Saltwater Fishing Tampa Bay

So the family decided to come down this weekend, and my uncle and my cousin just happened to bring down a pontoon boat so that we could do some saltwater fishing in Tampa Bay. It has been awhile since I have casted away on the flats of Tampa Bay but it only took more than half of a day until we started to get the fish biting and in the boat.

We were staying at a hotel on Saint Petersburg beach, and we rallied the troops and were heading to the Fort Desoto boating ramp. The cool thing about the boating ramp in Fort Desoto is that you could probably put 40 boats in the water at once, the place is huge and the trailer parking is fairly cheap.

So we pulled up to the ramp, it was me, my uncle, and my 2 cousins along with their kids, so we had 6 total, made sure that we had plenty of saltwater fishing rods, and a cooler full of beer, along with 4 tackle boxes filled to the brim with fishing tackle. We has stopped at the bait bucket bait and tackle shop before we got to the ramp, which I should have stated and we bought 10 dozen shrimp. So without further ado we got the used pontoon boat in the water and was ready for a great day saltwater fishing Tampa Bay.





We got the boat in the water and the truck and trailer parked, and started to head out to the flats to do some flats fishing. The first thing that we wanted to do was to try and get some more bait, so I stood on the bow of the pontoon boat with my cast net in hand looking for some bait. I got a few hundred greenbacks with a couple of casts and then missed a couple of nice sheepshead which would have been nice to land.

We started out fishing the flats of Tampa Bay, and early in the morning we did not have that much luck as I think it was due to the tide being low. So after about 2 hours of flats fishing we were only able to pull in one decent size trout and a couple of pinfish, which we stuck in the pontoon boats live well to use as some bait for the skyway bridge.





So after 2 hours of flats fishing failure we decided that we will try and fish under the skyway bridge, which can be very productive some days. The bad thing is that this would not be the day to catch anything at the bridge, as the water was very rough and it was also hard to hold the anchor. We did however run into a school of mackerel, you can see the birds that were having fun with them.






We winded up catching about 15 mackerel using top water jigs, the only problem is that they were all to small, maybe the big ones don’t come out until the water warms in Tampa Bay I am not certain. So again our day of saltwater fishing Tampa Bay was not going real well, but we had plenty of time, and plenty of bait to use up before we had to head in.

So we made our way back over towards the Bradenton side and we fished a couple of docks and a canal, in hope of getting some snook or some redfish. Sad to say that the only thing that we were catching was a nice buzz from all of the beers being consumed, but we kept hitting up different spots. The tide was starting to come in and then we decided that we would just drift the flats and try and get some trout, there was four of us with lines in the water so we could cover a lot of ground this way and we would be sure to catch some.

I had been using a popper and live shrimp, my cousin had switched to the jig and good thing that he did, as he landed another trout. After I seen him catch a couple off that jig I switched up to it too, and on the tip of the jig used a big gulp artificial bait, which I now believe will out fish live bait in some situations.









Before you know it we were reeling in speckled trout left and right, it got to the point we were hooking up almost every cast. These were not small trout at all either, well the majority of them were not anyway. So finally after 2 hours of flats fishing Tampa Bay we got our bucket full of trout and we had reached our daily bag limit.








We could have continued to catch fish but the women kept calling wondering when we would be coming back, so we decided to pack it up and head back to the ramps. As the Fort Desoto boat ramp is not the place to pull in if you are over your bag limit or have fish that are under their size limit, you will get caught.

We put the pontoon boat on the trailer and called it a day, headed back to the hotel and wondered where we were going to clean all of the trout. Well why not just be a little redneck and clean them in the parking lot of the hotel, all in all I would say that it was an excellent day flats fishing Tampa Bay.

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Bonefishing Florida

Let us talk about bonefishing Florida, why not, as they are the hardest fighting saltwater fish that there are to some degree. As example, a 10 pound bonefish will give you a better fight than any other saltwater fish that is out there weighing at 10 pounds. So basically, pound for pound bonefish are the hardest fighting fish there are, and they love to hang around Florida. When a bonefish hits, it will make a long run, they can easily pull a hundred yards off of the fishing reel in the matter of seconds, so you will need a drag system to catch them. We will get into a little more on bonefishing Florida and the kind of tackle and bait you will need to successfully catch them, but let’s learn a little bit more about them first shall we?

They are edible, but most anglers just release them back into the water and catch them just for the sport of fishing because they are so fun to hook up with. Most people avoid trying to eat bonefish because of the amount of bones that are in there body, hence there name. I mean they do not even serve bonefish on the menu at the Bonefish Grill!

Okay, so they are very picky about what kind of water temperature they like to be in, and this will range mostly from 72-80 degrees. So if you are bonefishing Florida you will want to look for them in the south part of Florida, although they can be found in some cases in the northern part of Florida most anglers will not try particularly to catch them on purpose. The all time record for the biggest bonefish that has been caught weighs in at 19 pounds. They are typically a flats fish, and if you are serious about bonefishing Florida then you would try places like the Biscayne Bay or the Florida Keys, there are many other places they can be found, basically all of south Florida but these have been known to be some hot spots.

So when you are bonefishing Florida we will go over some of the equipment you will need, first off you will need a good flats boat since that is where they are found most often. If you do not have a flats boat or access to one and really want to catch some bonefish then you should look into getting a charter captain that will take you out for bonefish, they can be found all around Florida.

Another essential item that you will need, which is just as important as a fishing rod and reel is some Polarized sunglasses. You will need to spot these fish swimming the flats and without Polarized sunglasses it will be more difficult to spot them. Once you spot them you just cast away at them, trying not to land directly on them and spook them away.

As for the kind of fishing tackle you will need when bonefishing Florida, is you definitely need a reel that holds at least 200 yards of line, monofilament would be my choice when fishing for bonefish. I would use a medium sized fishing rod, and a spinning reel. The pound test of line I would keep at about 10 pound test, give or take a couple of pounds with a 30 pound test leader at about a foot and a half. My bait of choice when bone fishing Florida would be live shrimp, hook them through the head and pinch the tail off to give off a little more scent to fish and let them know that there is some bait in the water. A size 1 or 2 hook will get the job done, and have a couple of split shots about 12 inches on the leader line to make sure that you can get a good cast off. You do not want to much weight on the line as it could spook the bone fish when you cast up right next to it.

You can also catch bonefish on a fly rod, and it is practiced by many anglers, but I will not be going over how to do that because it is like a science with the set up you will need and I have not had much experience fly fishing for bonefish. If you do like to keep them and eat them, there is a daily 1 bag limit per person, and with a minimum size of 18”, there is no closed season when bonefishing Florida.

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