 |
Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
June 16, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
June 17 Fishing Report For Soutshore Tampa Bay
East Tampa Bay Fishing Report
The consensus of most anglers I spoke with this week is that the fishing was slow during the second week of June. My clients pulled a few redfish out of the mangroves south of Piney Point, but almost as many broke us off, and nearly half the fish we landed were oversize. We fished mostly cut bait – chunks of large pilchards and threadfin herring rigged on RipTide jig heads. The weight of the jig head makes for accurate casts into the shadows and cuts in the mangrove shoreline. This is very tough fishing that calls for short, stiff rods and heavier line than I normally fish on the open water of the flats. Most of the fish we landed came on 12 pound test Ande IFGA monofilament, with three feet of 60 pound test monofilament leader. We also caught a couple of fish on live pinfish under floats.
Even the Spanish mackerel bite was tough last week. The few fish we did catch hit 3/4 ounce chrome spoons rigged with single live bait hooks. Capt. Chet Jennings and Capt. Nick Winger, both of Apollo Beach, had slightly better luck on the macks fishing live threadfin herring and scaled sardines off the range markers out from the Cockroach Bay entrance.
I found a few small tarpon in the Little Manatee River, but couldn’t buy a strike. I tried live blue crab, live threadfin, live pinfish, and a jig rigged with a four inch shad tail. My guess is that a combination of weak tides and unsettled weather shut down the bite. The best bet for a good bite in the coming weeks will be on the low end of the tides that occur around sunset.
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
