Late winter fishing can wear on an angler and the one or two good days each week can get squashed into another dimension overnight by a front. I say, “hang in there, spring is coming and then we can have 3 days of good fishing followed by 4 days of gale force winds!”

Over the years it’s become easy to make light of the subject, and tough days of weather have helped me become a better angler/guide. Some of my clients this time of year come from other parts of our country and their water is frozen over, so when I whine about my Florida-boy blood (like it’s cold when I’m hunting), I have to stop and put things in perspective – that we can be outside and not die, we don’t winterize our vessels, and drilling a hole into the Homosassa River to wet a line ain’t ever gonna happen. 

For some good action to make your forearm sore, there are some 6-to-10-pound jack crevalle in the river. Keep a lookout for the surface to churn into a frenzy and use any color soft plastic to catch them. Make sure that your retrieve is lively and fast. It may seem that, by watching them eating everything in their path, it would be easy hooking them, but you have to make your bait look as though it is running for its life.

They surface and disappear so watch the direction their heading to stay in front of them. One way of knowing is to watch the birds, especially the blue herons, because they will fly to the next point of ambush. The birds are looking to pick up a quick meal from the panicked bait the jacks are chasing.

Incoming tide will be dark in the morning or late afternoon this weekend. 

Homosassa Weekly Fishing Report from Captain William Toney

To schedule a fishing charter or shore lunch excursion with Captain Toney, visit his website.

If you want to learn more about how to catch Nature Coast fish from Captain Toney, subscribe to his videos at https://inthespread.com