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Lower Tampa Bay Is Producing

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

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

Steady action in lower Tampa Bay pretty much sums up what is happening. Brief flurries of mayhem come when Spanish mackerel blow through schools of baitfish where we have been trout fishing.

We're rigged for trout with 20-pound monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders, but many times the sharp teeth of Spanish mackerel cut through it easily.

Working DOA shrimp in 4 to 6 feet of water over some grass patches, we are catching some nice speckled trout near the mouth of the Manatee River on a flat just west of Emerson Point.

As schools of glass minnows move in with the tide, Spanish mackerel also have been showing up. We'll lose a few lures to the macks, but we're also catching some nice Spanish from 20 to 24 inches in the process. Slide fresh mackerel fillets under the broiler, basted with a little lemon and butter, and it's hard to beat a mackerel dinner.

Working deeper areas of hard bottom, I'm looking for bait balls - dark "clouds" of baitfish that look like a cloud is moving across the surface on a sunny day. Glass minnows are most prevalent, but scaled sardines and threadfins are there as well.

Where we are finding the glass minnows, we also are finding a few rolling tarpon. "Match the hatch" is the name of the game. I'm guessing a well-placed glass minnow fly pattern put on the nose of a tarpon would get its attention, because our larger lures have not produced.

While only a few tarpon are showing in the areas I like to fish, when the baitfish become more consistent in these areas, the tarpon will arrive. In the meantime, we'll target mangrove snapper, black sea bass, spotted sea trout and Spanish mackerel.

Ray Markham co-hosts "Florida Sportsman Magazine Radio Live," Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. on WWBA, 1040 AM, and may be reached for charter at (941) 723-2655.

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