Tropical storm Bonnie had little impact on Tampa Bay Saturday. Many stayed in port and missed a super day. East winds 10-15 made for some chop but nothing bad at all. With good pal Chris on board we headed to the south Skyway Bridge to gather white baits. Today 2 tosses of the net had the live well blacked out. With small baits it's critical you use a ¼" mesh as 3/8 will only gill your baits and make a mess of your net.
We ran towards Port Manatee and set up on a 4-6' grass flat. We started with 4" DOA silver shad jerk baits on 1/8oz Mission jig heads. Bouncing our lures over the grass bottom quickly trout and mackerel inhaled our offerings. The first hour we caught over 40 fish. When the action slowed we would raise the Power Pole and drift until we found action. Deploying the Power Pole we were back in the action again.
The man in the grey suit decided to give us a visit, a big bull shark well over 6' checked us out. Several passes and then off the big Bull shark went. I observed a Tiger shark in the same area several months ago. It's no coincidence the sharks are following the same path summer Tarpon travel. We also ran across numerous schools of jacks and mackerel chasing baits to the surface and taking our live baits or lures with abandon.
We spent 30 minutes looking for snook and managed several blow ups on 25" snook. Heavy chumming with small whites baits fired up the action for several minutes.
Captain Steven Markovich
www.onthemarkcharters.com
