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.

Add to del.icio.us

Stumble This

Flounder Fishing

Being from the Tampa Bay area and mostly fishing down south I don’t have a lot of information on fish that reside to colder waters, one of the fish I do know a thing or two about are flounder fish. Flounder fishing is mostly done in cold waters, they like the temperature to be about 50 degrees all the way up to about 80 is what they can stand, the colder the better. So if you are looking for flounder in south Florida, you may have a hard time finding them as they are very scarce in those warm waters.

There are two types of flounders that Florida keeps records of, and those are the Summer Flounder, which the record is 22 pounds 7 ounces, and they are commonly found in northeast Florida in the summer and spring season. The other common type of Florida flounder that they hold records for are the Southern flounder, also referred to as the mud flounder. They can be found almost anywhere in Florida saltwater except the south, as I said they prefer the colder waters.

I have found in my years of saltwater fishing Tampa Bay, that flounder to get picked up and caught a lot, I have landed more than a few in my day. Now flounder fishing is not my area of expertise but I will share with you how I catch flounder in the Tampa Bay area.

Let’ start with the saltwater fishing tackle, I use a 7 foot spinning rod and reel, with 12 pound test. Some anglers may choose to use a heavier fishing line but this is what I use, and it makes the fight of the fish that much more fun. I fish from bridges with big pilings that have a good strong current, so the ideal sinker weight and type would be an egg sinker from 1 to 2 ounces, also using a black barrel swivel along with a 50# test leader line. When it comes to hooks, I almost always use circle hooks, especially if I am inshore fishing. Circle hooks may be a bit more expensive but I find that I land a lot more fish when I use them, especially when I am flounder fishing.

The next step to flounder fishing is choosing the right kind of bait. I use live bait, preferably 6-9 inch finger mullet. I will usually go to a different bridge and try to net some finger mullet with a cast net, then I will keep them alive with a bait bucket, or at least try to. Once I get to the spot where I think the flounder are at I will tie the bait bucket off and drop it in the water to keep them alive. I hook the finger mullet through the top lip and then I drop the line down in the current and let the tide take it. Now once I get a hit I will let the flounder run a little bit, since I use circle hooks the hook usually will set itself.

One very big mistake that fishermen will make when flounder fishing is setting the hook to early, they do not swallow the bait immediately, some might wait up to a minute to set the hook while others will wait a couple of seconds. This is why I choose to use circle hooks when flounder fishing, circle hooks are self setting and you will greatly increase the percentage of fish you will land.

If you can’t get a hold of any finger mullet, my next choice of live bait would be some jumbo live shrimp. Hook them through the head and use them the same way that you would use the finger mullet. I have read and heard of flounder being caught using artificial bait, but I have never tried it so I can’t tell you how well it will work. Everywhere I’ve read and heard, live bait works much better, the choice is up to you with what you want to use as bait to catch flounder.

The Florida fishing regulations for flounder are as follows. There is no closed season for flounder fishing, they must be at least 12 inches in length, and there is no maximum size for flounder. The daily bag limit for flounder is 10. If anyone else has any suggestions or input about flounder fishing please feel free to share it here, I am no expert at Florida flounder fishing and I wish to get some more information on catching these types of fish myself. Some other types of fish that you may hook up with when flounder fishing are snook, redfish, seatrout, and small sharks.

flounder, florida flounder fishing, flatfish, tampa bay fishing

Add to del.icio.us

Stumble This