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Dodging Storms To Find Fish

Photo by FRED EVERSON

Todd Kimery of Temple Terrace caught this big trout on the grass flats off Pinellas Point on a Mirrolure.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

Summer fishing has been slow, and is to be expected, especially at mid-day.

It hasn't been unbearably hot, but water temperature is still hanging around the high 80s and low 90s. That tends to make fish sluggish in broad daylight, even though the best tides mostly occur in the afternoon.

Frequent thunderstorms have hampered anglers for weeks, and you have to take your chances now and again.

I got a late start one day with thunderclouds building around the mouth of the Little Manatee River, but over on the Gulf Coast the skies were fairly clear.

Roger Mills' son Chris was visiting from his home base of Fort Drum, N.Y., where he's stationed in the Army after completing a tour in Afghanistan. So the three of us headed across the Bay to look for some pompano.

The fishing was not all that productive - we caught a single pompano and several mangrove snapper, but the bite was mostly slow. Then the wind blew stronger and it got too choppy to fish out of my 17-foot boat. Chris Mills did most of the damage on our fishing trip, catching three mangrove snapper on cut bait.

Capt. Larry Malinoski reported hot fishing for snapper 20 miles offshore on an overnight trip. He said they filled the cooler with big fish on a hot bite. Capt. Tom Rinehart also reported a good snapper bite inside the bay last week fishing the buoys in the shipping channel.

Capt. Mark Thomas told me that he was catching redfish on the north side of the Bay, and also some pompano. Capt. Chet Jennings said the tarpon have been back at the Sunshine Skyway since the last full moon.

Bait has been scarce of late. The big threadfins off Apollo Beach are still there, but they are sure net shy.

You need a 10- or 12-foot net to put baits in the live well this time of year, and the toss has to be on the money. Where I was netting a cooler full of threads a month ago, the same places are now yielding a couple of dozen per cast, and they are getting smaller.

I did see a pair of cobia on one of the channel buoys last week, but they shied away from the boat and I never got a cast on them. Water clarity is poor because of all the recent rain, so they are hard to see.

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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