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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
September 3, 2003
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report for Sept. 03 2003
There was a pretty good redfish bite going on up and down the Southshore flats from Apollo Beach to the Skyway Bridge up until last Friday, but it went silent for the weekend. The shutdown was probably due to a combination of weather and boat traffic, but for whatever reason the fishing suddenly got cold.
Danny Guarino and I waded for snook and redfish on a pretty good outgoing tide yesterday morning. The fishing was great, but the catching wasn’t so hot. All we managed was a couple of pops and one short snook that Danny caught on Capt. Mike’s white spoon. I missed a fish on a RipTide jerk bait, and then missed another on a gold 7MR.. We saw a few fish, but nothing that would excite panic.
The water temperature dropped a few degrees due to the consistent evening rains, which also made the bay look like a strong cup of tea. Neither condition is apt to trigger a feeding frenzy by snook, redfish or trout and that’s pretty much the way it has been.
The good news is that the bait supply has gotten much bettter. Shrimp are returning from their deep water spawning trek, and we are starting to get a few dozen larges in each batch, and even a few selects. For a while in mid August, I forgot what a medium sized shrimp looked like.
Pilchards have also returned to the upper reaches of the bay, and most of them are beyond gillie size. However, if you have a quarter inch mesh cast net, it’s still the best choice for cast netting small pilchards in shallow water this time of year. I have seen plenty of bait all over the Southshore flats from Apollo Beach to Joe Island, but the bigger baits will still be found on the deep water structure in and around the shipping channels. I did not see lots of threadfins, probably due to all the rain we’ve had.
The best tides will be in the afternoon later this week. I like those low tides that coincide with sunset this time of year. Redfish and snook are both active at sunset, but the snook seem to prefer the falling tide, while redfish like the rise. The nice thing about low light situations is that artificials seem to catch as many fish as live bait, and you can cover a lot more water with lures.
The most productive lures on the recent snook Soiree’s have been DOA Cal jigs, Capt. Mike’s White Spoons, and 6 inch RipTide Jerk baits in pearl glow. But as the water cools, and the weeds thin out, I will start throwing Mirrolure’s 7MR’s and Top Dog Jrs. Red and white and chartreuse and gold seem to be what the fish on the Southshore flats like best. The bigger snook seem to come on the plugs and the white jerk bait for whatever reason, while the redfish seem to like smaller lures and darker colors such as root beer, motor oil and new penny. When they have their tails in the air, throw plastic shrimp and plastic crabs and bring ‘em back with a painfully slow retrieve. When redfish have their noses in the sand you want to creep the lure along the bottom.
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