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Full Moon Brings A Mixed Bag

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 20, 2008

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.

Fishing around the full moon this week had its ups and downs. The best tides were in the afternoon early in the week, but thunderstorms made afternoon fishing tough until Thursday. I went across the bay with Roger Mills and his son Chris to look for some pompano on the west side of the bay, but we found only one fish.

Late in the afternoon we tried throwing MirrOlures at trout off Pinellas Point and hooked one fish there, but Chris lost it in the grass on the bottom. We had better luck fishing cut bait for mangrove snapper on the cans in the middle of the bay. We put three fish on ice before the wind picked up and finally blew us back to the dock.

Early the next morning, I went after pompano again on the flats north of the Sunshine Skyway. We saw one boat catch four fish, but we never got a hit. We tried the trout again off south Pinellas Point, and that was almost the same story, but we did catch one 20-inch fish on a 57MS MirrOlure, and two shorter ones. We tried the same buoys on the ship channel and scored three more snapper, all between 13 and 15 inches, on chunks of threadfin herring.

I spoke with captain Nick Winger of Apollo Beach, and he said he did a lot of fishing this week but little catching. The usually reliable backcountry of Joe's Island was unproductive, and Winger blamed it on the full moon. He said he had a little bit better luck in Little Cockroach Bay, where he caught a few redfish.

Captain Chet Jennings reported some action on tarpon around the Skyway on the outgoing tide this week. The tarpon run might be over at Boca Grande, but local action will continue through August at the mouth of the bay.

Visit captain Fred Everson's Web site at Tampabayfishingguide.com for charter info or call (813) 830-8890.

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