It�s not easy being an inshore angler in Northeast Florida during winter, especially if you want to keep fish for the table. Once water temps drop below 60 degrees, fish tend to get sluggish. You can find flounder in the back creeks, but they often run on the small side. Reds will be with them, but you only get to take one of them home. Spotted seatrout are a better option if a fish dinner is in the cards, but when the February season closure rolls around, they are off the table, so to speak.

That�s why local inshore experts welcome the winter run of yellowmouth trout.

"Yellowmouths can save a lot of days during the winter," says Capt. Dennis Goldstein, a 25-year veteran guide at Camachee Island Sport Fishing Charters in St. Augustine. "Cold water doesn�t bother them at all and they�ll feed aggressively in water temps in the low 50s. Pound for pound they�ll definitely outfight a speckled trout, and are just as good on the table. They�re also not included in the February trout closure, so you can keep some�which makes these snowbird trout a pretty neat deal in my book."

What local anglers refer to as "yellowmouths" are more correctly known as weakfish, although northern trout and gray trout are common nicknames. A member of the Cynoscion family (which includes spotted trout, sand trout and silver trout) their body shape is similar to the spotted trout, although a bit more muscular. They also lack the distinct spots and feature a more muted black dot pattern, with a more pronounced yellow tinge to the inner mouth. Size-wise, the two species aren�t that far apart and not more than two pounds separates the current IGFA world records for both fish.

Don�t count on catching a new world record weakfish in Florida, however. Much like the Atlantic-strain striped bass, their primary range is in the Middle Atlantic states, with the Florida Atlantic coast being on the extreme southern edge of their range during cooler weather migrations. No weakfish has ever been documented in the Gulf of Mexico.

The prime areas in Florida stretch from Mayport to Matanzas, although some fish will venture as far south as Fort Pierce, with Port Canaveral being about the southernmost consistent producer. Being on the extreme edge of their natural range, the fish we get run smaller, and the current Florida limit is four fish with a minimum 12-inch size limit and no maximum size restrictions. Experienced anglers aren�t quick to keep those 12-inch fish�two- to 4-pound fish are not uncommon and fish in the 5- to 8-pound class show up each year.

Just when they show up depends on the weather and the locale, which can vary a bit.

"I�ll normally start to target yellowmouths in mid-to-late November," says Capt. John B. Snorkel, who guides out of Jacksonville Beach and works the lower St. Johns River regularly. "From there they will generally hang around until late February, although you can pick up a straggler or two in early March."

To the south, in St. Augustine, Dennis Goldstein waits until almost Christmas before he begins to confidently include yellowmouths in his daily trips. From there, he expects to reliably find those fish until mid-to-late March.

Anglers farther south along the Atlantic coast will see a similar difference in when these fish show up. What they won�t see, however, is any significant difference in where the yellowmouths wind up. Although weakfish are similar to spotted seatrout, and will sometimes be found with them, their preferred habitat is quite a bit different from where the majority of the spotted trout reside.

"Mature weakfish are mostly a shelf animal," says Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Mike Murphy. "They prefer deeper waters and will typically inhabit nearshore waters within a couple of miles of the coast. They move inside inlets and estuaries during cold weather, but as a general rule they don�t move very far inside."

You�ll get no argument with that from guides. In the Mayport area, Capt. Snorkel finds some of his best fish on the outside of the south side of the Mayport jetties along the rocks in 20 to 25 feet of water, and on nearshore structures (like the Mistake Barge and various rockpiles) located within a couple of miles of the beach. In St. Augustine, Goldstein�s preferred spots are the rocks on the south side of the St. Augustine Inlet in 25 to 30 feet of water and the nearshore wrecks, like Four Mile.

One obvious drawback to those locales is winter weather. Scooting even a mile or two offshore in a small boat is not always wise, and even a modest wind from any easterly direction can make the jetties a tough place to fish. Fortunately, enough yellowmouths venture inside the inlets to take the bite out of all but the worst winter will offer.

In the St. Johns, they routinely move upriver as far as Blount Island, and down the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Blvd Bridge. In the St. Augustine/Matanzas area they�ll roam even farther inside, and can be found southward in the ICW from St. Augustine to Matanzas and as far north as Shell Bluff, above Guana. That�s a pretty big area, but it�s not hard to narrow the prime spots down�just look for them in spots where you wouldn�t normally be looking for spotted trout.

