Tampa Bay Fishing Report

Capt. TJ Stewart
January 11, 2007
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Cooling down!

Well it’s about time the weather decided to cool down a little. The fish have to be going crazy with the weather. One week the water temp is 70-75 and the next it drops down to 55-60. That is a big change in a week. We have found a lot of fish but getting them to feed at different times has been a little more of a challenge.

One of the most caught fish this week was the great Sheepshead. We caught a number of them and some great size fish as well. As you can see in the picture this young man had his hands full with this big Sheepshead. These fish can be a lot of fun this time of the year. You find them in a lot of the areas where you would fish for Red fish in a different time of the year and around a lot of structure. On the light tackle when you catch a Sheepshead over 3 lbs you have a fight on your hands. These fish are very good eating as well. They can sometimes be a little hard to clean but that’s why you hire me.

The Red fish have been around as well. We have had a lot of nice fish 18-25 inches with a number of fish that were 15-18 inches just out of slot limit but we have had some big numbers this size. Sometimes when you catch big numbers you’re not so picky about the size they are still a lot of fun on the light tackle. We had the big one of the week about 30 inches but the camera wouldn’t work (sounds like a good fish story to me.)

With all the fishing we have been doing we have been catching a number of different fish like Drum which are in the family of Red fish, Jacks, Flounder, Ladyfish, Snapper and Grouper, most of them small. We are going to start doing some more off shore trips here soon so hopefully I will have some pictures of big Grouper soon.

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