You’ve got to love Florida winter fishing. I was fortunate enough to get a call from Phil about fishing in the Bradenton area. I live in Clearwater, but I have been fishing all over the bay area my whole life. So when Phil said he wanted to fish up the Manatee River I was very excited.
The plan was to pick up at Fort Hammer and fish with live shrimp. The morning was very cold so we had to make sure that Phil’s eight year old son, Thomas, was kept warm. We started working through different spots and eventually landed this slot red:
14” red fish came to the boat all day long and so did the pesky lady fish. We also caught small snook, keeper trout and undersized trout, and three nice sized sheephead. We had steady action all day and Thomas said it was his best fishing day ever.
As much as I enjoyed the day, I was little saddened that we did not get any large snook bites. I sure look forward to the day when they have recovered from the freeze of 2010. The water temperature was around 58 and all fish were taken on live shrimp. I can’t wait to get out there again.
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