Happy New Year 2021

Well another year in the bag and here we go for another exciting adventure. We ended 2020 with some tough conditions. The cold fronts were here, then gone, then back again and the winds have been ridiculous. One day the bite was hot then next not. Some days we were making record numbers catching bull redfish one after another then the next day we were lucky to get a bite.

The inshore bite in the lagoon has been pretty slow. The cold weather causes the fish to become lethargic so they really don't feed as well during a front. The water is extremely clear throughout the lagoon. We'd pull up to the mangrove shorelines and spot schools of snook, redfish, and trout but they just don't seem to be hungry. We've been able to pull some ladyfish, trout, some smaller snook and also some tripletail here and there. Slow trolling the channel with silver spoons has produced some decent size spanish mackerel as well. The best part of the month has been big jumbo shrimp. We've been cast netting monster jumbo shrimp in the lagoon. It's a lot of work throwing a 20lb cast net all day but it has produced some tasty treats.

Sebastian Inlet has been the go to spot and usually is during this time of year.

We've been catching numerous amounts of spotted seatrout, black drum, mangrove snapper, sheepshead, flounder, jacks, bluefish and small redfish fishing the shorelines on the inside, west of the bridge. When the seas and winds cooperate we've been running out around the North Jetty or drifting the channel on an incoming tide for big bull redfish and snook. We started off the first two days of the year catching upwards of 30 snook and redfish within a few hours. A couple days before a cold front and a couple days after a front, normally are the best times to fish. Unfortunately snook season is still closed until February 1st. This time of year, the redfish at the inlet are usually way to big to

to keep. We will most likely still have some more cold fronts coming but it just means we'll have to work for it. We might not always catch the monsters but we do keep the rods bent.

In memory of one of my best friends and die hard snook fishermen, Blayne Doyle. I now have a bell that must be rung every time someone catches a snook on our boat. That was the one thing he asked me to do before he passed away. Hopefully we can ring the heck out of that bell every trip.