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Fish Tales
Tarpon, snook take stage
By CAPT. TYSON WALLERSTEIN
Article published on Thursday, May 8, 2008 |
Anticipation as well as expectations of phenomenal fishing will reach their peak this upcoming week with the onset of the New Moon.
Strong tides provided by the moons absence will have Tarpon and Snook looking to fatten up for their upcoming spawn.
Not surprising, these fish being distant cousins behave somewhat similar in their mating, feeding and migration patterns.
Both of these fish will stage in the passes over the next week.
For the snook, this is where the majority of the fish will do their summer spawn on the full moon periods and in between spawning acts, will feed ravenously on any baitfish or crustacean that passes by.
For the tarpon, the passes are strictly places to post-up and feed in between full moons, when they will travel offshore to spawn. Crabs of all sizes are pulled off of surrounding grass flats by the strong tides. As they ride high on the surface of the water looking for any piece of grass to latch onto for safety the tarpon easily pick them off.
Look for big spawning aggregations of snook to show up in the sandy shallows of the passes. Shell Island, Egmont Key, Clearwater pass and Hurricane pass already have good concentrations of snook. Live bait chumming with medium sized threadfins and pilchards is standard practice for the small to mid slot snook. If you are pursuing a trophy, big baits are a must. Shad, live or dead is a great bait as well as a hand-sized grunt. The big fish will hang in the deeper water, so a little bit of weight can be used to get your bait to the bottom.
Our lackluster kingfish season picked up this past week with schools of smaller fish showing up at a few of the artificial reefs. Slow trolling live baits will keep you busy with these schoolie kings.
Cobia are also a good option for those anglers fishing the artificial reefs, be sure to keep a rod rigged with a mono leader and a stout hook just in case one of these brown bombers decides to show up behind the boat.
Tyson Wallerstein can be reached at capt.tyson@hotmail.com. If you have a fish picture you would like to see published in the newspaper, send it with your name and where it was caught, to: “Fish Tales,” Tampa Bay Newspapers, 9911 Seminole Blvd., Seminole, FL 33772, or e-mail it to editorial@TBNweekly.com.
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Article published on Thursday, May 8, 2008
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Tampa Bay Newspapers
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Seminole, FL 33772
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