choppedliver

Mid summer, Dad and I did a lot of grass flats fishing. The specks were great, but we had to fight off a lot of pin fish too. Also caught reds, lots of croaker, and the occasional spanish mack.



How is the grass flats fishing during these cold months? Is it better or worse? What bite is hot and what bite is not? Early am? Nighttime? Mid day?



This is my first winter fishing, and so far all I've done is fish the bridge this winter. I would like to give it a shot and need to go prepared and with a strategy in mind.

BentStraight

I have some observations about "grass flats". I lived in Innerarity Point for 25 years before moving to East Milton a couple of years ago and I have noticed a huge difference from the grass flats in Ole River and Big Lagoon versus the the grass flats in Blackwater Bay and river. I did a lot of dip netting to maintain my two saltwater aquariums and the grass in Ole River/Big Lagoon ALWAYS had shrimp, though they were smaller in the winter as well as small blue crabs, spider crabs, pipe fish, sea horses, blennys, oysterfish, sole, pinfish, grunts, sculpins, etc., every time you dipped the net you had a load of stuff, but, not up here in the grass beds of Blackwater Bay. It is very different, I have tried and I don't get anything!Catching bait up here seems so much harder, I get some bull minnows, topminnows. finger mulletand mollys around the mouth of Fundy Bayou, but, that is over, sand not grass. I guess this is because of the salinty level of the bay. Has anyone else noticed that the grass flats of the lower bays are vastly more productive than the upper bays, or am I looking in the wrong spots?

choppedliver

I would be primarily concerned with the grass flats in the intracoastal such as near portofino, johnsons beach, etc. Anyone?

fisheye48

i have never really had much luck on the flats in winter time...try creek mouths and deep holes if you wanna catch some trout...croakers will catch some bigguns right now

choppedliver

I guess what Im saying is, IF I were to go to these areas I mentioned, at this time of year, what would I expect to catch? Or is this just not the time to be fishing grass flats? I understand other areas may be more productive, but I am specifically asking about these areas at this time of year, because fishing the flats in the summer was some of my most enjoyable fishing

fisheye48

there should be some fish there just not as many as the summer...becasue the fish move seasonally in search of food and warmer/colder water

unibober

I used to fish Naval Live Oaks pretty hard 3-4 times a week. Early March seems to start the spring season but i would look for bait for awhile before I would leave the beach. If no bait was moving, I went elsewhere. If there were bait fish along the bank, fish are there. I always freespooled live minnows (fings, croaker, and pinfish mostly) and have left them biting many times in the spring and through the hot months. Ive even caught them in less than a foot of water that were studs. Good Luck.

BullBoxer

Grew up fishing on them. Winter isn't worth your time. Things start getting better closer to April and May.