Fishing Tampa Bay

Fishing Tampa Bay

Report Date: March 1, 2004

Weekend fishing in March is sure getting to be a challenge. I poled into Little Cockroach Bay on a Sunday afternoon and there was a boat in every hole and pass. Think I will start fishing mackerel on the weekends and even that promises to be crowded.

Despite the crowds, there were some fish caught on the weekend. Capt. Nick Winger of Apollo Beach found redfish and trout for his clients. Capt. Chet Jennings of Balm also reported catching snook, redfish and trout.

I cruised the flats for cobia two times last week and saw only two fish. Both were on stingrays, which is not the type of ray I usually see them with. More often, they travel with eagle rays where I fish, but this has not been the case so far this year. There are plenty of spotted rays around, but for some strange reason, this year the cobia aren?t trailing them. I hope that behavior pattern changes, because the spotted eagle rays ten to swim higher in the water column and they are much easier to see. One of the cobia we saw was in the 40-pound class, but the other was a short. I was able to get the big fish to follow a Long A Bomber off the ray, but he got too close to the boat without taking the lure and spooked. The smaller fish ignored several good casts. We also saw a giant tarpon laid up in clear shallow water, but he wouldn?t eat either.

We have two tournaments coming up at Shell Point Bait and Tackle. The first is the ?Catch and Release in A Pot of Hot Grease Mackerel Tournament? scheduled for May 02. There will be a fish fry following the weigh in where we will cook all the fish weighed by contestants. The other tournament is for fly fishermen and will be a catch and release affair for redfish. It?s scheduled for May 22.

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Tampa Bay – Bradenton – Sarasota – Boca Grande
941-737-5985

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