One of the winter trips I look forward to the most each year doesn’t involve long boat rides, hard-fighting snook, tasty sheepshead, pompano or any other high profile game or table fish, but still provides lifetime memories for the participants.

First things needed are a family or relatives with little to no fishing experience, a small lie and a good camera. Score some fresh, preferably live, blue crabs and some clams. Load the crew, find a local bridge, secure the boat, cut the crabs in half, bait the hooks and drop the rig to the bottom next to the pilings.

Make sure to tell them that they’re trying to catch small bait for the day’s fishing excursion. While you’re waiting ask them about the biggest farm pond bluegill, crappie or bass they’ve caught. While listening and keeping an eye on the rod tips, soon it’s easy to see there’s a customer down below as I instruct the bluegill veteran to crank down on that crab-loaded circle hook.

As the big rod bends deeply and the arms start to stretch out, the mouth hangs open and the eyes grow wide, this is lifetime memories picture time, as that 40-pound black drum tries to pull a kid or two out of the boat. The last time it was three, 6 to 8-year-olds on one rod, fighting a whopper. I had as much fun watching and coaching the fight as they did catching the fish.

Rigging is easy. Add a half to one ounce sliding egg sinker to your line. Capture it with a swivel, and then add an 18-inch 40 to 60-pound test leader. Finish the rig with a 6/0 circle hook and half a declawed blue crab. Take an assortment of sinker weights to allow for current flow with the idea being keeping the line vertical, bait on bottom.

While tarpon anglers look forward to a possible late March to mid-April silver king return, many others are putting tasty trout, pompano, grouper, snapper and especially tricky biting sheepshead in the oven.

Some of the best sheepshead fishing has been occurring on near-shore reefs, but colder weather has brought many in close so any major inshore structure, dock, oyster bar, might hold them. When fishing bridge pilings make sure to move around if your current piling isn’t producing. Anglers on foot can catch sheepies around canal docks and rip-rap.

Sheepsheads have a 12-inch minimum harvest size with 8 allowed per angler with a generous 50 fish total vessel limit. Tough to clean, but delicious on the plate.

Colder weather and seatrout go together so grab a bucket of shrimp and some popping corks and go to work. Bend down those barbs and carefully release the little guys. Since Cape Coral falls in the FWC’s South Trout Management Zone, anglers are allowed to harvest up to 3 fish not less than 15 inches or more than 19 inches. Six fish vessel limit.

If you like the taste of seatrout but haven’t tried the close relative the sand or sugar trout, you’re in for a treat. These guys run smaller but make up for it in taste. Find them in deeper holes especially in the river; catch them on ultra-lites and small shrimp-tipped jigs. These fish are considered an unregulated species with the only limit being a vessel limit of 100 pounds. (Caught my PB tarpon on one.)

You’ll find pompano around our passes or jumping behind your boat as you move along. One thing for sure, this little fighter is a welcome oven broiler guest each winter. They have an 11-inch fork length and a lucky angler can harvest up to 6 per day.

Offshore find grouper and snapper with red grouper having a 20-inch size limit with 2 allowed per angler.

If you can’t wait for tarpon to arrive, head south to Miami for a hot bite during nighttime shrimp runs this month.

Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at 239-282-9434 or captgeorget3@aol.com.