Tampa Bay Area
Fishing Report
Captain Charles Walker
6/29/03
Well, at least we had three mostly dry days before the deluge started again. Everything in my neighborhood is so wet that water seeps up through the asphalt in the street constantly. If we get a good dry couple of weeks, maybe that will stop along with the tons and tons of fresh water pouring into the Bay and the Gulf. This has the tendency to move fish around into areas that are more to their liking. The further offshore you go, the better the fishing when it rains this much. The problem is, the farther out you go the more likely you are to be caught in a sudden thunderstorm, so you need to carefully watch the weather while fishing and leave well in advance of a building storm. Those things can move faster than most boats and lightening can strike 25 miles and more away from a storm front.
On to the bait house reports:
Trappman’s Bait and Tackle on Gandy Blvd in St. Petersburg - 727-579-1414- We finally saw some pompano last week from around the bridge. Mangrove snapper are biting really well with anglers catching limits almost every day. Spanish mackerel showed up on Saturday around the bridge. Snook and big reds are biting well on the Tampa side of the Bay. A few small flounder are coming in from the Tampa end of the bridge. We have lots of select shrimp ready for anglers. Blue crabs are coming back into the Bay because of all the rain. This is great for the shrimp, crabs and the scallops.
Marina Outpost on Bay Pines Blvd. – 727-384-3474 – With all the rain, most anglers have been staying home this week, but there have been some reds caught in the area.
Don’s Dock on Madeira Beach - 727-391-3223- The tarpon fishing has been very good this week, with eight of them weighed in at our dock. The few that have been offshore this week have caught fish, but many were fishing 60 miles offshore. The inshore guys have been doing well on reds, trout and snook around the Pass.
Pass-a-Grille Bait and Tackle on St. Pete Beach - 727-360-6606- A lot of mangos have come in this week from our gas dock. There have also been a few keeper grouper and lots of flounder. Some nice red snapper and big grouper have come in from our offshore boat fishing long distance trips. Our boats fishing closer in have brought in some keeper grouper almost every trip along with lots of grunts and other bottom fish.
The Skyway Fishing Pier - 727-865-0668 and the south Skyway - 941-729-0117- Mangrove snapper and mackerel are biting steadily. A few keeper grouper have come in every day. Pompano are biting early in the morning and lots of jacks are keeping everyone busy the rest of the day. The occasional cobia really livens things up on a regular basis.
Folks, feel free to call any of the places in my report for more information, and be sure to tell them that you read about the fishing in their area in Capt. Charlie’s fishing report on the Internet.
If you want more information about fishing in the Tampa Bay area or wish to book a charter, simply e-mail me at [email protected] or if you wish to arrange a charter faster, call me at 727-546-7257. Be sure and visit my web site for lots more Tampa Bay Area fishing info at: http://www.floridasaltwater.com .
Good fishing and tight lines,
Capt. Charlie
http://www.flfish.com
