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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
November 25, 2006
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Southshore fishing has been mediocre for much of November, with the exception of jack crevalles. Large schools of very big jacks are on the rampage from Apollo Beach to Cockroach Bay. For better than two weeks now, I have heard them pass by my dock on the mouth of the Little Manatee River almost every morning. They make a terrible commotion along the seawall as they tear through the unfortunate schools of baitfish. Several times I have been foolish enough to throw a lure into the melee from the dock, only to get quickly broken off on one of the innumerable pilings, but I can’t help it.
I spoke with Capt. Chet Jennings, and he said the action on short snook has been steady. He’s also been fooling with the jacks in the river. Capt. Mark Thomas told me the same thing. He and Jennings went to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge together to get bait last week, and said it was plentiful and good-sized. Thomas said that he also found some sardines on the range markers, but that they were smaller.
On a recent offshore trip with Paul Dickman and Billy Jordan, we had a rare calm day with summer like temperatures. We trolled through blue water that was 90 feet deep with a surface temperature near 77 degrees, and hooked up with several species. The first fish of the day was a Spanish mackerel that hit a deep diving plug. The next fish was a 17-pound kingfish that took drag from the 50-pound rig with an amazing run. Then we found several pods of bonito, and caught three or four of them.
Snook are making their way into the Little Manatee River. I have been seeing good numbers of small snook under the docks near the mouth of the river early in the morning. I am also finding redfish on the flats, but they have resisted everything I threw at them, including cut bait.
I looked for cobia twice last week on the flats, but one day it was too windy to see much, and the other was calmer, but overcast. I suspect the fish are there, but it will take better conditions to find them, but a calm day with bright sunshine is probably too much to ask for in late November.
I have also been looking for pompano the past few weeks, and have not seen many. I saw a single pompano caught in the mouth of the river last week, but this year’s run has been nothing like the influx of skippers we had last year.
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