During January and February, I'll use a deep-water jigging technique to catch snook. I usually will fish with a 3/8-ounce, root-beer-colored DOA Terror Eyz jig. Not only will I vertically jig this soft-plastic lure, I'll use my Minn Kota trolling motor to move the boat to the holes and cast and retrieve the Terror Eyz close to the bottom. The snook and the redfish usually will hold on the bottoms of these holes. However, if you swim the Terror Eyz in the mid-water range in these holes. We have a resident tarpon population. Any day you fish, regardless of the species you target, you'll most likely catch a tarpon. I often catch tarpon in the same holes that I fish for snook. On a bright, clear, warm afternoon in January and February, I've often seen trout in 1 foot or less of water. The dark bottoms usually warm-up quicker than the sandy bottoms do, so I'll look for trout on muddy bottoms in the afternoon. I'll stand on the poling platform on the back of my boat, but instead of poling, I'll use my trolling motor to maneuver my fishermen to within casting distance of those trout. Casting Terror Eyz jigs and any other bait that dashes and flashes will produce Spanish mackerel. We also take pompano and Spanish mackerel because these fish move inshore at that time of the year. We catch the Spanish mackerel on fly rods by casting Terror-Eyz jigs and any other bait that dashes and flashes.

March and April are transition times when we're moving out of winter and into spring. These two months are yo-yo months for fishing down here. By that I mean that cold fronts and warm fronts are much more frequent in March and April than in January and February. So the fishing conditions are constantly changing, and the fish are constantly moving. March and April I prefer to target the big trout. Since we have a spring mullet run in March and April, plenty of bait pour into the rivers. The trout gorge themselves on all the baitfish. The baitfish are the key to finding big trout. I look for big schools of bait and keep my boat far enough away from those schools so I can cast into them with either a DOA Shrimp or a Terror Eyz jig and not spook the fish.

During the months of May and June, most fishermen target either snook or tarpon. As the trout fishing begins to wane, the really big snook start to bite, and the migratory tarpon begin to arrive. As I mentioned earlier, we have a resident population of tarpon that stay here all year. But during May and June, the migratory tarpon move into the river system and the estuaries. If you want to catch a tarpon, fish during these two months because when the migrating tarpon come in, they're much easier to catch than our resident population. These migrating fish haven't been harassed as much. They are not lure-shy, and your chances of catching two or three tarpon in one day are really good. When the sun comes out, and the water heats up, the trout don't seem to want to bite as much. So, as the sun rises, I'll fish for the trout with top-water lures. When the sun gets higher, I'll fish a little deeper. I like to fish for the trout just at daylight and then target either snook or tarpon. In the latter part of the trip, I'll go after the species we haven't targeted. If you're fishing for tarpon in May, your best bet is the root-beer- or chartreuse-colored DOA Terror Eyz. I prefer the 3/8-ounce head. Another effective bait is a DOA Glow Shrimp. Although these baits are small and the tarpon are big, just remember that elephants eat peanuts, and big tarpon will eat little baits. To catch tarpon this month, put a Glow Shrimp on a rod, and cast it out of the back of the boat. Put the rod in a rod holder, use your trolling motor to move around in the schools of tarpon, and cast to them with the Terror Eyz. Many times the tarpon will inhale the Glow Shrimp as the bait moves behind the boat.

In July and August, I'll still put a DOA Glow Shrimp out of the back of my boat, and I'll primarily use a spinning rod. I like to use the Shimano Stradic 4000 or 5000 reel, depending on the size of fish that day. I'll also use a heavy-action, 7-foot spinning rod and put 30- to 50-pound-test line as my main line with a 50- to 80-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. When I see tarpon rolling, I'll try to ease within casting distance. If I fish on the beach, I'll try to determine the direction the school of tarpon is moving, get ahead of it and let the rolling fish come to me. I want to cast just in front of the rolling tarpon and swim the bait away from them. Most of the time, the tarpon will take the Terror Eyz as it drops from the surface of the water to the bottom.

September and October, the trout also will be more active at this time than they were in the summer months. With the huge amount of bait coming into the area, the trout will move in and go on a feeding spree. My favorite area to fish at this time of the year is the Indian River Lagoon between Jensen Beach and Fort Pierce. The fish usually will hold on some type of structure in this region. I'll fish a DOA Glow Shrimp on light tackle with braided line 90 percent of the time because I can make a long cast. The shrimp land so lightly on the water, they don't spook the reds I'm trying to catch. I've learned that when redfish are in shallow water and you throw a heavy lead-headed jig, the noise the jig makes when it hits the water often will spook the reds you're trying to catch. However, because the DOA shrimp is a rubber bait, it lands lighter on the water and doesn't spook the fish. I try to cast the shrimp ahead of the fish and move the fish right in front of the fish's nose. When the redfish see the shrimp, they usually inhale it. Since the redfish root along the bottom and have their heads down, you generally have to get that shrimp right in front of their noses for them to eat the bait. The redfish we try to catch usually will weigh from 7 to 10 pounds and will swim in 1 foot or less of water. We have to sneak up on the fish with the trolling motor so we don't spook them. Many times we park the boat, put on wading shoes and wade to the fish so we can approach them even quieter. When we wade to the fish, we use a shuffle step along the bottom. There are plenty of stingrays in our area, so you want to make sure you don't step on the stingrays as you approach the fish. But wading is an excellent method of catching speckled trout and redfish in this part of the coast. Early in the morning, you have a chance to catch speckled trout and redfish in shallow water. Once the sun comes up, the trout will leave the shallows, but the redfish will remain there. Once you've caught all the redfish you want to catch, you can get back into the boat and go after trout, tarpon or snook. When the sun comes up and we leave the shallows, I like to fish docks. The docks will hold large schools of baitfish, and we usually can catch trout, snook and redfish under the docks.

November and December, we can catch trout, snook and tarpon at any time of year. However, the redfish are not as dependable as these other species. We just don't have a tremendous population of redfish in this area.