Category: Fishing Reports

Recreational fisherman and guides alike all eagerly anticipate this time of year. March is typically the month when the “tails” of the winter fronts from the north stop reaching West Central Florida, so the big temperature drops associated with these fronts, which are never good for fishing, tend to subside. Also, temperatures, in general, start to moderate, which raises water temperatures, which in turn, improves the bite for various species. It is also the month when the tidal “flip”begins… when daytime tides again become higher than evening tides, opening up more opportunities for redfish.

On that note, redfishing has picked up substantially. A few weeks ago, temperatures in the 80’s range showed up for a few days, which triggered a pretty good bite. Last week however, temperatures dropped back down. With good tides arriving this week, and warmer weather, redfish have again become a primary target. A recent trip yielded well in excess of twenty fish with several 30 inch fish included…crazy good fishing. As always, fish can be found associated with mullet schools and now, with higher tides, in under the bushes along mangrove shorelines. Almost any bait will work for redfish. When fishing the mangrove shorelines, many Tampa / Cleatwater Fishing guides feel that “cast ability” of a bait is as important as what the bait actually is. For target shooting gaps in the mangroves, heavy, rounded baits like cut ladyfish and small the medium mullet are ideal. They are heavy and they skip allowing for accurate presentations deep into the bushes.

Big seatrout, the winter mainstay fishery of everyone in Northern Pines County, are still abundant and coopertaive. Limits are the norm with many trip yielding multiple lists per angler. Quality fish are still eating artificials…swim tail plastics and small minnow imitating plugs…but, as expected, whitebait is far and away the best bait. Present these under a bobber or free-lined for best results. If whitebait are large, be patient and allow the fish to turn and begin to swim off after taking the bait as this allows time for the bait to be turned and the hook to be safely inside the fish’s mouth. Remember…bigger tides…better trout.

The favorite species of the ‘big three” inshore fish, the snook, is just beginning to come to life. Although trout and redfish will eat in cooler water temperatures, the snook will rarely do so. As waters warm, these fish will start to be more visible in the typical backwater locations. On a charter a few days ago, fish were visible however would not rise to chum and would slowly swim off from a perfectly presented large whitebait. Water temperature… 67 degrees. When readings of 70 – 72 degrees appear, these fish will become aggressive enough to eat an occasional bait. When 75 gets here, it’s game on. Moving forward into the summer, there are no temperature concerns as local water temperatures move into the 80’s and stay there. For the next month and a half, many snook will be small to mediums (under 30 inches) although an occasional larger fish will be caught. The bigger fish generally will become more available in later April / early May time frame. Large, live fish baits are always best then. Now, medium to large pilchards are a good choice as many of these fish aren’t large. Come May, big pilchards, threadfins, grass grunts, and ladyfish will all work.

A plan B to consider is that the nearshore snapper should be biting now and come late March, early April, the Spanish mackerel invasion could arrive. Good luck and good fishing.

Large seatrout remain the primary target species off of the west central coast of Florida. Veteran Clearwater Area fishing guides expect limits on every trip this time of year and, at times, 20 to 30 large trout can be caught on a 4 hour trip. That said, a cold front can stop fishing in its tracks. The best approach is to plan to fish strong tides and pray for good weather. If the expectation is that weather has created a significant drop in water temp, wait three days and if the weather has continued to moderate each day, the bite will be back on. The days immediately proceeding a cold front can be incredible….so just watch the weather.

Redfish remain a winter target as well but with daytime water levels generally lower, residential docks, intercostal islands and oyster bars become better locations to try. Although cut baits are a preferred summer-time bait, shrimp are the best at this time of year as many of the fish are smaller and these fish will always eat a shrimp. Working the above mentioned areas will also lead to an occasional quality fish as well although many larger fish seem to re-appear in mid to late February.

Although activity off the beach is nothing like the spring or fall time frames, rocky areas will still hold some decent snapper and these fish can be coaxed into biting. Whitebait, if available, small pinfish and shrimp will all produce.  Go light and long on the leaders and use smaller hooks to put a few of these tasty fish in the boat. Plan on bringing a chum block or extra baits to get the bite going. Small grouper and key west grunts will also be part of the mix.  Although gag grouper is closed, a good meal came be made from the larger grunts and snapper. Good luck and good fishing.

