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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
October 30, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report for October 30
Hot weather and hot fishing ruled the south shores of Tampa Bay last week. The good news is that summer-like weather has not slowed an incredibly good bite, and you can pretty much take your pick for species. Chris Camp reported good action offshore on Kingfish, and he dropped off a sample of some smoked steaks at the bait shop; they proved conclusively that kings eat as well as they fight.
Grouper action inside the bay continues to be very good. I’m seeing grouper over 10 pounds almost every time anyone goes out for them. Everything seems to be working, but the guys who seem to be catching the most fish and the biggest fish are using chum bags to lure the fish off structure, and then baiting up with cut-bait in the form of chunked ladyfish. Anglers trolling the ship channels are also catching grouper on deep diving plugs, and on large jigs rigged with soft plastic behind number two planers. And the mackerel bite in the ship channels goes on and on. There were even some mackerel caught way up in the Little Manatee River last weekend.
Capt. Chet Jennings of Apollo Beach continues to score heavily on all the flats species, ditto for Captain Billy Nobles and Captain Woody Gore. I fished clients Friday and Satuday, and we caught plenty of fish. Mostly short snook, but Wayne Wilcox of Tampa tied into a big fish under a dock. The snook actually went mid canal for a while, but it was just a tease. When he decided to go back home under the dock, it was all over but the crying.
There are some cobia on the Southshore flats, but thus far all the fish I have seen have been reluctant to eat. I had a few chasers on RipTide jigs and tails, but no hook ups on the artificials. I even hit a fish in the face with a fat pilchard and it swam past it like it wasn’t even there. I got out Monday with Keli Emery and Larry Malinoski. We filled both livewells with pilchards and Keli Emery hooked a cobia that looked to be short fish on a pilchard, but it broke right off, and that was the only cobia hook up I’ve had. We caught some fat mangrove snapper, and a short snook, and I got broke off by a snook that was big enough to keep me thinking about it still.
We’re supposed to get a cold front coming through the bay later this week and that could turn the cobia on. That’s the good news about the front. The bad news is that it will probably make the pilchards disappear. This is the most bait I’ve seen inside the bay in the past eight years, and I’m sure gonna hate to see it go.
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