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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
April 26, 2006
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Spanish mackerel have been pounding bait pods on Southshore Tampa Bay this week. In 12 years of fishing here, I’ve never seen anything like it. I found huge schools of macks starting just inside the Skyway continuing north to the range markers off Cockroach Bay. We began chasing the birds due east of Joe Island, about halfway out to the shipping channel. The mackerel were tearing it up on the surface, but they were feasting on glass minnows. We caught a few fish on scaled sardines, but the fish wanted smaller baits.
I netted two livewells full of perfect sized pilchards for snook under the South Skyway Fishing Pier, but they were deep and did not come up for the chum where I could see them. Had another angler not told me the big baits were on the bottom, I wouldn’t have even thrown the net, but all it took was three throws. Unfortunately, there were lots of small threadfins on the surface, and on the last toss I clipped the edge of a pod, and gilled quite a few.
Since the mackerel were reluctant to take the big sardines, I ventured behind Joe Island to look for redfish, but drew a blank there. There was a light seabreeze, so it was dead calm and uncomfortably hot behind the island, so we decided to try the mackerel again. On the way out I spotted a pod of snook in a pothole on the north shore. We stopped and caught a few, but they were all shorts. Only one week remaining before snook season closes on May 01.
Heading north from Joe Island just east of the ship channel there were pods of mackerel crashing the surface every couple of hundred yards. I finally gave up on live baits and switched to a 3/8 ounce white spoon, and suddenly the bite was on. I talked to Capt. Billy Jordan later, and he confirmed that spoons were the ticket – he and Roger Mills put two limits in the cooler in an hour and a half on spoons, all between the Bahia Beach Reef and Cockroach Bay entrance channel.
Visit Capt. Fred online at www.tampabayfishingguide.com or call Shell Point
Bait and Tackle at (813) 641- 3662
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