Sight Fishing For Florida Fish

Looking for Fish to Catch and Stalking Them in Florida Waters

When we talk about sightfishing in Florida we often conjure up images of fish swimming in shallow, clear lagoons as we often see on the fishing shows wagging their tails in the warm sunshine. But far too often we never see tails and often see just a silhouette or shadow moving along the grass flats or sandy bottom. Of course this is only when we're fishing in those areas and often we fish in the ocean and sight fish for cobia, dolphin, tripletail and other pelagic or benthic species in the deeper saltwater where you never see bottom at all.

Shallow Water Sight fishing

Shallow water fishing is popular for redfish, sea trout, bonefish, permit, sharks and in some areas cobia. Our east central Florida area is known mainly for redfish and spotted sea trout so that's what we'll be focusing mainly on in this article. Sightfishing for these two species involves a few tools including light spinning tackle in the 6 - 10 pound line class. Many anglers choose to use some of the newer braided lines like powerpro to get extra long cast with some of the lighter lures and baits you'll be using. Sightfishing for redfish in the lagoons does not necessarily require a boat as the water is usually shallow and can be waded, but remote areas will require some mode of transportation and a boat is definitely a benefit, especially if there's an alligator population.

Baits for redfish vary from spoons, jigs, topwaters and many of the popular soft baits. It's almost up to the angler to decide what he wants to throw that day. Popular live baits include shrimp, crabs and fin-fish from pilchards and mullet to croakers and more, but remember that we are speaking of sightfishing and not blind casting or livebait techniques that do not require you to see the fish.

Central Florida's Best Sight Fishing