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Be On The Lookout For Cobia

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2008

Water temperature has held steady at around 80 degrees for the past few weeks, and the fish seem to like it.

I had a good day on trout at Pinellas Point last week fishing with Vic Anthony of New Jersey and his friend Captain Cade Burgdorf of Homosassa.

We caught and released plenty of trout, as well as bluefish and Spanish mackerel. It was a rough ride going across the bay, but the fishing has been better on the west shore than it has over here.

Earlier in the week, Keli Emery and I decided to run the buoys and range markers between Bahia Beach and the mouth of the Alafia River looking for cobia and tripletail.

Our trip began with more wind than was forecast and a good chop, but it eased after an hour or so, and we were able to run all the way past Beer Can Island.

We caught a few mangrove snapper, most of which were just big enough to keep, but no big fish. We never saw the first cobia or tripletail, but they should show up any day.

Emery is a tripletail expert and is one of the few anglers on Tampa Bay who targets these odd-looking fish.

They look much like gigantic replicas of freshwater bluegills and are as tasty a fish as any we catch on Tampa Bay. They like to hang on floating structures such as crab trap buoys and channel markers, and also fixed structures such as range markers.

Sometimes you can see them lurking under the buoys, but most often they hang deeper. Live shrimp, small sardines and plastic shrimp are the preferred baits.

Action is heating up in the Little Manatee River as snook begin to make their fall migration toward winter quarters. There has been lots of activity under the docks at the mouth of the river, particularly at night. I'm seeing a few big snook under the lights -and lots of shorts.

The jacks are also beginning to show up around the mouth of the river, though the schools of big fish have yet to appear. They usually appear around mid-November.

The full moon will dominate the tides for the next few days. Many guides do not like to fish during the day for three days either side of the full moon. The thinking is that fish feed by the light of the moon and are less active during daylight hours.

If you don't buy that, there will be some good minus tides to wade-fish, mid-morning Wednesday through Saturday.

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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