![Late Winter Creek Hopping]()
Creeks are where the late-winter action can be found. (David A. Brown photo)
By David A. Brown, OutdoorChannel.com
Looks like spring'sfull-time warmup is just around the corner, but Florida fish are usually prettysmart about not rushing into their vernal patterns too quickly.
Pretty much all of thestate's snook and a lot of the redfish, trout, ladyfish, jacks and juveniletarpon spend their winters in the warm, stable environments of coastalwaterways. Of these cold-season solaces, tidal creeks rank highly for theirnatural design, abundant habitat and available food sources.
Late February to earlyMarch always sees an early wave of fish emerging and cautiously feeding on thenewly arriving pods of scaled sardines ("whitebait"), but they'llhold close to the creek mouths and dash back inside...