The South Shore News & Tribune
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Better Water Clarity In The Bay Makes For Better Fishing
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Published: October 1, 2008
September was unseasonably warm and that kept the water temperature in the high 80s.
Hurricanes Ivan and Gustav went elsewhere, and all we got was a little wind. Even so, water clarity improved somewhat with drier weather, and fishing has picked up.
Spanish mackerel have been more abundant in Tampa Bay in the past three weeks than they have been all year, and they have been feeding.
Captain Chet Jennings told me he caught plenty of macks off the Bahia Beach reef along with a 50-pound tarpon. I have also heard some reports of kingfish rocketing out of the water as far up the Bay as Bahia Beach.
Bait is as plentiful as I have ever seen it in the Bay, though much of it is small enough to gill in 3/8-inch nets. On the flats, however, you do not need the mesh to be that large. I am throwing an 8-foot quarter-inch net and it's catching them just fine.
I had a slow day on the flats last week on a lazy falling tide. I saw a few snook and a single redfish that took a swipe at a Mirrolure, but it missed the plug.
There was a lot of activity on the surface by mullet, and plenty of bait everywhere I went, but the bite was slow.
There were also several schools of big jacks ravaging the bait schools, but I never got close enough to put a cast on them.
I finished the day at the mouth of the Little Manatee River where I chummed up a school of jack crevalles, and caught a 15-inch flounder. After noon I quickly converted the flounder into a couple of fish sandwiches - talk about fresh.
Boat traffic on the Bay during the week has been light, and it has little to do with the quality of the fishing. With gas prices hovering near $4 a gallon and the troubled economy, charter business has slowed to a practical standstill.
Snook season has been open for a month now, but catch reports are sparse.
I am not seeing a lot of snook around the mouth of the river, and only a few on the flats south of Apollo Beach. The best bite for the time being is going to be after dark. Snook are nocturnal by nature, and that is exacerbated by warm water temperatures.
I had a trout report from Pinellas Point and it was a good one. The early morning bite has been hot, and the grass flats over there are covered with white bait. Mirrolure 52 MS plugs and Love's Lures are the proven artificials.
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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