Guide bites
Capt. George Hastick (727-525-1005): Capt. George reports a nice mixed bag coming to the boat on most of his trips. He’s been sticking to fishing both north and south of both ends of the Gandy Bridge, where mangroves and docks have been holding redfish and some snook. The reds often are trailing mullet schools, with the amount of mullet the greatest he’s seen in years. The reds are mixing, with fish as small as 10 inches taking shrimp, cut bait or live sardines, and slot-sized fish coming from the same spot. A few snook are on the mangroves, but docks have been holding the big one. On one trip a senior angler who hooked a fish of about 40 inches or more struggled as the fish wrapped the line around the motor, then darted for dock pilings. It eventually was fought into open water with the captain’s help, but the line got wrapped around the tip of the rod and snapped. The fish took a piece of fresh cut bait. Sheepshead fishing is good, with lots of them to 18 inches on rocks in 10 to 15 feet of water. Gag and small red grouper and grunts have been on some of the same rocks. An angler buddy reported getting some very large grunts in bay shipping channels. Trout fishing has been decent, with fish from undersized to about 18 inches on grass flats with patches of sand in 5 to 6 feet of water. The bites shut down quickly and moving to a new spot has been the drill over the past week. Live shrimp and sardines, along with white Sea Shad soft plastics on jig heads are working well.
Tackle shop roundup
Gandy Bait & Tackle (813-839-5551): Zack says anglers have been enjoying a pretty good bite all around in the bay. Lots of redfish are being reported around Weedon and Picnic islands, as well as on flats near the Howard Frankland Bridge, though the numbers of undersized fish has exploded over the past week or so. The bigger reds reported have been coming from the top of the bay, above the Courtney Campbell Causeway, though anglers there also are dealing with throw-backs. Trout fishing has been good on the grass flats in the Gandy Bridge area, with fish in 5 feet or more of water early in the day and moving up on shallower flats as the sun gets higher. There also have been some taken under the Gandy Bridge. Sheepshead fishing has picked up, with fish around dock and bridge pilings, as well as submerged rocks. Live fiddler crabs are the top bait. Black drum are being landed under the Gandy and Howard Frankland bridges. Chunks of blue crab are working best. Whiting have shown up in decent numbers, with the channel coming out of the Gandy boat ramp producing some nice numbers on live and frozen shrimp. Snook are in the rivers and in some residential canals, though the bite is inconsistent. A few anglers have found tripletail around markers in unrestricted waters near MacDill Air Force Base.
Riviera Bait & Tackle (727-954-6365): Jacob says anglers are scoring lots of big trout in many parts of the bay right now. The action has been on patches of grass and sand in 3 to 5 feet of water. Black drum schools have been on the shallow flats but are on the move, so they won’t be on the same flat every day, though they’ve been found a few times on flats at Coquina Key. Snook fishing has been slow, but when they are taking baits, some big ones have been caught. Live baits free-lined on the lightest leader possible have been producing. Sheepshead fishing is very good, with structure around Demens Park a hotspot that’s producing as many as 60 fish for some anglers. Jacob got offshore and found some blackfin tuna in 80 feet of water, taking several vertical jigging, along with an amberjack and some bonito.