Tampa Bay Summer Time Fishing How It Should Be!
Capt. TJ Stewart
July 16, 2009
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Wow! A lot of changes over the past week the water temp dropped about 5-10 degrees and this has changed some things around. It's summertime and instead of hurricanes we have cold fronts. These fronts have not changed the temp much but the winds have stayed up, and this is what has made the water temp drop so much. We have had a west wind for too long and when it gets billowing pretty hard this makes for a lot of changes. Its summertime however so there is a lot of fish being caught.
The redfishing in the bay is getting more on track for the time of the year. We are starting to find more and bigger schools of fish showing up every day. The number of fish and size has greatly increased over the past week. One of the biggest reasons for this is because of all the rain that we have had over the last few weeks. This has made a lot of the fish that were way up in the river push out and also made the water really dirty. The fish can be harder to see but this can be a good thing you can't see them and they can't see you. It's been a mixed bag as far as size goes most of the fish are between 20-28 inches. There are a few schools of some bigger fish around that you have to work a little harder to catch. If it's a bull redfish that you want put some extra time in and we can catch one of these great fish!
Trout fishing changes every day. One day every bait you put in the water its fish on in seconds, then the next day you might have to do a little moving around. You will catch 6 fish or better with 1 or 2 keepers then you will have to move on and do the same at the next spot. The great thing is even if you have to do a lot of moving around before the day is up you will catch some great fish! Last week almost every day we had some fish pushing 20 inches or better. This is what you call a gator trout.
As far as the tarpon go well we just haven't done much of this type of fishing. Either because it has been too rough or the people haven't wanted to fish for these fish.
The snook keep getting bigger and bigger! The numbers of fish that we have been catching has still been great. I can say this past week we did manage to better the fish of this season. We caught a 37 inch snook as you can see from the picture this was a great fish. Almost every trip that we have fished we put some fish in the boat that were 30 plus inches. The number of fish we have been catching has been really great. Some days you have to throw the bait 2or3 times before you will get a fish on but other days it's as quick as you can get the bait in the water.
By next week I will be able to give you a little better update on the tarpon/shark fishing.
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