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Bahia Beach Reef A Hot Spot

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

Updated: 02/11/2008 09:22 pm

Fishermen enjoyed nicer weather during the first week of the month as the water temperature rose to 64 degrees.

On a day with light winds and clear skies, Capt. Tom Rinehart and I decided to check out the power plant in Apollo Beach.

We had a homemade chum block of Spanish mackerel I had ground up last fall. I did not have a mesh sack big enough for the block, so I simply put it in the live well and turned the pump on.

The warm water at the power plant melted the block, and the well pump put out a nice slick that attracted a lot of little ballyhoo and three blacktip sharks.

But the weather proved to be a little too nice. Clear blue skies and no wind indicated we were under the influence of high pressure, and that usually makes for slow fishing.

Our trip was further complicated as I opened the cooler to look for the frozen bait. Turns out I left it on the counter at home, so we had to go into the canals in Apollo Beach to catch some ladyfish. That did not prove to be a problem as we promptly caught a couple of ladyfish, and two of the smallest jack crevalles I have ever seen.

Even the fresh bait didn't help, however, we didn't even catch a catfish. It's a rare day when you don't hook a catfish with cutbait in Apollo Beach.

On the way back to the dock we saw Capt. Chet Jennings coming into the Bahia Beach basin.

We stopped to chat, and he told us his clients caught some big sheepshead on the Bahia Beach reef, so we promptly decided to try that the next day.

I picked up four dozen medium shrimp and drove to Apollo Beach. We took Rinehart's boat because it has a bottom machine. There used to be a yellow buoy that marked the reef, but it was lost in a storm a couple of years ago.

Weather was a carbon copy of the previous day - light winds, clear skies and air temperature about 80 degrees - pretty nice for February.

The bite started out slow. We spent the first hour idling and drifting and caught only a couple of short mangrove snapper. Then we finally found some fishy looking structure on the bottom. Rinehart marked the spot with a buoy, and then we positioned the boat and put the anchor out.

We spent a half-hour without catching a sheepshead, and then suddenly the bite went off. It lasted for about 40 minutes, and we put four fish in the box, the biggest a bulky 6

1/2

-pounder.

We also lost several other fish and got rocked a couple of times. The artificial reef is about a hundred yards south of the range marker off Bahia Beach.

Fred Everson is a Ruskin fishing guide. All South Shore fishermen and guides may submit information and photographs to be included in this column by calling (813) 830-8890 or sending an e-mail to ihuntsnook@aol.com.

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