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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
January 29, 2007
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Winter finally caught up with us on Southshore Tampa Bay, and the fishing suffered. Ahead of the cold front last Monday, Tom White of Skipper’s Smokehouse and I went out to fish the flats south of Apollo Beach. With a late morning low tide, a brisk south wind, and overcast skies, I didn’t think much of our chances. The wind was blowing parallel to the shoreline, so I got the boat as shallow as she would go, and drifted along the edge of the grass. Tom was throwing live shrimp rigged on a jig, while I tossed a 5 inch RipTide white plastic mullet. The mullet caught the first redfish, a 22-inch keeper, so Tom switched and caught two more – both over the 27-inch cap—and lost another fish on the plastic bait.
Next day I had a date with Capt. Bill Miller and his cameraman and hoped to repeat the previous day’s performance. We saw plenty of redfish, but they were scattered and spooky. Wind was out of the northwest, so we started just south of Apollo Beach in 18 inches of water. Skies were mostly overcast, and we were on most fish before we could sneak a cast. We did find one pod of fish before they saw us and I hooked up on a live shrimp and was surprised to see a snook leaping on the end of my line. Catching a snook on the flats in late January is a rare event here.
Capt. Larry Malinoski said the weather change also had a negative affect on offshore fishing. He did some trolling and bottom fishing inside the Skyway, and offshore to 8 miles, and said the action was somewhere between slow and stop.
For more information, call Capt. Fred Everson at 813 830 8890, or visit his website at tampabayfishingguide.com.
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