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Florida “Gator Trout” in January

January 26, 2012 at 11:40 am Leave a comment

On Wednesday we traveled to St Petersburg just south of Tampa to fish with Capt. CA Richardson for big trout. We would have settled for the other big fish we have caught before but it was the monster “gator trout” that we were after. The weather was absolutely beautiful with highs in the low 80s with a slight southwest breeze.

We left O’Neill’s marina at 0730 heading out to the grass flats. There we incorporated both top water and Texas style weed-less jigs. We also tried a new lure called “aqua-dream” spoon. Capt. CA designed this new lure to specifically target big fish. It was definitely a keeper.

We landed several nice trout and one redfish. As the morning moved into noon, the tide changed directions and the flats became crowded with other boats so we decided to move on.

The next area was a secluded area surrounded by mangroves. This protected area is in a “no motor” zone and only accessible by a really shallow flats boat and by poling in.

We had the cove to ourselves and proceeded to achieve our goals, to catch the elusive “gator trout”. We succeed catching many trout – most fish were in the 20”-24” range with the largest at 28”.

We are definitely on his schedule to fish for these monsters next year. If you want to enjoy this tremendous fishery, you need to contact Capt. CA. He can be reached at his Flats Class web site.

We are heading to Key Largo and the famous Bass Pro in Islamorada in the morning and we are hoping our good fortune continues.

Until next time, Tightlines

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