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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 30, 2007

GO FISHING is a daily look at the area fishing scene through the eyes of local charter boat captains and fishing guides. Today: Fred Everson.

What a great week to fish the South Shore of Tampa Bay. Temperatures were unseasonably mild, winds were light, the sky was mostly clear and the fishing was good. There was some morning fog, but it was mostly gone by 9:30 a.m. I poled the flats south of Apollo Beach on a minus tide with captain Tom Rinehart on Christmas Eve. We found some redfish, and Rinehart hooked up with a 25-inch keeper on a live shrimp, while I caught a couple of shorts on plastic.
Fair weather followed Christmas, and the late-morning tides were right for wading. Captain Chet Jennings and I took the day off to go wading with the fly rods on the flats north of Cockroach Bay. There were plenty of fish around, but they wouldn't take a fly. Jennings switched to a spinning rod rigged with one of those stinky plastic baits and caught a couple of redfish and a few trout, which are back in season as of Tuesday.

Thursday I tried poling the flats north of the Simmons Park boat ramp. Conditions were perfect, but I found very few redfish and a good number of bonnethead sharks. The reds were not only scarce, but also they were uncooperative, even with free-lined shrimp. I suspect too many days of high pressure shut the bite down. Even the sharks did not respond to chum, and we caught only a couple on large live shrimp.

Captain Billy Jordan said he caught plenty of grouper around the ship channel at Port Manatee, but they were all short. Captain Larry Malinoski had a similar offshore report but said he hooked into some big amberjacks while fishing with captain Glen Taylor.

To contact captain Fred

Everson, call (813) 830-8890,

or visit his Web site,

tampabayfishingguide.com.

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