On February 14, Ken, another NJ fisherman, and I had the best day we ever had down here in Sarasota. We lost count of the number of trout we caught in the thick fog in Sarasota Bay. We also caught and brought home 4 Spanish Mackerel. The fish were caught mostly on soft plastic jigs but several trout and Spanish were caught on Mirror Lure suspending plugs. We were fishing grass flats near an inlet. Reminded me of the time weakfish were plentiful in NJ. These trout love similar patterns to those we used on weakfish back in the days.
There is still a moratorium on keeping trout but there seems to be more trout around now than before the red tide invasion last year. January and most of February were very slow fishing due to cold weather and wind but the recent warm temperatures have turned the fish on.