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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
April 24, 2003
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report from Shell Point Bait and Tackle in Ruskin FL
April 24, 2003
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report from Shell Point Bait and Tackle in Ruskin FL
April 24, 2003
Say hurrah to the passing of the last cold front; it’s hard to believe we will see another until November, and that’s good news. The snook bite has yet to recover from the last drop in temperature two weeks ago, and remained very tentative as of yesterday.
The best bites over the past two weeks have been King mackerel offshore, and redfish and cobia inshore. Cobia were thick on the flats of Tampa Bay last week. Capt. Nick Winger of Apollo Beach reported putting nine fish in the boat one Sunday afternoon. Capt. Chet Jennings also scored big on cobia with one of his regular clients. Tom Rienhart of Michigan caught and released eight cobia, and put one keeper on ice that weighed more than 58 pounds. One of my clients, Don Woodsome came over from the east coast, and landed a 28 pound cobia we hooked on a large pilchard.
A day later I fished with Power Pole inventor John Oliverio and we had a good day fishing Capt. Mike Hakalas white spoons, catching snook, redfish and a 10 pound cobia.
There is still plenty of bait in the bay, it has moved south of the Little Manatee River. My last two runs took me to the Skyway. I caught bait up the bay on some of the range markers, but it was mixed with threadfins. Under the South Skyway fishing pier I threw the net a few times to fill both live wells with pilchards, with only a handful of threadfins in the mix. I suspect part of the reason I don’t get many threadfins is that my net sinks slow enough to allow them to get out from under it, whereas the pilchards are more concerned about gorging themselves on the chum than they are about running from the net.
The weekend bite has been very tough because of boat traffic, but that too should soon see some relief. Easter signals the traditional migration of snow birds back to the north, and the closure of snook season May 1 will discourage the catch ‘em, cook ‘em crowd. May and June are peak months for snook fishing, just the same, and I have no problem putting them all back.
The afternoon bite for much of April has been better than in the morning. But 2 tide days made for tough fishing this week.
Water temperature still needs to come up a bit to bring the snook out onto the flats, and that could happen any day. Looking forward to the first Snook Soiree Wednesday afternoon at 4:00pm.
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