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With Tides Moving, Bite Is Fair

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 22, 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.

Typical summer weather this week with rain and wind, punctuated by periods of calm. I checked the Gulf water temperature Friday morning and it was 90. The tides were moving around the full moon earlier this week, and the bite was fair.

On Thursday I tried to get out early in the morning with my fishing buddy Keli Emery, but we had to wait out some steady rain. We finally donned rain gear and headed into Little Cockroach Bay with some frozen threadfin herring. This is redfish candy, frozen or fresh, but the trick to using frozen bait is to keep it on ice and cut it up one bait at a time.

We rigged the chunked bait on half-ounce jig heads and pitched them into the shadow line of the mangroves. The deeper into the shadows you put your bait, the more fish you can hook. I use two feet of 60-pound leader material for high tide mangrove fishing to minimize breakoffs, as the bait is sitting on the bottom and water clarity is often murky on the high tide. We had some success, and brought three slot sized reds to the boat, but it took some patience. We changed boat position several times to get the baits into the holes.

Captain Chet Jennings said he fished the falling tide at Egmont Key on Thursday for tarpon and saw only one fish hooked among the 50 or so boats that were there.

Captain Billy Jordan said grouper trolling inside the Bay was slow behind the full moon in the middle of the week. He did catch one grouper while bottom fishing.

Midday fishing will continue to get tougher now that summer is officially here. My strategy is to start fishing at daybreak and finish before noon.

Visit captain Fred Everson's Web site at Tampabayfishing

guide.com for charter info or call (813) 830-8890.

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