TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Good Weather, Good Results

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

Updated: 02/09/2008 10:22 pm

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.

Spring-like weather was the rule during the week, and fishing picked up accordingly.

Captain Chet Jennings fished the Bahia Beach reef early in the week with live shrimp and caught sheepshead. Later, he had a good day in the Little Manatee River on trout, snook and redfish.
Captain Tom Rinehart and I tried our luck at the power plant in Apollo Beach, but we did not have any. I had a homemade chum bag with ground Spanish mackerel, and it drew in plenty of small ballyhoo and three blacktip sharks, but we couldn't get anything to bite. We also saw one small cobia that looked at a RipTide Curtailer, but it didn't bite either.

The next day we decided to try the sheepshead at the Bahia Beach reef and we caught four, the largest weighing 6 1/2 pounds. The bite was short and sweet, lasting only about an hour. The reef is no longer marked, but it's about 100 yards south of the range marker closest to Bahia Beach. A depth-finder is helpful to locate structure.

I fished with John Oliverio later in the week in the Manatee River, and we caught three jack crevalle, two catfish, a ladyfish and a short redfish on soft plastics.

Captain Danny Guarino said there was plenty of bait around the Skyway, but that it was deep. As the water temperature rose into the mid-60s, the fishing got better, but wind kept him in the Little Manatee. He said he caught trout and had catch-and-release action with a couple of keeper-sized snook.

To contact captain Fred
Everson, call (813) 830-8890,

or visit his Web site,

tampabayfishingguide.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT