1) At Big Pier 60 in Clearwater, anglers catching Spanish mackerel, sheepshead and whiting. Water temperature 61.5 Thursday at 1 p.m., down 2 degrees from a week ago.
2) At Madeira Beach, bottom fishing for mangrove snapper and hogfish the most consistent pattern in 50-70 feet. Red grouper decent, and will improve when the Gulf warms and cold fronts slow down.
3) At John’s Pass, week of milder weather has perked up flats action along Intercoastal and throughout Boca Ciega Bay for trout and redfish. Sheepshead steady around dock pilings — scrape barnacles and drop shrimp or frozen fiddler crabs on 1/ 4-ounce jig-heads.
4) At Fort DeSoto Park, one of best spots in bay area for nice trout, but it takes some patience — use live shrimp with a split-shot to keep it on bottom and hop it slightly to create little puffs of sand until it warms up a little more.
5) Around the Sunshine Skyway and lower Tampa Bay, best week of the year for big trout on flats for Capt. Shawn Crawford of Lakeland (941-705-3160). Fishing with greenbacks for first time this year, Crawford brought in boat limits for 3-4 anglers Tuesday to Thursday and released a 26-inch trout Tuesday, a 28-incher Wednesday and a 24-incher Thursday as well as others in 20-inch class. He’s also catching some snook, including a 30-incher Tuesday and 32-incher Wednesday. On Thursday, keeper trout all 17 1/ 2-19 1/ 2 inches. Water temperature 64 early on flats, up to 68. Crawford netting greenbacks at Skyway – he said it came in Monday from offshore, and could see it shimmering along entire edge of shipping channel from north end of Egmont to the Skyway. But bait was tougher after Monday, and no greenbacks on flats yet. Crawford hasn’t seen any redfish. Lot more boats on the water this week.
6) At Anna Maria, mixed bag of pompano, trout, Spanish mackerel, sheepshead and bluefish on Thursday for Capt. Scott Moore of Anna Maria (941-713-1921). Moore’s anglers were using shrimp on an artificial reef in bay early, then casting MirrOlure Lil John jerkbaits (white with skies overcast) and working shrimp on bottom with weights for trout and pompano on flats north of Manatee Avenue Bridge. Moore said it’s getting to be the perfect time of year to catch trout, snook and redfish on topwater lures in shallow water at spots like Cockroach Bay and Bishop’s Harbor. Snook starting to ease out of canals and creeks in some spots in Sarasota Bay, but Moore said nights need to be around 60 degrees before that takes off. Offshore, nice mangrove snapper and big grunts on rock piles and rubble 3-9 miles out with shrimp, said Capt. Shawn Crawford.
7) At St. Petersburg, 25-30 sheepshead up to 4 pounds for anglers with Capt. Chuck Rogers of Tampa (813-918-8356) Thursday. Rogers rigging half a shrimp with 1/ 4-ounce weight on rock piles in 12 feet in middle of bay where pipeline came through. They also landed a 17-inch tripletail and half a dozen mangrove snapper 12-13 inches. Capt. Jason Lineberger of Tampa (813-363-9474) keeping good numbers of sheepshead 2-8 pounds in downtown Tampa area Sunday, Monday and Tuesday around docks on whole shrimp using No. 2 hooks on 20-pound fluorocarbon leader with 1/ 4-ounce split-shot, scraping barnacles on pilings to get bite going. Lineberger’s fishermen caught two sheepshead close to 9 pounds Monday, and he said Capt. Sergio Atanes got a 12-pounder at the Port Tampa reef. Lineberger catching 5-7 redfish per trip 31-35 inches on Gulp! Shrimp off bottom in Simmons Park area, along with a few trout 18-20 inches. Lineberger fishing edges of small schools of reds to keep from spooking them. Rogers and Lineberger said bay needs to warm up couple more degrees to about 68-69 for redfish to be more active.
8) In the north end of Tampa Bay, good trout bite at Double Branch. Redfish fair in potholes north of Howard Frankland on dark-colored jerkbaits.
Elsewhere
On the Space Coast, fishing improved during past week, with sight-fishing for redfish back on menu with calmer conditions, reports Capt. Keith Mixon of Lakeland (captainkeithmixon@gmail.com). Redfish up to 30 inches in Banana River, with Thousand Islands area productive. Mixon casts live shrimp or scented jerkbaits in bright colors mid-mornings to feeding reds near potholes. Mangrove snapper 10-12 inches active and going for live shrimp near jetties, old boat docks and mangrove shorelines with steep drop-offs.
At Fort Pierce, good bottom fishing for mutton snapper, mangrove snapper, lane snapper and triggerfish, reports Clint Walker at the Fishing Center of St. Lucie (772-465-7637). A few dolphin in 70-90 feet. Pompano just off beaches in 15 feet by boats, but hordes of sharks (blacktips, spinners) often snapping them up. Also pompano in river to the south on Doc’s Goofy jigs. Snook in inlet on live bait during day, and at turning basin and bridges at night on feather jigs. Spanish mackerel and a few bluefish off jetty on spoons. A few flounder on beach side of south jetty using Troll-Rites and shrimp. Sheepshead, black drum and mangrove snapper off catwalks on shrimp.

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