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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
July 15, 2005
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Red Tide is presenting some challenges on the lower end of Tampa Bay. Capt. Mark Thomas said that he was able to find bait easily on the range markers in the middle of the bay yesterday, but that most of it died soon as it hit the surface. It didn’t matter much because the fish would not eat anything anyway. Thomas said he was on snook and redfish all day, but the fish wouldn’t bite. Capt. Chet Jennings had a similar report. Both captains rated yesterday’s fishing as worse than poor.
Capt. Larry Malinoski of Ruskin went offshore and did a little better. He caught one nice grouper and a couple of grunts, but said the action was pretty slow.
We’ve been out of shrimp at the bait shop since yesterday afternoon and the prospects for getting some in soon appear to be grim. Our shrimpers either didn’t go out last night or they didn’t catch anything. Either way the end result is we are currently out of shrimp. Hopefully we will have some tomorrow morning. This is not unusual during the summer doldrums as shrimp move offshore We’ve had some greenbacks the past few days, but it has been nearly impossible to keep them alive overnight.
Until the red tide finally abates, I would recommend fishing the upper reaches of the bay where the bait and the fish are less affected. This is a good time of year to target cobia on the range markers and channel buoys, and also tripletail. Mangrove snapper are another summertime favorite. Capt. Nick Winger took me to one of his hot spots a couple of weeks ago and we could have easily caught two limits had we not run out of bait. When we ran out of shrimp we switched to small pinfish. Snapper fishing is not about a big fight – most of the fish we caught were between 12 and 15 inches – it’s about dinner. Snapper are about as tasty a fish as we catch anywere. Number one circle hooks on ten pound monofilament with no leader is all that’s necessary. But be careful handling hooked fish. They don’t call em snapper for nothing, and given the opportunity, they will bite you, and yes, it hurts.
News from the bait shop is that we had to go up to $8.00 on the ramp fee. Shell Point Marina was recently sold and we had a substantial rent increase. At least we’re still here – for the time being.
It’s not hard to imagine what’s going to happen with all the construction going on and the continuing privitization of marina’s and boat ramps. Public access to the bay has taken a big hit in the last 10 years. Here in South Hillsborough and Manatee Counties we’ve lost ramps in Apollo Beach, Ruskin, and at Port Manatee, with none of them being replaced. Simmons Park has a nice ramp, but the hours it’s open are hardly angler friendly – it opens late and closes early. Williams Park is too long a run for most to get at the lower reaches of the bay, and the long promised ramp at Port Manatee doesn’t appear to be on the top of anyone’s agenda.
My latest book, “Fish the Flats” is finally here. Signed copies are available at Shell Point Bait and Tackle, or it can be ordered at my website at Tampabayfishingguide.com.
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