Tampa Bay Fishing Report

Capt. TJ Stewart
April 26, 2006
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Want to see it like that!

Well let see where do we start, it was a nice week over all this past week. We did manage to get out and do something a little different. Well the past month it has been pretty wind over all but we have managed to get a lot of good fishing in.

Well I will start with the Red fish. There have been plenty of fish around but catching them has been another thing. Like I have been telling you over the past two months there has been plenty of Red fish around but they have not been biting very good. Well I think that is starting to change there is more bait showing up in the bay and the water temp is getting warmer. This past week we have had some of the best Red fishing that we have had so far this year. We caught a lot of nice fish this past week some fish were over size some fish just right. But over all hopefully this is a good sign for what is to come. We are going to start do some more fishing for the Red fish because the Snook are going to go out of season here soon. This do not mean that you can not catch the fish you just can’t keep any. I can give you one good tip for fishing these Red fish this year one of the biggest thing is no noise. Try to be as quiet as you can if you know were there are some Red fish pole in from a long ways tell our friend to step around the boat quietly.

Then we have the Trout fishing well I can say this has been tough fishing as well. We have been catching a few fish each trip that we have done some fishing for them but over all it been a little tough. We did manage to do some fishing a little further up in the bay and we caught some really nice fish. We caught a few fish that were really a good 20 plus inches. Most of these fish that we have been catching have been on the edge of the flats were the bait ranges out.

For Snook the back water fishing has been the best bite by far. We have managed to catch a bunch of Snook just about each trip. One of the biggest things with these fish has been the bait you have to have plenty to chum these fish in to the bite so you can catch a big number of fish. Over all we have had a lot of nice fish so far this year a number of fish pushing the top of the slot limit which is 34 inches. Most of these fish we are catching have been in some of the shallow bays surrounding the rivers.

A little different fish is the King fish. This fishing has been very good you just have to have the weather for it, this past week it has been very good. We have had some days where the King fish where almost jumping into the boat. On the light tackle these fish are a lot of fun, you know you got a good fish hooked up when they hit. We a have had a lot of nice fish this past week but the biggest was a fish that was pushing 30 lbs which is a great catch. Most of these fish we have been catching within 10 miles offshore. One thing to look for is the bait pods or fish crashing.

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