Tampa Bay fishing report in a word awesome. Falls in the air with water temperatures in the 70 and morning low temps falling into the low 70's and upper 60's. Baits super abundant and easy to gather. The hard part of a Tampa Bay fishing charter is what or how many species to target.
While running to my St. Petersburg beach Mackerel, Kingfish and shark hot spot we ran into schools of Bonita aka Little Tunny chasing bait into a boiling frenzy. I quickly changed bait hooks for Clark silver spoons and had my anglers cast into the schools and reel as fast as possible. Instant hook ups and screaming drags by all 3 anglers makes this Captain very excited.
With the schools of Bonita were sharks big sharks. Every 10 minutes we had one of our 10-12 pound Bonita's eaten and then the fun really began. There's even Tarpon in and around the bait the Bonita's are chasing.
Finally we made it to section of hard pan bottom in 20' for some Mackerel action. Casting live white baits on 2/0 long shank hooks without any weights worked over and over. When the action slowed I would toss live chum baits and get the action started again. No Kingfish this trip but look for the big push of migrating Kings to show up anytime.
Redfish action is good for large over the slot bruisers. Tampa Bay's eastern shoreline is producing solid catches of snook especially on the high outgoing tide.
Captain Steven