Compared with the 2022 fall kingfish season, this year was much better, with fish being available most of the month. Large schools of baitfish, primarily thread fin herring, gathered close to the beach off of Honeymoon and Caledesi Islands, and as is usually the case, this drew the kings in. Most fish were caught within 2 – 3 miles of the beach and, on some days, less than a mile out. The tried and true technique is to catch large thread fins, either by sabiki or cast net, and then slow troll them in the neighborhood of these bait schools. This was always the starting point for a typical charter. If success was not achieved within 30-40 minutes, there were 2 plan B’s.  The first was to go to another area and try trolling there.  Occasionally, areas that were good in previous years that showed little, if any bait, would produce. Some fish were caught this way but the majority of the fish were found around these massive concentrations of bait near the beach. On certain days, dropping an anchor and chumming aggressively with whitebait would bring fish in. This is a bit counter-intuitive as the expectation would be that trolling the exact size bait that the fish are eating and covering large areas would logically be the most successful approach. That said, there were clearly days when anchoring and putting out a chum slick was more productive as the kings would come right to the boat…some taking baits within sight of the anglers. Exciting stuff.

November is a month where the tides begin to shift…with the best high tides moving to the night.  This being the case, the strategy for catching redfish changes a bit.  Where the typical summer approach is to fish the bushes on the high tides, the winter approach is more about fishing potholes on flats, during the lower phases of the tide. Redfish will retreat to the “holes” and sometimes, small packs of quality fish can be found. Cut fish bait, of almost any kind, seems to work well this time of year…with ladyfish being among the best.  Getting into an area with mullet and multiple potholes creates a good chance for success as the reds may be in with the mullet and there are multiple targets (holes) available. Interestingly, over the last few years, small lemon sharks have become a fairly common catch when fishing this way.  Although they are not as acrobatic as a blacktip, these fish will usually give a half jump or two and burn the drag pretty well.  These are very entertaining on light inshore outfits as the average lemon on the flats is typically 15 – 20 pounds.

The fish that really “feed’ local Tampa Fishing Captains are the large spotted seatrout that invade St. Joseph’s sound every year….and yes, they have started to show up. Finding whitebait as the weather cools becomes a bit more of a challenge but it is worth the effort to locate as these large winter trout will usually go crazy when presented with a big pilchard on a cool winter morning. These can be fished under a bobber or free-lined. Many captains fishing in the Clearwater area prefer the free-lined approach as the presentation is a bit more natural. Catching these fish is all about the weather and the tides. Although trout are among the easiest local game fish to catch, having the right bait, fishing the moving tides and fishing during stable weather patterns are all key to success. These trout should be here until mid to late March. Good luck and good fishing.

Simply put, it’s a great time of year to fish. Why? Variety! In a single day, it is possible to catch three or four nearshore species as well as an inshore slam. Species would include mackerel, snapper, kingfish, bonito, snook, redfish and seatrout, among others. Kingfish and large bonito have already started to show themselves in water as shallow as 15 feet as it appears much of the local bait is residing there. Several weeks ago, kingfish made their first appearance, moved off when 20 mph north winds blew through, but were then back.  It is likely that these fish are now here to stay until waters become cool enough to push them south for the year. The most effective method to utilize when chasing kings is known by many local anglers…slow trolling anything from a pilchard to thread fin herring, to mullet, to a blue runner to Spanish mackerel. On windy days, the motors can be shut off when drifting downwind as all that’s required is that the bait is swimming naturally and is not being dragged. It doesn’t have to be trolled quickly. This technique allows for large areas to be covered. If confident that fish are in the area, another approach can be used.  Drop anchor, put out a chum bag and liberally pitch live whitebait off the stern. Usually, if the location is good, boils will begin to appear on the down tide side of the boat and the action should begin. Be prepared for the sharp teeth to be encountered and run a 12 inch leader of AFW tieable wire in the 40 lbs class range.  If fish are a bit equipment shy, use a single hook.  at the end of the leader. Otherwise use a stinger rig to solidify all hookups.  If fish are seen boiling but no bites result, sometimes it makes sense to try a long shank hook on fluorocarbon leader.  yes, breakoffs  are much more likely but it’s the last resort to see if the fish will bite. Large Spanish mackerel and bonito will be caught using either of these methods as well.  For the snapper, look for hard bottom areas, go down to light tackle and small hooks (8 foot leaders of 15lbs test and #2 hooks).

On many days, as the suns get higher in the sky, this near shore action may lighten up, but there are other options. With water temps in the low seventies, small to medium snook, plus a few keepers, can be found inshore.  There may be a few strays on the beach but many of these fish will be up inside the sound, around mangrove islands and in the backwaters.  Be armed with plenty of medium to large pilchards as chumming is the best way to find the exact location of these fish.  A snook that eats a chummed bait will, in almost all cases, eat the next bait that lands near it. This fishing is very visible and very enjoyable as fish can often be seem approaching and eating the bait.

