Upcoming Winter Fishing Pattern

Meet the main players for our upcoming winter fishing pattern. These four designs will see lots of action; Weedless shrimp, weedless crab, weedless marine worm and three inch weedless minnow.

I can’t wait for the off-season to finally pass by so I can get back to my regular fishing schedule. When the phone seldom rings I find excuses to park my butt at home. With the winds being uncharacteristically strong for most of October I’ve spent little time on the water.

Saturday morning’s breeze had an enjoyable chill to it; a most welcome coolness that signifies the coming change of seasons. While it’s too early to expect constant cool weather we can expect our warm periods to be shorter than and not as hot as past weeks. I’m mentally preparing myself to tough-out the windy weather that is typical of November.

Expect water conditions to vary greatly in the shallows as wind directions shift constantly. I also expect a slow, but steady clearing of the Lagoons as water temperatures continue to fall. Expect to encounter fewer and fewer bait-fish on the flats. Now is the season for the pinfish, silver mullet, pigfish, etc. to migrate to deeper waters and continue life as adults. I’ve noticed tiny shrimp jumping for their lives on recent charters. Yep, tiny is correct, tiny and growing. Soon the shrimp will not only be large enough to be interesting to the predators of the shallows, they’ll also be the food-stuff of choice!

Once we enter a true winter pattern I tend to really down-size my artificial lures. Three inch minnow imitations replace four or five inch versions most of the time. The Minnowz by Z-Man is my favorite of these little soft plastics with natural color choices replicating small mullet and mud-minnows alike. The colder the water becomes the slower we fish them.

Obviously, shrimp imitations are important unless you prefer using the real thing. While I typically carry live shrimp on the boat I much prefer a plastic one. A nibble from a wee trout or leftover pinfish won’t render the plastic bait useless and we don’t have to re-bait for a quick follow-up cast when we miss a bite! Adding a dab of Pro Cure in shrimp scent certainly ups the odds enough for me to keep a bottle or two onboard all the time.

Small crab imitations and marine worm imitations are often overlooked by most anglers. The little crabs are tough to cast, but when tossed on an ultralight rig I can usually get enough distance on the cast to be effective. Threading a Hula Stick on a mushroom jighead is a great imitation of a marine worm and this bait stands upright in a very seductive manner. Like the EZ Shrimpz these two lures are right at home when the predators are tailing in the shallows.