Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Report

Christmas Week Report

The Baxter House Staff would like to wish all of our friends in the Fly Fishing community a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes in the New Year!

The Report

I was on a several week run of being on the water ever day. Over the last few days everyone was blow off the water as heavy winds and heavy rain hit our area. I was on the water with guests when the heavy rain started Wednesday afternoon. We were having great action until it became too miserable to stay out. Over the last 2 days just about everywhere got 4"+ of rainfall. In the South Bay area we also had heavy steady winds with some gusts over 70 mph.

This type of sustained blow is sure to put a bump in the bay and flats fishing for a few days. I drove along the bay yesterday and the flats were taking a beating. You could have surfed in some areas.

The weather effects should be less severe in the back country, rivers and canals but in these areas the water is very high and getting a lot of fresh water runoff. This should continue for a few days.

With that all said the weather forecast look pretty good for the next week. It looks like bright sun and warmer temps are on the way. By Wednesday it should be pretty warm, high 70's to low 80's.

Despite the crappy weather we have some good tides now and for the next few days. Negative low tides will be during the morning hours and there will be good water movement on both sides of the low.

Prior to the weather my guests were really killing it. I was able to treat my guided trips like a shopping list. We hit the flats for Trout and Reds, moved to the cuts for some Jacks then into the mangroves and canals for Snook. I had a recent trip where my guests fished light tackle with gulp baits and paddle tails. The action was non stop with a mix of Trout and Redfish. On this particular day we had several dozen Reds all of which were 14" to 18". Several times we had double hookups.

With the windy weather lately I have been spending a good amount of time in the Back country and in the canals. The snook bite has been very good once you get the technique down. As I have mentioned before, the key to taking snook when the water is cooling down is sharp strips of the fly and slowing down the time it takes to retrie