Tampa Bay Grouper Fishing

Capt. Chris Haught
July 18, 2012
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Grouper has been the good word lately with a lot of keeper fish being caught in and outside Tampa Bay. We're using a combination of artificial jigs, live bait, and cut bait. The palm sized pinfish have been getting hammered on the shallow structures but don't discount a chunk of ladyfish or mackerel when the bite is slow.

I'm using a combination of conventional tackle with a knocker rig for the deeper stuff and spinning tackle for the smaller baits and artificials. Fish have been in as shallow as 6-7 feet near rocky shorelines and residential docks all the way to the ships channel in 30-40 feet for me. The offshore crowd has been doing well in the deeper cooler waters of the gulf. As of this report, the season looks to stay open until Oct. 31st of this year so make the best of this short season! While we're having fun fishing the grouper we've enjoyed catches of mangrove snapper, red grouper, cobia, spanish mackerel, sharks, and more! It's hot outside but the fishing is just as hot still so bring on the goofy straw hats and lets go fishing!!

Target Species:

grouper, snapper, spanish mackerel, cobia, shark

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