Water Temperature Begins to Drop
Capt. Fred Everson
October 2, 2008
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
September was unseasonably warm and that kept water temperature in the high 80's. 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. Capt. 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 eight-foot quarter inch net and it is 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 we went, but the bite was slow. There were also several schools of big jacks ravaging the bait schools, but we never got close enough to put a cast on them. We finished the day at the mouth of the Little Manatee River where we 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 fish.
Boat traffic on the bay during the week has been very light, and it has little to do with the quality of the fishing. With gas prices are hovering near four dollars 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 fish around the mouth of the river, and only a few fish 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.
Join the Captain for an evening of fishing instruction at Skipper's Smokehouse on Tuesday October 14 at 7 PM. Cost for the three hour course is $25 and includes a copy of the captain's latest book -- Fish the Flats -- an $18 value. Call 813 830 8890 for info or directions.
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