January 2011
January's weather has been rather typical for Clearwater due to the cold fronts. Water temperatures were in the middle 50s most of the month in the Dunedin fishing area. On occasion, the water temps reached 60 only to go back down with the passing of another cold front.
The trout became acclimated to the cold water and started biting on everything thrown their way. Casting artificials and retrieving very slowly along the bottom was the ticket to catching some big 20+ inch gator trout. Once the fish were found, my clients switched to live shrimp and started catching doubles on every other cast. This action should continue through March or until the warm spring temperatures push the big trout out.
The first part of January, Richard joined me for a cold day of fishing for redfish and trout. We started out in the back waters, looking for some warmer conditions. The shallow flats between the mangroves had not warmed up and were actually colder than the waters around the passes. We found a few small very cold trout and moved on.
We fished some of the spoil islands in St. Joseph Sound in Dunedin, and found a few more trout. We then moved back to the flats in the mangroves as the afternoon sun had a chance to warm the waters a bit. Richard found a couple of small redfish and more trout there.
Later in the month, the weather conditions had improved and the trout fishing went off the charts. Big gator trout moved in to the bays and were settling into their winter haunts.
Carl and Art came aboard to search for the big trout. The weather was nice and mild with plenty of sun. We started out in Clearwater fishing the grass flats and caught some trout and one small redfish. We moved up to Dunedin and with our first cast, started catching big trout. The trout were so active that Carl and Art were hooked up at the same time on many cast. They did a great job catching about 40 trout with a dozen of them being over 20 inches. The two biggest trout caught were 22".
Then Paul and Paul Jr. teamed up to stalk some of those big trout. The water temperatures reached 60 degrees with light winds and plenty of sunshine. We fished in St. Joseph Sound in the morning and caught a couple dozen trout in the shallows. We moved back to Clearwater bay in the afternoon and found some of their biggest trout of the day. They caught six to eight fish all over 20 inches.
As January ended, weather and water temperatures had made a great recovery and were near normal for this time of year. The big trout have moved in and supplied plenty of action. Now if the redfish would settle down, this will be a fantastic winter fishing season for Dunedin fishing and Clearwater fishing areas.
Capt. Gary Burch
http://www.allcatchcharters.com
727 458-6335
