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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
September 2, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report for September 01
Snook season opened on Sunday and early indications point to improvement. Capt. Chet Jennings reported catching a couple of keepers on the first day of the season, as well as a hot redfish bite on the flats.
I put a keeper on the boat late in the afternoon yesterday, and also caught a bluefish on my way to the Skyway Fishing Pier to get bait. The birds were working out near the shipping channels, and I stopped to throw a spoon into a surface commotion. It was picked up immediately, and to my surprise it was an 18 inch bluefish. I followed the birds around for another 45 minutes and never caught another fish. Most of the fish we saw on the surface were small Spanish Mackerel; apparently the fall run of fish is here, and it appears to be a big one.
I got to the Skyway Pier at slack tide late in the afternoon and getting bait proved to be easy. The first toss of the net yielded six dozen pilchards. But the second throw had so many baits in it, I could hardly lift the net onto the boat. And they were nice big, four inch baits. Hard not to catch fish when the bait is that easy.
Schools of redfish are roaming the flats between the mouth of the Little Manatee River and Joe Island. Most of the redfish being caught are over the 27 inch maximum on the south end of the bay. Capt. C. A. Richardson of St. Petersburg, said he was also catching big reds on Tarpon Key on the other side of the bay. These fish should hang around through much of September.
Look for the snook action to get nothing but better and it’s already good. Strong falling tides on the weekend should a best bet.
I’m still finding big trout on the sandbars at low tide around sunset. They tend to hang around the swash channels through the bars, and the reds are still tailing in the shallower water inside the sandbar that runs the length of the shoreline between Apollo Beach and Joe Island.
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