Go Fish for 12/4/11 by Capt. Bill Miller

   Conventional thinking has always led some fishermen to believe that the day after a cold front will mean lousy fishing. However, sometimes that is not always the case.

   Capt. Billy Miller had a charter this week the day after the cold front came through and started his day drifting the shallow grass flats of Ft. Desoto. Miller chose the DOA Deadly Combination, a cork and soft plastic shrimp set up, because it allowed him to pre set the depth of his lure keeping it just over the top of the grass, but not in the grass.

    The water was cold and the speckled trout were not aggressive, but they were hungry. Instead of yanking the cork down, as they usually do, the trout would grab the plastic shrimp and pull the cork slowly sideways indicating a strike.

   This technique allowed Clayton Lewis and his son to catch double limits of big oversized trout and many smaller ones. As a bonus, a four pound pompano and two legal cobia were also caught.

   Later in the day as the water warmed the deeper grass flats produced fast action on soft plastic Lil John’s rigged on a 1/8 ounce jig head.

   Speckled trout are catch and release only in the south region until January 1, 2012.

   Dave Netzler and friends has good action fishing the Clam Bar area with white bait. Included in the catch were big speckled trout, Spanish mackerel and flounder.

    Flounder has really made a comeback along the gulf coast. Flounder used to be a luxury by catch but now can be targeted with good successes. Prime flounder spots are sand holes in the middle of grass flats and sandy areas around structure like docks, rocks and reefs.

   Flounder will eat live baits, like white bait and shrimp, fished right on the bottom. Artificials, especially soft plastic jigs, work well if bounced along the bottom making little puffs of sand.

   Minimum length for flounder is 12 inches using a swept back tail. The bag limit is 10 per person per day.