Fishing Reports by Capt. Fred Everson

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Water clarity continues to be cloudy and tannin stained and the inshore fishing is suffering because of it. Capt. Danny Guarino said he struggled to find a few redfish and some short snook on his recent trips, but that the bait was easy. Pilchards ar more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Afternoon thunderstorms have made it difficult for anglers to be on the water for the good falling tides, so fishing on the Southshore has been correspondingly tough. There is not much happening in the heat of the middle of the day, and just when th more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Capt. Nick Winger reports hot fishing for mangrove snapper over the hard bottom around Port Manatee. Winger said he went through 10 dozen shrimp in little more than an hour, and boated nearly 50 snapper. The trick to catching mangroves is to use ju more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Monday evening I fished the mouth of the Little Manatee River at Sand Point with Capt. John Arico of Arcadia. I was hoping to get to the Spoil Island for the swift, falling tide and some catch and release snook action, but the stout wind out of the W more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Cold fronts and wind dampen angling prospects A pair of cold fronts earlier this week shut down the snook and the redfish bite fairly hard. Capt. Danny Guarino said that Monday throught Friday the action was very slow in the Southshore holes nor more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Spanish mackerel have been pounding bait pods on Southshore Tampa Bay this week. In 12 years of fishing here, I’ve never seen anything like it. I found huge schools of macks starting just inside the Skyway continuing north to the range markers off more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - The absence of scaled sardines on the southshore flats of Tampa Bay continues to perplex recreational anglers and guides alike. There has been some bait to be had at the normally reliable Skyway fishing piers, but even that source has been inconsist more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Sheepshead bite continues to roll in deeper water The best sheepshead bite in years shows no signs of letting up, but the fish have moved. They spent all winter in the holes and passes of the mangrove backcountry south of the Little Manatee Rive more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - Snook bite’s on, but where’s the bait? Snook fishing picked up a couple of notches this week, but the guides working out of Shell Point are still running 18 miles to net bait. On top of having to travel that far, the bait that they are netting i more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay - South Shore - The snook bite hasn’t happened yet, but it’s primed. Capt. Danny Guarino said he plenty of snook Wednesday while on a scouting excursion. He said big pods of small snook were staging in the backwaters of Little Cockroach Bay, and that there were im more...
Capt. Fred Everson - Tampa Bay