Thursday July 17th, 2008
Here and There
It's now mid Summer in the Tampa Bay area and the fish and bait are settling down into there normal summertime pattern. Which is, their is no pattern. One day we'll catch 50 redfish at a spot and go back the next and only catch 5. Then we'll go hit another spot and pick up 10 more fish, but they won't be at that spot the next day. Don't get me wrong, we're catching fish. The thing is that everyday is different right now. One day we get reds over here and the next we get snook over there. One day we catch 10 fish and the next we catch 65 fish. This is typical this time of year as rain, cloud cover and tide phases all effect the water temperature and flow from day to day. The fish are constantly moving to get into a place where they are comfortable.
Over the past couple of weeks, the best bet has been mackerel and redfish. Snook are ever present on the beaches, but their appetite is inconsistent and finicky. The trout bite is typically slow this time of year, but we're picking up a few here and there. The mangrove snapper are starting to turn on and that bite will only get better between now and the end of September. If you're looking for table fare, as well as a great fighting fish on light tackle, snapper is the way to go. We've been getting snapper to 3 pounds, but my fishing logs say that the 5-7lbers are supposed to be getting hooked up consistently soon. In the last couple of years limiting out on 4-7lb snapper was a breeze from late July to early September in Tampa Bay.
Look for the redfish, snook and trout bite to be "here and there" and up and down over the next couple of weeks. There will be stellar days mixed in with the mediocre and the slow. But there is plenty of other action to fill in on the slow days and most of that action has limits of 5 fish per person or more and eat great as well.
Captain Clay Eavenson
813-300-2147
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