On the higher tides, redfish are still in the mix. Fishing mangrove shorelines and inter-coastal islands will produce fish on a very wide range of baits.  Cut baits and pinfish, weighted down with a #2 split shot,  and secured with a 2/0 circle hook is really all that’s needed however. Pitch these baits into mangrove pockets, deeper holes along the shoreline and to the edges of oyster bars for best results.

Within a couple of weeks, or when the next significant cold front shows up, the large seatrout that St. Joseph’s Sound is famous for will likely show up. When these fish first arrive, and the water is still relatively warm, these trout can sometimes be caught very effectively and jigs and even topwater baits.  As things cool down, the jigs continue to produce , but the topwater bite will slow. As with so many of our local gamefish, it’s hard to beat a medium sized pilchard when trying to get a trout on the line.  It’s a primary food for them when this bait is around and it will typically out fish everything else. A more expensive but also effective approach is to stop as a local marina and buy select shrimp, as this bait is high on a trout’s preferred food list as well.  Trout will eat the smaller shrimp, but so will everything else, so it’s best to spend the money for the larger ones.  Good luck and good fishing.

The heat is on. Summer is in full swing and water temps are hovering between 86 and 90 degrees, depending on the day. Both snook and redfish will continue to bite with these elevated temperatures but generally become a bit more sluggish. Getting an early start is critical for two reasons. First, large pilchards are generally available in the dark but can get scarce in a hurry once the sun pops up. Second, being fully loaded with quality bait by 6:15 or 6:30 AM allows for an early start, always a good thing for snook in the heat of summer.

Snook have just about completed their spawn.  This means that fewer large fish are generally available, with the majority of fish being seen in the 20 – 30 inch range. Also, traditional snook spots that may have held larger concentrations of fish…in some cases up to 50 fish…are likely now holding significantly fewer. All is not lost however, as most Tampa Clearwater Fishing Charters are still producing from a half dozen to a dozen of these smaller fish. Out on the beach ,fish are very visible in the swash channels on days with calm or east winds. This is good in that groups of fish can be located but bad because these fish tend to be wary. Stay as far away as possible, chum aggressively and be patient. Usually a few fish can be pulled from the groups of fish that are found. On days when the beaches are dirty due to west winds, fishing is better and fish are more careless…but there is no way to sight them so simply fish areas where fish have seen before.

Redfishing has been hit or miss now for the last 6-8 weeks.  There are fish out there with some larger fish still being located, although generally not in big numbers. The beauty of a redfish though is that they will eat in warm water and are not picky about what is offered. So if fish can be located, they can be caught. Trips during the heat of summer run on poor tide days can be very challenging so most productive days occur on big tides with some wind. Expect best results from mangrove shorelines where fish can get up under cover and be out of the direct sunlight. Several recent outings produced a half dozen slot and over slot fish so good days can be had. Moving towards fall, local redfishing should improve.

Tarpon sightings on local beaches have all but disappeared over the last couple of weeks so this opportunity may have passed for 2023. The next 6 weeks truly represent the “dog days” of summer, but look for action to increase as September progresses. Moving further on into the fall, near shore opportunities will once again improve and fishing will be ON again.  Good luck and good fishing.

Crazy June. No rain. Hot. Many days with west and southwest winds and ….the large snook that invade our beaches seemed to be in shorter supply than usual. That said, snook fishing activity was decent in terms of numbers. Catching a half dozen or more snook was not a problem on most trips. Without an abundance of larger fish, making sure to secure a few dozen grass grunts was not as important so many local guides decided to skip the process entirely over the last few months.  On a positive note, large whitebaits have remained fairly abundant right into the beginning of July so getting bait for targeting snook hasn’t  been a problem.  As these fish complete their spawning behavior over the next few weeks, they will scatter. All of the normal spots will continue to hold fish, but typically not as many. Look for groups of quality fish to still be available out along the beaches. These bigger fish are more challenging to catch, but few things are better than seeing a large snook streak down the beach in clear, shallow water, attempting to dump the hook.

Given strong tides, redfishing has been decent with most fish caught being in the slot.  Larger specimens were being landed consistently earlier in the month as one larger school of fish had been located but, over the last few weeks, these fish seem to have moved off or dispersed. As a result, successful days have required constant movement… actively fishing many spots as most locations have not been producing more than a few fish.  A recent trip did produce a half dozen quality fish on one spot but this hasn’t been the norm. Almost all fishing has been done with cut bait and small to medium pinfish although redfish will rarely refuse any cut fish or crustacean presented to them. Bottom line. Successful fishing days for redfish can be had but expect to earn them.

Tarpon numbers have dropped off, as it typical for this time of year, but opportunities will remain along the beaches through the next month. On the bright side, fish returning from their summer spawn offshore should be willing to eat. Crabs, large threading or pilchards,  and pinfish are all viable baits. Good luck and good fishing.