"During winter," says Capt. Goldstein, "we catch a lot of speckled trout way up in the shallow back creeks, and along some of the shallower drops in the ICW. But, you won�t find any yellowmouths there. These fish want deeper water, and there is not much point fishing for them shallower than 10 feet. I�m looking for 12 to 30 feet of water. Yellowmouths also want a hard bottom. They are more structure-oriented than specks, and they want a bottom with shell, rock or oyster, with some hard sand in the immediate area.

"Bridges are normally great spots," he continues, "and the 312 bridge is one of the better ones. What we call the �Flounder Hole� by the jetties at the entrance to Salt Run is good, and the deep hole by the old lighthouse rock in Salt Run itself will hold them. Some of the creeks located close to the jetties will have a deep hole at the mouth, with oyster, and they are also reliable spots, but moving up any creek past the first deep hole is generally a waste of time. You can find specks up there, but darned few yellowmouths."

If you�re working the right deep water, you may run into specks or yellowmouths, or a combination of both. When Capt. Snorkel is hunting yellowmouths, the ratio between the two�and their size�dictates whether he stays or hits another spot.

"When you get into yellowmouths, you might catch a speck or two," he says, "but 90 percent of the fish will be yellowmouths. If you�re catching mostly specks, you�re not on a good yellowmouth bite. I�ve also found that the fish inside the inlets generally school up by size. If the first couple of yellowmouths I catch are in the 13-inch range I can figure that they�re all going to be in the 12- to 14-inch range and I might want to move on. If they�re 16-inch fish, then I�m looking at a school in the 15- to 18-inch range and that�s not a bad place to stay with. If I stick some 4- and 5-pound fish I�m not leaving."

Getting on a good school of yellowmouths may take a little effort, but catching them doesn�t. Just get your bait or lure within two feet of the bottom, and drift it through the area not much faster than the current flow. These fish feed well even when water temps are in the low 50s, and there is no mistaking when they "thunk" a bait. Strikes are aggressive, but the fish will stay deep.

When it comes to effective offerings, there are a number of choices.

Yellowmouths will hit lures if you can get them down to them. Plastic-bodied or bucktail jigs in bright colors (red/yellow, chartreuse, red/white) are a good choice. Sinking plugs like the MirrOlure 52M or Rat-L-Trap (chromes with black or chartreuse) are also effective. All will be much more effective if they are tipped with a small piece of shrimp, or one of the newer synthetic baits like Fishbites or Berkley Gulp! These fish like meat, and scent is always an asset in cold water.

Shrimp (either live or fresh dead) is also an excellent choice, although its longevity is limited around pinfish and snapper blues�both of which are likely to be present when you find yellowmouths. Mud minnows and finger mullet are more durable, and yellowmouths love them. These can be fished on a hook and sinker rig, but it�s a lot easier and just as effective to stick them on a bare jighead.

Don�t overlook a strip, or chunk, of cutbait because yellowmouths relish these as well. But, you may need a law degree to determine which species are legal to use. The best opinion I have been able to get so far is that any species subject to a size and possession limit (while perfectly legal to use as bait in a whole condition) cannot be whittled into chunks and strips since that runs afoul of the regulation prohibiting the "cleaning" of "gamefish" while on the water.

As effective as bait is (and yellowmouths do truly love meat!) the fluctuating availability of shrimp, mud minnows and finger mullet during the winter months can present problems for many anglers, and the complex rules on cutbait are too complex for me. As a result, I don�t mess with any of it.

When yellowmouths are the target I rig three rods with a bare wide-gapped jighead in 1/4-, 3/8- and 1/2-ounce. Regardless of the depth or current speed, one of them will get me to the bottom at the proper drift speed. On the back of each jighead goes an inshore formula shrimp-flavored Fishbites strip. A chartreuse strip on a red jighead, or a pink strip on a chartreuse head, gives me some eye-catching color and the Fishbites provides the "meat" and scent. They work as well as shrimp (not only for yellowmouths, but also specks, reds, flounder and anything else), are a lot more convenient, and the pins and blues can�t strip them off the hook.

It�s a simple approach�just get an effective bait to the fish. But, that�s what�s cool about yellowmouths. They�re a simple fish. And, one that Northeast Florida anglers are becoming quite fond of.

After all, what�s not to like about a fish that shows up regularly, hangs out in easily definable areas, hits eagerly in the coldest water, and is no slouch on the table? This is one snowbird that is definitely welcome.