A long stretch of picture-perfect days has really helped to bring up our local water temperature.
Now at nearly 70 degrees some of the best fishing of the year will take place over the next 30 days.
As the water warms the baitfish begin to flood the area.
Area bridges are night time bait attracters. Throw a cast net along the shadow lines for pilchard and threadfins.
The Skyway Bridge has been loaded with bait for a few weeks now and can be caught both night and day.
This time of year local fish species seem to go absolutely nuts for an oily, protein rich live pilchard.
Spanish mackerel made their entrance into the bay area this past week; anglers fishing the Skyway fishing piers caught plenty of Spanish all week.
Free-lined live baits or Silver spoons and Gotcha plugs all catch fish. There were even a couple of kingfish hooked-up, so it won’t be long before we see the first big push of them.
Snook fishing has improved quite a bit as of late; casting live pilchards around known docks and mangrove Island points brought a nice addition to the daily routine. Most of the fish were below slot, but it won’t be long before those larger fish poke their heads out.
Mangrove snapper are prevalent on all of the near-shore reefs as well as the Skyway bridge area. Snapper fishing has been excellent with the warmer water. The key to success has been to chum heavy with cut sardines.
Free line your bait behind the boat so it looks like a piece of chum. If the tide is too strong try a 1/4- or 1/2-ounce egg sinker to get it down a little. Also, having some live pilchards on hand has been effective for catch and release grouper and accounted for some of the larger snapper.
Capt. Wallerstein can be reached at capt.tyson1@tampabay.rr.com. To get a fish photo in the paper, send the photo along with your name, when and where it was caught to Fish Tales, Tampa Bay Newspapers, 9911 Seminole Blvd., Seminole, FL 33772, or e-mail to editorial@tbnweekly.com.
