The water is nearly as cold as the oldtimers ever remember...the canal even had a mullet fish kill with 10-12 inch mullet struggling....we loaded buckets with crab dip nets of future grouper bait...
the good news is that is has concentrated the big schools of bull reds, these are all over the slot size fish, we usually see this happen for a couple of weeks in Feb, but the water temps are hovering around 47 in the bay and they are staying gathered around structure already...
the keys to finding the bulls is trolling stretch 30's on braid to get the max depths and move from one large structure spot to another...speed around 4 kts...i use a couple of different colors starting with one light color and one dark color....after you locate the schools I move to spinning tackle with 20 lb braid with a jig head as heavy as needed with the current....i tip the jig with fresh cut bait, fresh dead shrimp or a strip of "fish bites" artificial...with spinning tackle I drift fish and cut the motor for max stealth...
