Fresh Tampa Bay Fishing Reports

We have been experiencing great weather and great inshore fishing in tampa bay. Seatrout, snook, redfish, spanish mackerel, and ladyfish have been caught aboard our charter boat lately! Great fun and grest fishing for all ages!

If you’ve never achieved an “Inshore Slam” now is the time! Every year when spring rolls around, the grass flats throughout Tampa Bay come alive. As baitfish start moving onto the flats, snook, redfish and seatrout follow. When this occurs, it’s the easiest time to achieve an inshore slam. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when you catch a snook, redfish and seatrout on the same outing. Now many of you may think that should be easy. Well, it’s easier said than done for some people. You’d be surprised how many people have been fishing with me that have never caught a slam. Occasionally, I meet a few anglers who have lived in the Tampa Bay area and fished all their life, but the slam eludes them. If an inshore slam is something you would like to pursue, you might assume that catching a seatrout would be the easiest and save that for last. Not necessarily, at times it can be the most difficult to land. That’s why many times, I’ll start out fishing around some sandy potholes on the grass flats trying to catch the seatrout first. If I have no success, I’ll move on snook and redfish and come back to seatrout to close the deal. While in pursuit, here’s where I look for that snook and redfish. With water temperatures back in the low 70s snook are moving out of the back bays, creeks, and rivers and seeking shelter along the mangrove shorelines and points. Snook feed best on a good tidal flow. Some days it may vary whether they prefer an incoming or outgoing. So, just make sure the current is moving. To get the action going, I toss out a few live scaled sardines and wait for the snook to respond by attacking the freebies. Once they start feeding, I have you cast a hooked live sardine to the same spot for an instant hook up. If you get lucky, you’ll be able to catch numerous snook in the same spot. If I’m fishing during an incoming tide and it’s reaching its peak, I’ll move on to redfish. Redfish like to feed on crustaceans around oyster beds and barnacle encrusted mangrove roots during a high tide. When I find a spot with both, I’ve found a redfish goldmine. Redfish also like to travel with mullet. The reason: mullet flush baitfish and crustaceans out of the grass as they feed. Anytime I spot a school of mullet I get out in front of them and Power Pole down. In either scenario, I always start by chumming with scaled sardines. After that, you cast a bait out that’s suspended under a cork. Once the cork goes under, give the fish 2-3 seconds to eat the bait, then when you reel and get your line tight, lift your rod for a solid hook set. Afishionado, “Always an Adventure.”

The waters in Tampa Bay have the perfect temps now for an unbelievable fishing experience from the shallow water grass flats to the pristine beaches in our area. The redfish bite is on fire. Live baits have been the trick on an out going tide with lots of snook mixed in the action. As we approach the month of May the fishing in Tampa Bay should continue its normal yearly cycle with amazing catching of trophie size fish. What do you say, Lets go Fishing!!! Now Booking

Caught inshore near Anna Maria Island

What a day. Startes the day fishing for tarpon whike waiting for the tide to come up. Jumped 2 tarpon in the first 20 mins of fishing. Then we went looking for some snook. Caught half a dozen and jumped a few more. Tried 2 more spots still waiting on the tide. Once it got high enough we went to the redfish spot. Took about 30 mins to get them going but once we did it was game on. Biggest 34 inches. Fishing is fun!!

As we get into our spring time fishing patterns, we continue catching plenty of trout, quality redfish, and snook more often as a the water warms up. Some kingfish, Spanish mackerel, and Bonita have been near shore, but that has been limited due to the heavy winds we’ve had this spring. A few have started to show up, but we haven’t spent the time to fish for them yet. The peak of their migration is just a few weeks away.