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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
November 13, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore Tampa Bay Fishing Report
Last week was provided some of the hottest action on Tampa Bay’s Southshore this fall. Capt. Chet Jennings of Apollo Beach caught keeper-sized cobia on every trip that the wind allowed him to cruise the flats. He also reported hot fishing for snook, redfish, and jack crevalle in and around the Little Manatee River.
Capt. Billy Nobles of Ruskin had a nearly identical report. Last Friday he caught five cobia on one trip, with one keeper that looked to weigh about 35 pounds. He said that the bait was still thick all over the bay.
The bait situation is the highlight of the month so far, despite the quality of the fishing. I have been loading both live wells with big baits with a couple of throws of the net without having to chum. That’s living large.
I am continuing to see plenty of keeper-sized snook coming into the shop, as well as a good number of redfish. I fished in the Little Manatee late Sunday afternoon and got onto one of the best snook bites I have ever seen. We probably hooked 25 snook, the majority of which were just shy of the 26 inch minimum, but also landed a couple of keepers.
The following day I fished the mouth of the river and caught 15 or 20 big jack crevalle and a few short snook. Being able to fill the live wells with bait in 10 minutes sure makes life easy. Not only are the pilchards plentiful and widespread throughout the bay, most of them are perfect size. In eight years of guiding, this is the best run of bait I have seen on Tampa Bay.
Keli Emery of Carrolwood continues to build her reputation as one of Tampa Bay’s premiere female anglers. She’s caught 12 tripletail this fall, and the largest was12 pounds. She’s also been hot on the cobia. She put her boyfriend Randy onto a 36-inch fish last week, and then she took he and I to one of her favorite marks, where Randy hooked two more cobia. Unfortunately the cobia won both battles and broke off at the boat. The first fish tangled with another line, and the second broke off at the back of the boat. I had left my gaff at the shop, and we couldn’t get it in the boat as it shook off my lip gripper and broke the line. Both fish hit Berkley Power eels rigged on RipTide jig heads. Cobia sure love those eels.
The passing of the cold front last night, and the predicted drop in temperature tomorrow should concentrate the cobia in the hot water outflow at the power plant in Apollo Beach. Every cobia angler is going to figure that out, so expect a crowd if you go.
The tides will be better this week, with plenty of flow. Snook should be starting to stack up in the river mouth and in the residential canals, but the bite will probably be slow until they get acclimated to the drop in water temperature. What the cold front will do to the bait remains to be seen.
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