Cedar Key Inshore Fishing Report
With the strong cold fronts and winds, fishing has been tough. The trout are here, just biting slow but still in the 3 to 4 ft grass flats. The reds have been mostly in the back marsh areas around bars but do come out by the islands on a high tide in the afternoons. Both are hitting on live shrimp, mud minnows, gulps and finger mullet. The trout seem to hit better using popping corks and reds on a jig head fishing on the bottom. The sheepshead are doing well by the dock pilings and the inshore rock piles using frozen shrimp and fiddler crabs with enough weight to keep them on the bottom.
Cedar Key Offshore Fishing Report
Same as inshore, since the weather hasn’t been favorable, we haven’t had many great days but we have had some good luck with the larger sheepshead on the offshore rock piles in 18 to 25 ft of water, using frozen shrimp. The sea bass and grunts are plentiful in 20 to 50 ft of water. The red grouper are slow to bite in shallow water and do better in 60 to 75 ft, using threadfins, sardines, cut mullet and northern mackerel. I look for the bit to get better and the fish to move in closer within the next couple of weeks. We did see some schools of baitfish with bonita busting thru them last week, that’s a good sign. So as the weather is breaking for the better, come on down and enjoy the fun.
