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Tampa Bay - South Shore
Capt. Fred Everson
February 12, 2007
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Spring weather returned early this week, and despite some early morning fog on
Friday, conditions were good. I fished with Gabe Krakowski on Thursday and Friday and despite a chilly ride to and from the flats south of Apollo Beach, we were warm enough in the afternoon sun to fish in shirtsleeves.
Our day started out fairly slow as we looked for redfish on the north end of the flat. We did see numerous bonnethead sharks, and big ones, but we didn’t have any bait. Bonnetheads may follow an artificial, but rarely will they bump it, no less actually strike. The number of sharks was impressive – too many to count.
We finally found some redfish on the south end of the flat, just north of the boat ramp, in very skinny water. We caught two keepers on white plastic mullet rigged on 3/8-ounce jig heads. This combination has been effective for weeks now in both cloudy and clear conditions. I’m not sure color makes much difference to fish. If you can put the lure in their face without scaring them, I believe they will usually eat it.
The next day we went back to the same flat with some live shrimp and a Tupperware full of ground fish for chum. We drew many sharks into the slick, but never had a bite, though several sharks hit the floats. After an hour or two of this, we gave up and resumed the hunt for redfish. We soon found some fish on the edge of the grass line and hooked and landed two – both were oversized.
Capt. Larry Malinoski said he did not have to travel far from the mouth of the Little Manatee River this week to find big grouper. He caught and released several fish in 12 feet of water between Bahia Beach and the ship’s channel.
For more information, call Capt. Fred Everson at 813 830 8890, or visit his website at tampabayfishingguide.com.
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