by Capt. Matt Mitchell
Bringing both shiners and live shrimp on charters this week proved you never quite now what the fish wanna eat. For a few days even with a live well full of shiners I could not get the fish to respond to them. Sure, trout, ladyfish, and jacks ate the shiners, but with water temperatures in the high 60’s, the snook just wouldn’t eat. That is not surprising, as cooler mornings have lowered water temperatures to what seems to be the magic number of 70 degrees for snook.
Switching gears, we went to shrimp on a jig head as we flipped to this tried-and-true winter method. Setting up in deeper natural mangrove channels around the passes we soaked our jig heads on the bottom and quickly turned out day around. Black drum where the big surprise with fish ranging from 14-24 inches. Although these are a common fish we catch in the winter catching them one after another is not something I usually see. Along with the black drum, we also caught sheepshead, redfish, gag grouper, and mangrove snapper, all on shrimp chunks on a 1/4oz jig head.
All winter long bringing live shrimp is a good move as you never quite know what the fish want to eat day to day. Shrimp can be fished a variety of ways and no matter the conditions will produce fish when nothing else will. A jig head with a live shrimp can be slow-bounced across the bottom, or a chunk of shrimp on the jig head is a great bait to soak during the coldest conditions. Shrimp can also be fished under a popping cork on the flats. At some point all our species simply eat shrimp.
Although I had a few days that my bite was just better on shrimp this week I will continue to catch shiners daily until they disappear during the coldest periods of winter. Having bait options can turn a fishing trip around and let me target different species. As we get further into winter, shrimp fishing will become increasingly prolific as the size of our bait shrimp increases.
Capt. Matt Mitchell moved to Sanibel in 1980 and has lived in St. James City since 2000, when he started his fishing charter business. He spends over 300 days a year “living the dream” fishing. For questions and info: bookings@captmattmitchell.com
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