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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
October 10, 2006
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Water clarity continues to be cloudy and tannin stained and the inshore fishing is suffering because of it. Capt. Danny Guarino said he struggled to find a few redfish and some short snook on his recent trips, but that the bait was easy. Pilchards are still everywhere on the Southshore flats, but sizes are mixed. If you are throwing anything other than a quarter inch mesh net, you are going to gill a lot of baits. Mixed in with the pilchards are small threadfin herring and Spanish sardines. I have resorted to dumping the entire contents of the net in the well, filling it to capacity, and letting the threadfins sort themselves out.
I had a wade fishing charter last week with Del Calhoun of Chicago. We had perfect tides, and overcast sky, and calm winds. We started out at Big Pass, but the water clarity was poor, and the tide was higher than I like it. I put the boat on plane and headed north to the flats south of Apollo Beach. I had seen some redfish and snook there earlier in the week, but we didn’t find any that day. We finally found one snook on the grass flats in front of Sand Key, but it was a good one, just shy of the 27-inch limit. The fish hit a new penny colored jerk bait on a weighted keeper hook, and tore it up. Fun to see such a healthy, robust fish take drag and cavort across the surface, and then swim off after the battle.
The next day I fished with my friend Keli Emery of Plant City, and it was too windy to venture very far from the river. I poled the flats in front of Sand Key on a falling tide, but the water clarity was dismal, compound by wind and waves. We drifted across the grass several times without a hit, then took it to the mouth of the river. Same result.
Capt. Danny Guarino later told me he fished two sets of clients that same day and caught a couple of trout. That’s pretty tough fishing for this time of year.
Water clarity should start to improve as the temperature declines, but we could sure use a dry spell. September was a wet month, and we have had all the rain we need for a while.
Spanish mackerel are still scattered all across Tampa Bay, and several schools of big jacks are crashing the surface around the range markers in front of Cockroach Bay. I looked around the range markers for cobia one day last week, but the water was too murky to see much.
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