Tampa Bay windy trout bite
Capt. Steven Markovich
January 30, 2010
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Saturday's weather was miserable at best. No sun, lots of wind and rain on the way said it all. We had two super guys onboard today, Cal and his son Lucas from Oregon. A friendly wager for first fish, most fish and the largest fish between father and son got off to a fast start. Lucas first cast had a fish on within 5 seconds but lost it boat side. It took more than 5 seconds for the next bite. Lucas caught several more only to have them get off again at the boat. Cal did not let that occur and won the first phase!
We were tossing live shrimp on 1/0 hooks with 1/16oz weight in 5-10' of 62 degree waters. With the tide a very low -.08 most flats were bare or had very little water pushing redfish and trout to deeper pockets. Cal and Lucas dealt with a rocking boat and stiff winds with quality cast after cast. Cal's enthusiasm in poor conditions was infectious, first mate Chris and I really wanted to get these guys on the fish.
The first couple of stops were slow resulting in a few small trout. We moved to a deep canal and quickly found feisty trout to 16" and ladyfish. We stitched from bait to DOA CAL jerk baits and the action picked up quickly. The weather was getting worse so I picked up and ran to a spot near the marina that had been red hot lately. The wind was so brisk now that the power pole would not hold us in place and we quickly were moved out of the strike zone. The rain started so we wisely called it a day. Overall we took approximately 15 trout and 6 ladyfish during our 5 hours on the water.
Captain Steven
Tampa Bay Fishing Forecast:
The trout bite will only get better as move deeper into winter. Redfish sight fishing on sunny calm days will improve as conditions recover from the recent cold spell.
Target Species:
Trout Layfish
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