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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
October 11, 2003
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Shell Point Bait and Tackle Fishing Report for October 10, 2003
The trout bite continues to be hot on Southshore Tampa Bay. Danny Guarino, Roger Mills, Capt. Billy Jordan and myself did a wade fishing soiree on Monday and we caught plenty of trout, an oversized redfish and some short snook. Danny caught the most fish while chucking a Captain Mike’s White Spoon –one of the hottest artificial baits on our Soirees this year. I fished a Mirrolure 7MR and caught a pair of 18 inch trout along with a half dozen or so short fish. We had a low rising tide at sunset with no wind, which made for a perfect evening of wade fishing.
The bait situation on the Southshore of the bay from Apollo Beach south is about as good as it ever gets. The white baits aren’t real big – but plenty big enough to fish with. I was out yesterday with my fishing buddy Keli Emery and we found pilchards on just about every little stretch of sandy shoreline. I am still throwing a quarter inch mess cast net, but I suspect that most baits are now too big to gill the larger 3/8 inch mesh. But even with the eight foot net we filled both wells with three or four tosses.
We tried a snook hole on a pretty good outgoing tide, but only had one boil on a bait. We gave up on the snook after 30 minutes, and tried a redfish spot, and that was more productive. We caught a couple of 22 inch reds, keeping one for dinner and releasing the other, then Keli hooked a jack which put up a struggle all out of proportion to its size. Our real mission was to catch some bait for the shop, so we headed back to the ramp to unload the bait.
I have had some reports of pompano skipping on the Southshore flats, but I personally haven’t seen any yet. I don’t doubt that they are there, however. This is the time of year I always see them on the flats north of Simmons Park. The best way to prospect for pompano is to cruise the sandy edge of a flat pushing a wake. The displacement of water by the boat hull causes the fish to skip out of the water. When that happens you throw out the anchor or put down the Power Pole, and toss out some baits. Sand fleas and fiddler crabs are preferred pompano baits, while small jigs with small hooks and short skirts – appropriately called pompan jigs – and Doc’s Goofy Jigs, are the preferred artificials.
Snook have suddenly reappeared on the Southshore flats, but nobody is tearing them up just yet. That should change shortly. Water temperature is near perfect in the range of high 70’s low 80’s.
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