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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
January 12, 2005
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Shell Point Bait and Tackle Fishing Report for January 12, 2005
The nice weather we’ve had since the first of the year makes a fine point: Good weather doesn’t necessarily make for great fishing. And it’s not that the fish aren’t here – there are good numbers of big redfish on most of the Southshore flats, plenty of trout and even a few snook. But getting them to eat a live shrimp or a lure has been challenging.
I’m seeing redfish in all the usual winter haunts, but even with clear blue skies and light winds, the bite has been tough. I tried wading a local flat on an extreme low tide on Monday and had no trouble finding redfish. They were tailing everywhere, but I couldn’t get them to strike a fly, and my companion threw every piece of plastic in his box at them with the same result. When the tide started to rise, we got back on the boat and I poled us up on numerous pods of redfish, but water clarity was not as good as it has been, and the wind was blowing out of the west. All day long the fish were upwind, and we just couldn’t see them soon enough to make a long cast far enough away from the boat to hook up. We had several fish chase lures, but none that actually struck. It was such a nice day, I guess the reds decided to take it off.
Trout fishing has been better, but not much. We’re seeing a few small fish brought in at the bait shop, but the big trout that were here before the season opened haven’t been hitting like they were two weeks ago.
Flounder numbers seem to up this year. Capt. Mark Thomas had a few mixed in with his bag of trout yesterday. He used his airboat to get him into some of the local holes on low tide and said he saw plenty of redfish, snook, and big trout but couldn’t get much of a bite going. He did have a few keeper trout and flounder that he caught on live shrimp. He also caught some short redfish.
Capt. Chet Jennings said he’s starting to find some bait at the mouth of the bay. He said he had to throw a quarter inch net because much of it was small. That’s unusual for this time of year, when big, mature baits are generally the norm.
The shrimp supply has been very good the past few days. Most of the shrimp have been somewhere between medium and large with good numbers of selects, and even a few jumbos.
The bite should pick up ahead of the approaching cold front that’s due to hit us just in time for the weekend. Oh well, can’t really complain about the weather so far this year.
Interest in the Sheepshead tournament scheduled for Shell Point Bait and Tackle this Sunday has been light so far. If we don’t have enough entries by Saturday afternoon, it may be cancelled. Call the shop on Saturday prior to 6 pm to check status (813) 641 3662.
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