Fishing Forum

Tampa Bay Area

Fishing Report Captain Charles Walker

1/12/03



Most of the last week was not the greatest weather for fishing in our area. The winds out of the west and northwest, muddy water close in and just not great fishing weather over-all. The weather forecast for the coming week looks fair even though winds will be generally out of the north, they may be down enough to go fishing. The best grouper fishing for most of us will be in the ship’s channel inside Tampa Bay. I’ve said it before and may sound like a broken record, but the most consistent fishing in the winter is right along the edges of the channel on the roughest spots you can find. The grouper are big but because of the low water temperature, you may have to fish a spot longer than normal to get them to bite your hook. Use plenty of chum on the bottom and fish with frozen sardines and squid for the best results. Big shrimp work well also, but you lose a lot of them to very small fish. You can also troll the edges with big-lipped plugs and heavy jigs with 6-8 inch tails, but you need a lot of practice to do that and maintain the right depth without losing expensive tackle on every rock.

On to the bait house reports:
Ruskin Bait and Tackle - 813-641-2325 – The Little Manatee River has been producing tons of 3-5 pound sheepshead. The passes around Cockroach Bay have been producing specs on the incoming tides. The silver trout finally showed up in the Port Manatee Channel. Blacktips are biting in the warm waters of the power plant.
Buddy’s Bait and Tackle on the Courteney Campbell Causeway in Tampa - 813-287-1026 – The best fishing at this end of the Bay has been for sheepshead. Typical winter time fishing, scrape some barnacles to chum them up and bait your hook with pieces of shrimp or clam or bloodworm or even squid and fish around the rocks and pilings.
Trappman’s Bait and Tackle on Gandy Blvd in St. Petersburg - 727-579-1414 – Silver trout, sheepshead and some nice speckled trout have been caught this week in our area. The sheepshead are the big story of course, around every rock and piling, but the silvers have been biting well also on pieces of shrimp fished on the bottom.
Pass-a-Grille Bait and Tackle on St. Pete Beach - 727-360-6606 – Fishing slowed down this week offshore because of the weather and water temperature, but sheepshead fishing on our gas dock has really picked up.
The Skyway Fishing Pier - 727-865-0668 and the south Skyway - 941-729-0117 – sheepshead fishing is hot this week. Some grouper and mangrove snapper have been caught. Silver trout are biting well and there have been plenty of stingrays caught at night.


Folks, feel free to call any of the places in my report for more information, and be sure to tell them that you read about the fishing in their area in Capt. Charlie’s fishing report on the Internet.


If you want more information about fishing in the Tampa Bay area or wish to book a charter, simply e-mail me at captchas@flfish.com or if you wish to arrange a charter faster, call me at 727-546-7257. Be sure and visit my web site for lots more Tampa Bay Area fishing info at: [url "http://www.floridasaltwater.com/"][#0000ff]http://www.floridasaltwater.com[/#0000ff][/url] .



Good fishing and tight lines,

Capt. Charlie

http://www.flfish.com
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