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Swift Currents Of Early Morning Tides Best Bet For Snook

Photo by FRED EVERSON

Colton Phelps of Clermont caught this redfish off Apollo Beach on a recent trip with charter boat captain Fred Everson, and his mom and dad.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2008

September has been the hottest month I can remember in 14 years of fishing Tampa Bay.

Water temperature is still in the high 80s, and the fishing has been so-so.

When it has been dead-flat calm, the heat has been nearly unbearable in my open skiff.

I had a couple of trips on the last full moon, and the early morning trip was practically a bust. We caught one mangrove snapper and hooked a mackerel on the flats, despite using good-sized sardines for bait. It was fairly plentiful on the flats, but most of it was pretty small. I was throwing a quarter-inch net, and still gilling a few baits.

My afternoon trip went a little better. Colton Phelps of Clermont hooked a 25-inch snook on his first cast. The fish hit a live sardine fished under a float.

About 20 minutes later he caught another snook, but that one was smaller. Then we started catching a few catfish - hardheads and sail cats before finally hooking up with a fat 25-inch redfish that ate a quarter-sized pinfish under a float.

We caught one more redfish late in the day on a falling tide, and that fish also hit a small pinfish. It was hardly a blitz, but a lot better than the morning trip.

The next day I went out with Captain Billy Jordan and Roger Mills, both of Ruskin, to do a little bottom fishing for grouper. We netted some small mullet on the flats and used it as cut bait, but to no avail.

It was hotter than a firecracker by mid-afternoon so we decided to try for some of the mackerel that were busting the surface all around the shipping lanes between Bahia Beach and Port Manatee. Those fish proved to be very skittish, and we never had the first strike. The fish were feeding on tiny glass minnows, and everything we threw at them was too big.

The good news this month has been that bait is plentiful all over the flats between Sand Key and Piney Point. Much of it is small, but if you're patient and look hard enough there are schools of bigger baits to be had.

Water clarity hasn't been all that good, but should start to clear up when the weather dries up as it usually does this time of year.

The tides will get better toward the end of the week as we approach the new moon Monday. The swift currents of the early morning tides should be a best bet for snook Sunday through Tuesday.

Sunrise is a good time to be on the water in late September to beat the heat, and the bite is usually best at dawn.

Fred Everson is a Ruskin fishing guide. All South Shore fishermen and guides may submit information and photographs to be included in this column by calling (813) 830-8890 or sending an e-mail to ihuntsnook@aol.com.

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