March can be a premier month to fish in the Tampa Bay area. With rising water temperatures and bait starting to show up on the flats, an explosion of fish activity in shallow water puts a little spring in fishermen’s steps. It creates an excitement and anticipation that fishermen can relate to. It’s that feeling the night before where you almost can’t fall asleep because you know it’s going to be good.
With typical water temperatures in the mid-60s to possibly 70 degrees, the fish will be active and very aggressive, which will benefit live-bait and artificial-fishing enthusiasts. For the live baiter, you will be able to stuff your livewell full of bait without fear of them dying due to the cool water, which will allow you to live chum to really get the action going! For the artificial fisherwoman/fisherman, this is a great time, since the fish are in an aggressive mood and will chase bait. I like to throw a Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad by Bass Assassin in various colors, but I have been having great success with chicken on a chain and electric chicken. For live bait, reintroducing scaled sardines onto the flats is hard to beat.
Snook will be moving out of the backwaters and the multiple creek and river mouths to the flats just outside of these areas. They will feed very well on the moving tides, incoming and outgoing, but I find that when they are set up near the mouths in these areas, the outgoing tide produces a better, longer bite because the bait is pulled out into the bay. Try to set up at points where the tides are going around a point or over a deep hole. These are ambush points where the snook will wait for bait to come to them. If you see snook, do not cast directly at them; cast up-current and let your presentation come naturally to them with the moving water. Same goes for artificials, since baitfish do not attack snook lol. Make it seem like your lure is fighting the current to get away, which really entices a strike…