Thread: when will spanish show up?

is it possible that the spanish will show up somtime in febuary?

Possible but not likely. Probably around mid to late March.

And what about the bluefish? Will they come in with the Spanish, or at a different time? I know most consider them a junk fish and a nuisance, but boy are they fun to play with when they are hitting. I miss them...

Anybody who says those bluefish aren't good to eat just doesn't know how to prepare them. They're right tasty. (Don't taste like chicken, the way remoras do.)

Bluefish are not 'highly migratory' like spanish mackerel and can be caught year round.
They can be a pestilence at Perdido Pass in the winter...

Old timers from the FL Panhandle used to say "when it's been foggy three mornings in a row the spanish will show up."
After the mild winter we've experienced it may not happen that way this year, but we'll see.
The water temps are aleady in the low 60s just offshore so it wouldn't take long for 65-70 degree water to move to the coast.

Your best bet is to monitor fishing reports from the Tampa Bay area northward to Cedar Key to determine when the spanish schools are making a move northward.
Butthere is currently no indication from the most recent reports the spanish are moving northward...
http://www.cyberangler.com/fishing-r.../florida/west/

But you just never know as was the case in 1993.
I had caught spanish from the west jetty of Perdido Pass the first two Saturdays in March before we had a snowstorm on St Patrick's Day weekend.
That tumbled the water temp back into the low 50s and it was a month (mid April) before ANY spanish were caught at the GSPPier that year. :run

:-\

One was caught at little lagoon pass the other day.

Its not uncommon to see a few Spanish around this time of the year, but seeing them in numbers is another story.

New Years Day 2012 we got a few small Spanish from the pier.

If I recall correctly from last year, they showed up in decent numbers around mid-march. People occasionally posted pictures of some small ones caught before then. I went fishing the last day of my spring break (18th?) and there were spanish everywhere at dark. I think that the first king and cobia were caught the very next day.

Looking at my picture dates, March 17th last year was a full blown chew the pier down spanish mac fest. Me & the boy easily caught limit by 9:30 am. Nice ones too