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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
August 9, 2006
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Afternoon thunderstorms have made it difficult for anglers to be on the water for the good falling tides, so fishing on the Southshore has been correspondingly tough. There is not much happening in the heat of the middle of the day, and just when the tide starts to move the black clouds seem to roll in. Two anglers narrowly dodged a lightning bolt one Sunday afternoon as they ran across the mouth of the Little Manatee River in Ruskin.
They asked if it was alright to tie up to the dock as they sought to get away from the approaching storm.
“I just got hit by lightning,” one guy told me. He had a bloody spot on the palm of his hand, and told he that he had it on the throttle when lightning struck near the boat. He got a pretty good shock that left both arms numb for a few minutes. It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature. He also said the fishing was terrible that day.
I can sympathize with that. My last trip had similar results. After failing to find bait on several range markers in the middle of the bay, I went onto the flats at Piney Point. I struggled there too, but finally found barely enough bait to fish with. With five dozen good sized pilchards I fished some of the holes around Joe Island, Bishop Harbor, Piney Point and Cockroach Bay, all with the same result – nada. My clients were from Texas and wanted to catch some snook, but by the end of the day, anything that jerked the line would have been good. We had one snook blow up on a bait in what was a very long six-hour trip.
After the rains passed through one night last week I fished the mouth of the Little Manatee River at dark and caught one nice snook. The fish were popping occasionally under the docks at sunset on the falling tide, but it was nothing like a bite.
Capt. Billy Jordan had better luck trolling for grouper off Bahia Beach. He caught a 10-pound grouper, which we promptly cut into fingers and deep-fried on Sunday afternoon. The fish hit a deep diving plug.
We will have strong outgoing tides early in the afternoon this week. Catch and release action on snook is promising. In another three weeks, anglers can start keeping them on September 01. The new slot limit of 27 to 34 inches will be in effect.
I have been seeing big pods of threadfin herring moving into the Little Manatee River in the past few weeks. Not sure what they are doing here; it is very unusual. I always thought threadfins did not have much tolerance for freshwater.
Capt. Mark Thomas reported seeing hundreds of tarpon in the Hillsborough River, but said only one fish hit any of the live chummers he threw out.
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