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Heat, Storms Make Fishing A Tough Proposition Mid-Day

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By FRED EVERSON

Tribune Correspondent

Published: July 2, 2008

The bite has been fair on South Shore so far this summer.

An unusually hot June has the Gulf water temperature in the low 90s, and that slows the fishing down and punishes anglers trying to catch fish in the middle of the day.

On my most recent trip with Keli Emery of Plant City, we had to don rain gear before we left the dock early in the morning. We had hoped to start at daybreak but were delayed by thunder and lightning. When the sky lightened and the rain subsided to a steady drizzle, we got into the mangrove backcountry of Little Cockroach Bay. The tide was up and the water was murky - perfect conditions for redfish on the shadow line.

I had some frozen threadfin herring and we cut them into chunks, one bait at a time, keeping the rest on ice. The trick to fishing with cut bait is to hook it cold. That way you get a couple of casts out of it before it turns to mush.

It took about a half-hour before we finally hooked the first fish, and it took a perfect cast into a deep cut in the mangroves. That fish proved to be a fat 25-incher that tangled itself around the anchor line, but it was hooked so deep it had no chance of coming off unless the line broke. It didn't and that fish went into the box.

A few minutes later, I landed another smaller fish, and then Keli scored with a 22-inch red. With a limit of redfish on ice and the wind dying down, we decided to net some bait and look for cobia and tripletail on the buoys in the middle of the Bay.

We had little trouble netting some perfect-sized 4-inch finger mullet, but by the time we got out into the Bay the wind had picked up and the chop on the Bay grew enough to chase us back inshore. Murky water precluded seeing much, as we idled from Apollo Beach to the E.G. Simmons Park boat ramp. We saw only a single eagle ray and finally called it a day.

Capt. Billy Jordan said that he tried trolling for grouper between Bahia Beach and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, but it was mostly unproductive. He did put one fish in the boat while bottom fishing.

Capt. Chet Jennings said the tarpon at Egmont Key moved offshore with the last full moon. On his last trip to the island he said there was only one fish hooked out of a fleet of about 50 boats. There will be strong falling tides in the early afternoon this week with the new moon on Thursday, presenting another opportunity for tarpon fishermen.

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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