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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
August 19, 2004
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Sorry there has not been an update for some weeks. I was out of town trying to deliver a sailboat from Newport Rhode Island to Bermuda. A couple of storms named Alex and Charlie kept us from reaching our destination, but it was an interesting ride to be sure, and we even caught some fish. Four blackfin tuna, a dolphin, a bonito, and half a dozen bluefish all made it into the frying pan.
Locally, redfish have begun to school up on the flats as they always do this time of year. Capt. Billy Nobles said he had a hot day of fishing last Sunday, catching plenty of redfish and snook. The post hurricane weather has been oppressively hot and humid, and not too many anglers have been venturing out.
There is still white bait under the Skyway fishing pier, but it is varying greatly in size. I generally go to a quarter inch net this time of year, but some captains have reported gilling baits in the small nets. If the baits look too small for the quarter inch mesh, I won’t throw. It’s just too much work getting them all out.
The fall run of Spanish mackerel is in. These fish are smaller than what we had in spring and summer, but there are plenty of them, and they are mostly over the slot.
Snook season reopens on September 01, and that should shake a few more anglers out of the woodwork. The snook population seems to be in good shape with lots of big fish in the potholes right now. Spawning should be about wrapped up with the next full moon.
Still getting reports of cobia and tripletail on the marks, and both of those fisheries tend to pick up in the fall as the water cools. I have been catching tripletail by pitching a RipTide Realistic shrimp under the cans on one of their quarter ounce jig heads. I make a few blind casts at each can and range marker, trying to cover the water column from top to bottom. Unlike cobia, tripletail are less apt to show themselves, preferring instead to lurk deeper in the shadows.
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