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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
October 1, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Soutshore Fishing Report for Tampa Bay October 01
The action on oversized redfish that began in late August has continued on into October. Capt. Chet Jennings of Apollo Beach reports that his clients are scoring consistently on big reds, and a few slot size snook. Capt. Billy Nobles of Ruskin also reports hitting the redfish on both sides of the bay.
I’m beginning to wonder when the heat is going to break. Local snook fishing has tapered off after a frantic start to the season in early September, but there are still some nice fish being caught. Randy Thompson of Ruskin dropped off a photograph of a 42-inch snook that he caught and released while prefishing the CCA tournament last weekend.
Most of the anglers I talked to on Saturday reported tough fishing. The majority of the fish caught were reds, with a sprinkling of trout. I only saw one snook come to the dock, and Capt. Chet Jennings and clients had that one on Sunday. Another angler wanted to weigh a 37-inch snook on Sunday. He was not happy to learn that he was in violation of the law, and I doubt that fish got released.
Keli Emery of Carrolwood reported finding a school of big redfish out in the middle of the bay on Sunday, just inside the Skyway. She was fishing with her mom, Carla Rockwell, who said it took more than 30 minutes to land one of the fish. She guessed the weight at 30 pounds. Those fish will probably still be around until the first cold front, but a good hit from a tropical storm will also probably move them out.
The bait situation is pretty good. The bay is full of small pilchards, but most are big enough to fish with. The pilchards under the bridge at the mouth of the bay are still prime, but they are mixed with threadfins again. The threadfins were gone for a while, but they’re back. The best way to sort them out before throwing the net is to chum them with Cracker Dan’s dry chum mix. All you do is add water to get it to the consistency of Playdough. I like to put it out in golf ball sized clumps so that it covers the water column from top to bottom. Threadfins will ignore it, but pilchards will swirl through it and ball up in the slick. When that happens it’s one toss of an eight or ten foot net and you’ve got enough bait for the day.
Shrimp at the bait shop have been only average, with few large and no selects. But at least the boats have been able to get out and the supply has been reliable. Water temperature is still in the mid 80’s. Look for a hot snook bite a few days after a temperature drop. A two-degree drop in water temperature will shut the bite down for a couple of days, but after it stabilizes, look out!
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