Fishing Reports by Capt. Fred Everson

Tampa Bay - South Shore - My week began with a beautiful day fishing the flats south of Apollo Beach. Redfish were supposed to be the target, but as I started poling across the north end of the flat, we saw hundreds of bonnethead sharks. These are game little fish, but they more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - The weather since Thanksgiving has been much better than pleasant. I have been on the water every day for 6 days running, and the fishing has been good. I was invited to do some scouting in Little Cockroach and Cockroach Bay on Monday with Capt. C more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Fall fishing thus far has not been up to Tampa Bay standards of years past. The bright spots have been in deeper water -- Spanish mackerel, grouper, and snapper have all been consistently active and plentiful. Inshore fishing has been another story. more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Southshore fishing has been mediocre for much of November, with the exception of jack crevalles. Large schools of very big jacks are on the rampage from Apollo Beach to Cockroach Bay. For better than two weeks now, I have heard them pass by my dock more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - High winds kept all but the most determined anglers on the docks early in the week, though I did see a few guys hugging the mangrove shoreline at the mouth of the Little Manatee River. It was supposed to calm down on Thursday and it did, but not much more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - The first cold front of the season passed across the bay earlier this week and dropped the water temperature down to 73 degrees. Tides were low in the extreme on Tuesday, with the oyster bar at the mouth of the Little Manatee River totally exposed, m more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Water clarity continues to improve as the temperature drops, and the snook bite finally picked up. Keli Emery said she caught seven snook in the Little Manatee River on live sardines. She caught bait on the flats near Simmons Park, and said that it more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Water clarity continues to be cloudy and tannin stained and the inshore fishing is suffering because of it. Capt. Danny Guarino said he struggled to find a few redfish and some short snook on his recent trips, but that the bait was easy. Pilchards ar more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Afternoon thunderstorms have made it difficult for anglers to be on the water for the good falling tides, so fishing on the Southshore has been correspondingly tough. There is not much happening in the heat of the middle of the day, and just when th more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Capt. Nick Winger reports hot fishing for mangrove snapper over the hard bottom around Port Manatee. Winger said he went through 10 dozen shrimp in little more than an hour, and boated nearly 50 snapper. The trick to catching mangroves is to use ju more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay