February is a transition month for fishing the Southshore of Tampa Bay and highly dependent on the weather. If it stays cold longer into February you will have to continue with the winter time tactics of fishing up the rivers and creeks in deeper spots. As the weather warms we will change over to the early spring time way to fish and fish more of the passes and creek mouths. When it does warm consistently and the water temperatures rise the fish will poor out of the creeks and rivers onto the flats. Trout should be our best bet in the month of February. It will be a wait and see on snook dependent on damage done to the snook stock by the unusually cold January.
This time of year I like to mixing it up by doing Sheephead first and then hit the snook and trout spots as the temperature rises. Sheephead should be a good target this month in open water on structure. If you fished grouper during the year try some of those same spots and don't be surprised to find a big sheephead sitting there. Shrimp will be an excellent bait.
Capt Danny Guarino a lifelong resident of the Tampa area and full time fishing guide on Tampa Bay. 813-956-2010