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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
December 15, 2003
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Shell Point Bait and Tackle Fishing Report for December 15, 2003
Shell Point Bait and Tackle Fishing Report for December 15, 2003
Anglers fishing out of Shell Point Bait and Tackle reported great catches on Saturday. Most of the action centered on catch and release trout, with a bunch of short redfish thrown in for good measure. That’s about all the good news there is. The rest of the week prior to Saturday was typically poor cold weather fishing. Capt. Chet Jennings reported a hot day of duck shooting on one of his cast and blast charters on Saturday, then he went out in the afternoon and said he caught trout on practically every cast.
I haven’t heard anything about cobia in more than a week, and if you’re expecting something good to happen there soon, I expect you are apt to be disappointed. My guess is that most of the cobia migrated out of the bay during the unseasonably warm November. And to make matters worse, it looks like most of the bait left ahead of them.
This is the time of year to go with what you’ve got, and for me that means targeting sheepshead, shark, and black drum. I hear a lot about winter snook fishing, but it has little appeal for me. They fight a lot more like walleye when the water temperature is less than 70 degrees, and to me that’s about like reeling in a wet sponge.
Even the jacks seem to have shut down with the last cold front, but if we get a warm spell between now and New Year’s Day, they are often a dependable bet. The winter run of jack crevalle on the Southshore of Tampa Bay is centered on the mouths of the Alafia and Little Manatee Rivers, and around the power plant, and in the canals in Apollo Beach. 15-pound fish are fairly common, and occasionally there are some bigger than that. Now there’s a fish that can turn your wrists to jelly.
The hot water outflow at the power plant is hard to figure. I was there one day two weeks ago and I could see 50 sharks swimming around the adjacent flat. A week later under better conditions, I saw none.
So I guess the good news is that trout season reopens in a couple of weeks, and that there seems to be plenty of them around. I will be co hosting with Capt. Mel next Saturday on 970 WFLA from 6am to 9am, so please call in if you have any questions.
Capt. Fred Everson
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