Manatee County angler finds tripletail success in the Gulf near Anna Maria Island
Captain Jarrod McKenzie is no stranger to finding tripletail in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I crab once a week. I have 250 traps and I run a lot of charters,” said McKenzie, who grew up in Manatee County.
“Last year was such a killer year (for tripletail). This year has been the worst tripletail season I’ve seen in a long time, only catching about four keepers, but they’ve all been good ones.”
Despite not seeing many this year, McKenzie keeps his eyes peeled as he runs around in the Gulf of Mexico. On a trip on Thursday, Leap Day, McKenzie was running and looking off the beach in 20 feet of water.
Tripletail love to stick close to floating structures, like crab traps, and use them for cover as they ambush bait. McKenzie saw one that caught his eye.
“We were trying for about 20 minutes to catch him. He finally ate a shiner around 11 a.m. It was so big it broke the landing net,” McKenzie said laughingly.
Cruising and looking for tripletail is always an option, but for more reliable fishing, McKenzie says right now is some of the best of the year for fishing the flats and it will only get better.
“The water temp has been in the low 60s for weeks and that’s why the sheepshead have been still firing after this moon. This week when I’ve got off the boat in the afternoons, it has been 70 degrees, and I bet it creeps up to 72 this weekend. 75 is the magic number when them snooks creep out of the creeks and start blasting live shiners!” explained McKenzie, who said after catching the tripletail Thursday they experienced a good redfish and snook bite on the flats.
“By noon, the tide was cranking and water temperature had warmed up. That’s when the bite started heating up. I have a feeling this week is going to be off the chain inshore. The snook fishing is going to fire off, and with March 1, it’s now snook season!”
Other options are also good as temperatures rise and get fish on the move.
“I think spring is here. South winds, big tides, white bait hitting the flats. Mackerels and trout getting thick. Snook are creeping to the west and redfish starting to eat everything in sight.”
While a few late-season cold fronts are bound to cut across the Gulf of Mexico the best time to fish the flats is always the day or two ahead of them. There’s an old expression, “Wind from the south, they open their mouth.” Some of the best fishing days are when winds are from the south or southeast 15 to 20 mph and lead to aggressive fish.
Combine that with warming temperatures and March should lead to great fishing days.
Snook season, which opened Friday, will remain open until May 1. The bag limit is one fish per person with a slot size of 28- to 33-inches.
