CAPT. BILL MILLER
“OUTDOORS PROFESSIONAL”
Marketing/Sales Specialist • Grand Master Angler • TV Host/Writer

 

BILL’S FISHING REPORTS
Current Advice for Catching More Fish

Some Tricks To Outsmart Snapper

Posted 8/16/06
By BILL MILLER
Mangrove snapper are very smart and sometimes hard to fool. After five or six are caught from one school, they will sometimes stop biting. At this point you need to throw them a change-up. Switch baits or go from live bait to cut bait. Chum very heavy or don’t chum at all. Use a lighter leader and a smaller hook. If none of this works, move to a new spot.
Captain Art Pavia’s favorite trick when the snapper get finicky is to fish them at night. Paiva says the snapper’s eyesight is not as good at night and he has been catching limits every night around the rock piles and range markers from Cockroach Bay down to the Skyway.
Redfish are starting to show up in their big fall schools around Tarpon Key and the Clam Bar. Stealth is the key to getting these reds to bite. They have had heavy fishing pressure and will run from boat motors and even electric motors. To get close enough to cast at the school and not spook them, use a push pole or wade. Live white bait or shrimp under a cork or cut threadfin on the bottom are the top natural baits. Gold spoons, jerk baits and DOA shrimp are the best artificials.
Snook are still along the beaches and in the passes close to the Gulf. Nighttime fishing with heavy tackle and big baits has been producing some whopper snook on the strong tides at the Clearwater Pass, Johns Pass and Blind Pass jetties.
Captain Bill Miller is a native fishing guide and TV show host. Visit www.billmiller.com.

Reprinted with permission of The Tampa Tribune

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