January-March brings cool weather and full coolers!

Sheepshead

Starting in January sheepshead move to our offshore rock piles in large aggregations to spawn. No, these aren't the sheepshead species found in the lakes in the northern U.S.. These shrimp devouring scavengers with serious dental work belong to the porgy family, but they put up a nice fight and are great eating. It's really tough to pass up panko crusted sheepshead! Look for them over rock piles and artificial reefs from 6 to 40' of water. We've even seen them as deep as 70'. 

Snapper

We have decent mangrove snapper fishing year round in Crystal River but during the winter snapper fishing really takes off. Bigger mangroves that normally hang out in 70 plus foot of water push into 30-40'. Often times breaking the 5 pound mark. These guys hang around similar areas as spawning sheepshead. Over rock piles and large chunks of artificial structure. Cool thing about snapper is you can see them hanging above the structure with your sonar.

We're having a lot of people ask about grouper and scallop season right now. Remember grouper season opens September 1st and Scallop Season opens July 1st.