Fishing Tampa's Flats and Bay

Posts Tagged ‘flats fishing tampa bay’

This past week the fishing has been fairly decent. The water temp is now up in the low to mid 60s and that’s awesome considering it was in the frigid 40s just a couple of weeks ago.

I changed it up a bit this past week and ran my trips using mostly artificial baits. For some reason the trout seem to be responding better to artificial lures. The lures I have been using have varied depending on the water clarity. The water clarity was not very good in the Tampa bay areas I  fished this past week so the best results I got were by using a 1/4oz DOA Glow Shrimp. This is a slow moving bait and crawling it slowly along the bottom or drifting it in the current produced the most bites.

DOA GLOW SHRIMP

Winter time fishing is a totally different ball game than spring or fall when the water temp hovers in the mid 70s and the fish seem to want to chew the bottom out of the boat. Patience is the name of the game and working your baits slowly and methodically will produce the best action.

On one of my trips this week I made a move further west and fished in the Clearwater area. I love this area and I just don’t get the time to fish it as much as I would like. Small  islands dot the area and huge expanses of grass flats never seem to end.

This is a great area to set up a drift and toss soft plastic jigs bouncing them slowly along the bottom to entice the trout into biting. The DOA Shad Tail in Rootbeer with chart tail or the Pearl with Chart tail rigged on a 1/8 oz jig head seemed to do the trick.

DOA SHAD TAIL

I picked up some live shrimp for this trip and after the guys had some fun with the trout I moved and set up on a hole around 25′ deep. This turned out to be a good move. Live shrimp on a 1/0 circle hook and a split shot produce several nice sized whiting. Another move and it was sheepshead and small black drum.

The Guys with some of thier catch

This past week was a productive one and I only expect it to get better. I will be back on the water next week and I will be sure to give a report.

Today was round two of scouting during this cold weather.

I was not able to be out as long or late as I would of liked today because of some afternoon obligations. It did help to get out there as always.

The morning air was a brisk 43 degree’s as I made my way across Tampa Bay in search of bait. I found it where I left it the day before but it was not as plentiful. Not to worry I told my self as store bought shrimp are available and I will be sure to pick some up for tomorrow’s charter.

I made the long run to the power plant to see what was going on in the warm water out flow. Really not much. Mostly just a bunch of Cow Nose Rays milling around. I would of preferred an incoming tide for this area but I only had the time allotted to work with.

Back across the bay I went. With limited time left I checked a couple of other spots and as the day warmed things became a little more active. This is a good sign as overnight temps are not supposed to dip to low and tomorrow we should have temps in the 70s again.

I found a huge school of sheep’s head that will make for some lite tackle fun with some live shrimp. Lady fish were around and were attacking live bait and jigs. At the last stop I decided to chum it up real good. I was hoping the trout would be there I had found the day before but instead the snook had moved back in. I caught a couple of them but was out of time. I figure as the tide started to move better and the afternoon son warmed the water a bit they should really turn on.

Hopefully tomorrows plan of a later start and some warmer weather will make for a good bite.

I will let you know in my next report.