Tampa Bay offers some great Bay fishing this time of year!
Tampa Bay is host to some of the best flats fishing charters around. Miles of grass flats and mangroves outline one of the biggest cities in Florida. Most that call and book a Tampa fishing charter typically ask about Snook fishing, Trout, Reds and Tarpon during the summer months. Most don’t realize that Tampa Bay has so much more fishing to offer.
There is so much more to explore in the bay besides just Tampa flats fishing. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love catching fish on the flats. Cockroach bay was the main culprit to my passion for fishing as a kid. With smaller boats we never left the flats. As I have started guiding I have ventured out to the bay and discovered a whole new lift to fishing.
Tampa Bay is host to hundreds of reefs and wrecks and everyone knows that fish love structure. These artificial reefs hold Grouper, Tarpon, Snapper, Mackerel, and Goliath Grouper just to name a few. While the spring and fall these can be a little difficult to fish every day do to windy conditions, the summer time is typically consistent with weather. This makes for easy anchoring and fishing.
The most common questions asked about Tampa bay fishing is how to find the wrecks. This used to be a difficult year back but with the evolution of the internet and GPS technology its pretty easy to find wrecks to fish. My Simrad EVO 2 Matched with a Navionics Platinum chip has wrecks that I never knew existed. Some are huge and have a lot of people fishing them and others are very small and might just be a little rubble. I prefer to find the smaller ones that people typically do not go to. I feel that they are not fished as hard and will probably hold more fish.
One of the other negative things that people used to say about Tampa fishing wrecks was that getting anchored on the correct spot was a pain and very time consuming. Well there are a few simple tools that make this easier to hit your mark. You should always have a throw buoy to make the specific spot that you want to have your boat land at. (The offshore guys a were always the best at this) Well since the evolution of the GPS anchoring trolling motors this is as easy as hitting a button (Just like using Power Poles) I can’t say enough about Rhodan marine which were the first to the market with GPS Anchoring system and rolling motors. These state of the art electrical remote-controlled trolling motors have changed the way we fish.
Last when fishing Tampa Bay would have to be what type of bait to use. Since most wrecks are in a vast area chumming is always a good idea. There are various ways this can be done, using a chum block or cutting bait up is the most common. This works well and brings the fish to the boat. You also want to make sure to have all types of tackle as you never know what you will catch. You could end up with a 10-inch Snapper or a 200lb Goliath Grouper so make sure and be prepared when going on your next fishing adventure.
Captain Jason Prieto is a native resident of Tampa and has fished
Tampa Bay and its surrounding waters for the past 20 years. He is
owner and operator of Steady Action Fishing Charters which is based
out of lower Tampa Bay. To book a charter, you can reach him at
813-727-9890 or www.steadyactionfishingcharters.com. If you would like
to catch him on the internet tune into Tampa Fishing Outfitters
Fishing Show On Facebook live and You tube from 6 to 7Pm every
Wednesday evening Come join us in the fun…
