weedy shoreline downstream from the creek. If and when the bite stops then look for lunkers over and under hydrilla. On August 22 Stephen Stafford was fishing an unnamed Pasco County lake. He was flipping heavy cover. Yep. His TrophyCatch bass weighed 11 lb., 9-oz.
Catfish catching is picking up on the Upper Kissimmee chain. Drift deep, moving water between lakes. When you get one, stay there. Does your bait stink? Good.
Saltwater
Baitfish, we love you. And so do big jacks and macks. They’re strong and crashing schools of bait in faster water down-tide from bridges and where current speeds around points. Top-water lures help find them. If you get a hit-and-miss, keep it moving. You’ll get another strike.
Catch big seatrout on fast tides on grass flat drop-offs. Fish nervous water. Retrieve a small gold spoon where sand meets grass. You could also hook up to a feisty Spanish mackerel or jack crevalle.
Wade-fish flats early and late for redfish, snook, and seatrout. Make long casts. Keep wading until you get strikes. You’re in the right spot.
To check the weather radar and forecast, please click here.
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