<\/p>\n
Guide bites<\/p>\n
Capt. George Hastick (727-525-1005): Capt. George says the action in the bay is on, with flooded mangrove lines along the Pinellas side of the bay from St. Petersburg up to the Gandy Bridge producing snook and redfish. The schools of sardines are on the shallow grass flats in the morning, and they\u2019ve been his top bait. The snook have been running from 20 to 24 inches, but the big fish of the past week measured 30 inches. They are taking baits dropped near the growth when the current is running. Redfish have been there, as well, also taking the live sardines. Most have been running between 18 and 25 inches, though a couple of well-oversized fish of 38 inches have been landed. Trout have been on grass flats with sandy patches in 4 to 5 feet of water, and the live sardines have been taking slot-sized fish. Quarter-ounce jig heads with white soft-plastic Sea Shad tails also produce good numbers and jigging is a good way to locate pockets of trout, as they allow sampling more water quickly. School of Spanish mackerel are all over rocks, reefs and other submerged structure from Pinellas Point almost to the Gandy Bridge, a live sardines or spoons are taking plenty between 16 and 24 inches. More mangrove snappers are showing up around dock pilings and around mangroves, with the numbers of keeper-sized fish picking up nicely over the past week. Small, live sardines or shrimp is the best bait. For fun, schools of jacks have been plentiful of late. They\u2019ll take about anything thrown at them.<\/p>\n
Capt. Chuck Rogers (813-918-8356): Capt. Chuck reports that the schools of Spanish mackerel have moved into the bay, making it easier to catch a bunch. Fish have been at the Gandy Bridge in big numbers, and he\u2019s been anchoring in the shade with drifting live sardines behind the boat on incoming tides to take fish up to 26 inches. Working flooded mangroves around the Gandy area has been producing redfish and snook. The reds have been taking live and cut sardines, with slot fish common and a few oversized. They\u2019ve been running in small pods of 4 or 5 fish. Smaller, male snook have been there with them, taking live sardines under the shade of the mangroves when the current is flowing. Fish to 25 inches have been landed on his trips, with one day producing five around that size. Jacks are showing up in catches and sharks are around in good numbers. After losing mackerel to sharks over the past week, he\u2019s been dropping back a bait on a shark outfit, which has resulted in a sandbar shark every time he\u2019s tried.<\/p>\n
Tackle shop roundup<\/p>\n
Gandy Bait & Tackle (813-839-5551): Bill says anglers have been getting into schools of Spanish mackerel as far up as near the Gandy Bridge, though the most fish have been feeding on bait schools from around downtown St. Petersburg out to the Skyway Bridge. Anchoring and chumming when the tide is running will bring them to you. Small, live sardines are good baits. Redfish action has been pretty good around mangroves when the water is high, with catches above and below the Gandy Bridge on both sides of the bay. Trout have made their move from deeper water and canals to the grass flats in 4 to 6 feet of water. Live shrimp or jigs with soft-plastics take them. Snook have moved out of backwaters, as well, and have been gravitating to mangroves, rock points and oyster bars. A few reports of kingfish in the Gulf off the mouth of the bay have come in, along with a couple of catches at the Skyway Bridge. Bill expects the schools of threadfin shad in the bay may draw them in farther in the days ahead.<\/p>\n
Riviera Bait & Tackle (727-954-6365): Jacob says anglers are starting to have more luck around the beach passes with redfish, along with the first snooks that have started moving to the Gulf beaches. Both remain inside the bay, as well, with reds on the flats around Fort Desoto in good numbers. The Tierra Verde area and docks there have been producing some snook, but catches in Riviera Bay have been reported over the past week. Tierra Verde also has produced some nice flounder. Jigs with 4- to 5-inch soft plastic paddle-tails have been working well. One angler landed a pair of 19-inch flounder. Trout fishing has been average, with the largest fish reported lately being around bay bridges. Live sardines and shrimp have been working well. Some jumbo black drum have moved into the bay, with fish running in pods of five or six, taking shrimp. Fish have been taken in Riviera Bay and in Americana Cove east of Weedon Island. Jacob suggests anglers keep an eye out for them at the Bayside Bridge just above the St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. Offshore, anglers have been scoring some good numbers of hogfish on rocky bottom in 65 to 70 feet of water. While offshore, anglers may want to drag plugs or spoons, as the kingfish are around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guide bites Capt. George Hastick (727-525-1005): Capt. George says the action in the bay is on, with flooded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3247,23132,1791,3257,3256,3050,3261,12251,3259,276,28001,3250,105,3252,600,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-223398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-angling","9":"tag-common-snook","10":"tag-fish","11":"tag-fish-and-humans","12":"tag-fisheries-science","13":"tag-fishing","14":"tag-fishing-bait","15":"tag-fishing-industry","16":"tag-fishing-tackle","17":"tag-hillsborough-county","18":"tag-king-mackerel","19":"tag-outdoor-recreation","20":"tag-outdoors","21":"tag-primary-sector-of-the-economy","22":"tag-recreation","23":"tag-tampa","24":"tag-tampa-headlines","25":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}