Looking for a great week of fishing with the upcoming new moon. If I had a moon phase to choose to fish I would always vote for the new moon. I have caught plenty of fish on a full moon but the tide push is much more extreme than a new moon. A full moon can go from a winter low tide to a full on over the dock flood, depending on time of year and wind direction. When this happens fish tend to move to the interior of the keys and places that are deep into the backcountry that even seasoned Big Bend anglers have trouble figuring out. On a new moon, the tides are more gradual and push in at an even pace so fish will feed throughout the tide phase all the way into the backcountry. I have caught trout, redfish and snook on a good incoming new moon tide from the outside keys all the way back towards the tree line in a 6 hour period following the tide.
The nice trout I’ve been catching on the inside have been on ribbon rock using D.O.A. glow 5.5 jerk baits. Sometimes there’s a little rock grass mixed in with the hard bottom north of the river but south of Homosassa it’s yellow bottom. On a high sun during midday it does look yellow compared to the surrounding flat. The trout that are on top of this type of rocky bottom are spawning so please keep enough for dinner but the big females are full of roe and the producers of our future stock so handle them with care.
Redfish are doing well on the outside keys. I have caught most of mine with live pinfish. As the tide gets higher, move more towards the inside keys and look for jumping mullet along the western facing points. In this area I use a float and shrimp on a jighead free lined along the shoreline or point. The float helps from being snagged on the rocks and the jighead keeps the bait under the cork instead of being kited behind it. I will tie on the hook according to the depth of the water at the side of my vessel. High incoming tide will be mid morning this weekend.
Captain William Toney
Homosassa Inshore Fishing
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