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From the Panama City News-Herald....


Saltwater

I don’t know if it’s the warm weather, but everything from the specks to grouper have lockjaw.

The warmer temperatures have driven the specks out of the creeks and onto the flats. The redfish are plentiful, but they just don’t seem to want to bite.

Jim Wilson reported seeing many redfish in shallow water last week, but they just would not bite. I’ve talked to people fishing the gulf and pass for reds and grouper, and they have had little to no luck.

I think if we had a few weeks of weather like we had around Christmas, things would get back to normal. Oh well, might as well enjoy the good weather and do the best we have with what we’ve got. If it’s cold, some people are going to complain, and if it’s warm, somebody else is going to complain. Let’s just enjoy it.

See ya on the water.

Scott Lindsey - Outdoors Writer

Also from the News-Herald on 1/4...


January weather bugs hunters and anglers

What in the world is going on with this weather? Before Christmas I go out and buy clothes to combat the cold, shoes to keep my tender feet warm and everything else you could think of to be comfortable on a cold day. And what happens? It turns hot.

It’s not the end of the world to be warm in January. In fact, to most people it’s quite enjoyable. But for someone who thinks winter is for hunting or fishing, the world might as well be turned upside down. Take for example the poor old speckled trout fisherman. When the weather turns cold and stays cold like it did before Christmas, a seasoned trout fisherman knows where the fish will hole up before he or she ever buys that first dozen shrimp.

The weather in the last week of December was perfect for trout fishing or hunting. I heard some good reports coming in from the Intracoastal Waterway to the canal connecting the Intracoastal to St. Joe Bay. People were catching trout in just about every creek and river that connected to salt water.

Everything was rocking along just fine until I took a week off and all of a sudden summer returned.

Now the hot water canal is no warmer than the rest of the bay. All the creeks that were full of justright finger mullet are empty. It’s just as well. If I had a live well full, all the places I usually fish would be vacant.

All the trout have left their winter hangouts and moved back out to the bay. This presents another problem. They are not in the usual places you generally find them in the summer; they are just sort of gone.