So far February has been a chilly and windy month. The fishing has really been hit or miss from day to day. Mother nature just makes us work for our catches during these times. The water has been chilly, some days down in the 50's. Yes I know, you northerners think this is hot weather but me being 100% a native Floridian feel the same way the Florida fish do, it's dam cold.
The inshore bite has been pretty good for the smaller seatrout, redfish, Spanish mackerel, and sheepshead. The snook really get bothered by the colder water and really don't want to eat at all. We've rolled up on schools of 10 to 15 big 35" to 40" snook in 2 ft of water that just won't touch anything we throw at them. We've been catching most of the trout on popping corks with live shrimp, fishing the deeper channels near the mangroves. We're also having good luck with trout and reds throwing artificial, Slayer Inc. paddletails and Slam Shady paddletails. My favorite bait to catch those slot reds is just a chunk of mullet. It's hard to find any fiddler crabs at the bait shops for sheepshead but those little bitty live shrimp will do the trick as well.
Sebastian Inlet has been pretty consistent with big bull reds while drifting on the incoming tide. If it's calm enough to get outside by the north jetty the snook have been hitting a little on the outgoing tide along with lots of bluefish and Spanish mackerel.
