A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..
A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Considerable clouds this evening. Some decrease in clouds late. Low around 80F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: July 12, 2024 @ 10:12 am
This youngster shows off a trout caught on a recent trip with Capt. Chuck Rogers. The trout bite has been particularly good in Tampa Bay, with fish around hard bottom and sand bars mid-bay below the Gandy Bridge. Live sardines have been a good bait choice.
While the Spanish mackerel fishing up to Gandy Bridge area has slowed, putting in some time chumming can pay off with fish like this one.
This youngster shows off a trout caught on a recent trip with Capt. Chuck Rogers. The trout bite has been particularly good in Tampa Bay, with fish around hard bottom and sand bars mid-bay below the Gandy Bridge. Live sardines have been a good bait choice.
While the Spanish mackerel fishing up to Gandy Bridge area has slowed, putting in some time chumming can pay off with fish like this one.
Capt. Chuck Rogers (813-918-8356): Capt. Chuck has been putting his anglers on some great trout action, which has been the most reliable bite over the past week. The fish are on the edges of sand bars and shell in the middle of the bay below the Gandy Bridge in 4 to 5 feet of water. He’s been using live sardines to take fish up to 20 inches. For some good fun, look for juvenile tarpon in residential canals. Live sardines or shrimp are good baits for them. The mangrove snapper bite has picked up, with fish around bridge and dock pilings. Live shrimp is best, as most of the scaled sardines right now are too big for them. There are a few scattered Spanish mackerel in the open waters of the bay, though their numbers have dwindled in the last week or two. There also are some schools of bluefish around. Chumming can help with either species.
Capt. George Hastick (727-525-1005): Capt. George continues to pick up some smaller snook and a few reds by working the shade of mangroves below the Gandy Bridge. Live pinfish or scaled sardines have been working on both, and while he’s taken some reds on fresh cut threadfins, he’s hooked more snook on the dead bait than live. To draw the fish out away from the mangroves, chumming with live sardines has been effective. Trout landed over the past few days have been a bit smaller, with fish 13 to 15 inches hanging around grass beds and coral, hard bottom areas in 5-8 feet of water. Some of the fish being landed are silver trout, with some measuring up to 13 inches, which is pretty big for the species. Jigs with soft-plastic tails have been getting it done. The schools of Spanish mackerel have thinned out, at least in the region around the Gandy Bridge.
Gandy Bait & Tackle (813-839-5551): Zack says anglers are reporting a much-improved trout bite, with fish on grass flats in 5 to 6 feet of water. Plenty of keeper-sized fish are being landed. Try looking on the shallow flats early in the day, as the bigger fish are there when the tide is up. As the day heats up, they move to deeper water. Customers have been reporting reds in many parts of the bay above and below the Gandy Bridge. Look for them around the mangroves when the water is up. The mangrove snapper bite has been good on the bay bridge pilings. Live shrimp works well. There are some Spanish mackerel schools around, though it takes some hunting or chumming to find them. A few tripletail have been taken off markers and tripods and a few have found cobia around the structures. Offshore anglers are reporting good red snapper fishing 30 to 40 miles out.
Riviera Bait & Tackle (727-954-6365): Billy reports anglers are finding lots of tarpon, with the big fish cruising the light lines of the bridge at night and the juveniles to about 30 pounds in backwater bays and canals. A few customers have landed some nice cobia and some reported getting some pompano. Trout fishing has been solid, with fish on the grass beds in 5 to 8 feet of water. Live shrimp or jigs take them. Offshore anglers fishing the reefs and wrecks have reported taking some big permit.
Angler 360 (727-669-5455): Keith says anglers fishing above the Courtney Campbell Causeway have been taking some juvenile tarpon in canals. For the big tarpon, his customers have been working the beaches from St. Pete north to Honeymoon Island. The grass flats above the causeway have been producing some fair numbers of trout on jigs or shrimp, and the creeks have been giving up some reds when the tide is flowing. The bridge pilings on the big and small causeway bridges have been giving up some mangrove snapper and sheepshead.
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