This week on the water in Tampa Bay the story is heat and timing. Bay temperatures are running 86 to 90 degrees, dissolved oxygen sags in the shallow backwaters by mid-morning, and the fish have compressed into a short, productive dawn window. Get the boat off the trailer in the dark and you will catch. Show up at nine and you will mostly ride around.
What’s Hitting
Redfish are the main event — the upper bay schools have formed up on the bars and mangrove edges, and singles are cruising shorelines at the top of the tide. Mangrove snapper are excellent on the Skyway, the bridge rubble and the residential docks. Snook are stacked on the passes and the bridge lights at night, catch-and-release for a few more days on the Gulf coast. A handful of late tarpon are still working the beaches and the ship channel edges. Nearshore, Spanish mackerel and kingfish are on the bait pods in 30 to 60 feet.
Where to Find Them
The best redfish concentrations are along the upper-bay shorelines from the Alafia mouth around to Weedon Island, and on the oyster bars in the Little Manatee and Cockroach Bay area. Snapper are on any hard structure in the bay — Skyway rubble, Gandy and Howard Frankland pilings, deeper canal docks. For late tarpon, run the beach from Egmont to Pass-a-Grille at gray light. Snook are on Bunces Pass, Blind Pass and the Skyway approaches after dark.
Tides & Conditions
The building moon gives a strong late-morning outgoing tide most days this week, which is the one to plan around for the passes and the bridge structure. Water is dirtier than usual in the upper bay after heavy rain. Storms build inland and roll back toward the bay by mid-afternoon nearly every day — plan a hard turnaround time. Winds light and variable in the morning, southwest sea breeze by noon.
Tackle & Tactics
For redfish, a 3000-size spinner with 15- to 20-pound braid and 25-pound fluorocarbon is plenty. Cut ladyfish or a live pinfish on a light jighead has been outproducing artificials in the warm, off-color water, but a gold spoon still works on the clean high tide. Snapper want 15-pound fluoro, a 1/0 hook and a small live shrimp — go lighter than feels right. Snook at the bridge lights: white flair hawk jigs or a live pilchard drifted into the shadow line. For nearshore macks, a long shank hook, fast retrieve and a live whitebait chum line.
Local Intel This Week
Fort De Soto’s main ramp gives the quickest access to the passes and the beach tarpon run. E.G. Simmons Park is the practical launch for the Cockroach Bay and Little Manatee redfish water, and the Gandy and Ben T. Davis ramps put you on the mid-bay bridges fast. Fish are concentrating on moving water and shade — bars with current, dock lines, bridge shadow. Redfish and snook regulations in the Tampa Bay area have changed several times in recent years; check current FWC regulations and seasons before keeping any fish.
This Week’s Tip
When you find a redfish school in shallow water this time of year, kill the trolling motor a long cast before you think you need to and let the boat coast. Warm, shallow water transmits hull noise hard, and a school that gets bumped once will not settle back down on that bar for the rest of the tide.
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