Spring has Sprung
Capt. Fred Everson
March 31, 2008
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
The water temperature dropped a couple of degrees this week and that shut the morning snook bite down, but things picked up in the afternoon. Capt. Danny Guarino told me he fished Cockroach Bay early in the week and had trouble finding bait, and that the snook fishing was slow.
Capt. Chet Jennings had a slow start in the Little Manatee River on Wednesday but said the bite picked up in the afternoon. Capt. Tom Rinehart said he fished the Bahia Beach Reef that same day with live shrimp looking for sheepshead. He didn't catch any of those but he did put six big Spanish mackerel in the box. He said the fish were right on the bottom in 20 feet of water.
Capt. Rick Bollinger said the grouper bite was good early in the week. He trolled the west side of the ship channel between Port Manatee and the Sunshine Skyway and caught five grouper, which included three keepers, with one big fish.
Capt. Billy Jordan, Roger Mills, Dan Bellis and myself went out early in the week looking for cobia on the channel buoys, but didn't see any. We had some better luck trolling for grouper around Port Manatee, but everything we caught was short.
The weather turned nice on Friday with light winds out of the east, lots of sunshine, and clear water. This is the time of year I like to look for cobia on the flats and there are a few fish around. I had three or four shots at fish with a plastic eel, but my casting wasn't good enough on the first fish. I finally hooked a cobia off the back of an eagle ray on a RipTide jig head rigged with the eel, but it looked to be short. The hook pulled anyway after he burned some line off the reel, probably because I had the drag set too light.
You can visit the captain's website at Tampabayfishingguide.com for charter info, or phone him at 813 830 8890.
Tampa Bay Fishing Forecast:
Great forecast for the coming week. I'm going to look for cobia on the flats, and maybe a tarpon. I've seen a couple silver kings in the Little Manatee River already.
Target Species:
Cobia Tarpon Redfish Snook Spanish Mackerel
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