Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Fishing Clearwater

We had heard that there is good fishing on low tide near the Clearwater
Bridge. We decided to head out and test the waters. We got to the site
after maneuvering through the traffic to get there and parked at the
little parking area just on the west side of the bridge on the south
side of the road. It worked out to be a good spot to park and launch the
kayaks. It was a little muddy and we had to drag them a little farther
than normal but all in all a good place to launch. The first thing to
note is all the boat traffic that hits this channel. We headed straight
across and to the island area right across from where we launched. The
tide was low and we could see the drop off and the grass near the island
was exposed. But we were able to troll back and forth along the drop off
and cast some top waters and jigs going from deep to shallow.  Initially
I tried a few different style gulps and had a few nice strikes but
nothing aggressive enough to hook up. Then I noticed that there was
quite a bit of commotion on the top with schools of bait and fish
swimming through them feeding. I switched over to top water and that
seemed to do the trick. The fish started biting and after a few hook ups
my buddy landed a Trout, Redfish and Snook. The trout and redfish were
keeper size and the Snook, of course we let go.
        We will be heading back here in the near future and trying it
out again. It may be a little better to try this spot during the week
when there isn't as much boat traffic.