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Fish Tales
Pompano are fun to catch, great to eat
By CAPT. TYSON WALLERSTEIN
Article published on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007 |
Pompano fishing usually peaks this time of year and it appears this season is no different. Area bridges such as the Tierra Verde Bridge, the Meisner Bridge and the Gandy are all hot spots right now.
Anglers fishing the current eddies on the downtide side of the bridge using half-and-three-eighths ounce yellow “Silly Willy” jigs have been able to catch a limit of pomps fairly easy. Live fiddler crabs and shrimp also will produce, but most anglers prefer the ease of the jig as they can walk from piling to piling until they find a school of pompano.
Drop the jig directly behind the piling and jig it up and down erratically throughout the water column. If the bite is slow, try scraping the pilings with a spade in order to attract the schools.
Red fishing in the southern part of our county has been pretty good as well. Tierra Verde, Fort DeSoto and Pinellas Point are holding schools of redfish. Most of these fish are large breeder-sized reds and are very wary of boat noise, so use your push pole to approach with stealth.
Use top-water plugs early in the morning and switch to a corked pinfish later in the day as the fish become more skittish.
Trout are making their presence felt in our northern county. Good places to look for trout of all sizes are Upper Boca Ciega Bay around John’s Pass and Clearwater Harbor, also around the pass. With plenty of Ballyhoo and needlefish on the flats right now, look for this to be the primary food source of the trout. Try using light colored jerk-baits rigged on a jig head for artificials and, for live bait, chum up some pilchards in the same areas and do some live chumming to fire the fish up.
Mangrove snapper are by far the most abundant species available for inshore anglers right now. Every bridge piling and pass jetty in our area is absolutely slammed with mangrove snapper. Loads of juvenile Spanish sardines can be castnetted along bridge shadow lines and they make for perfect snapper bait.
Until next week – GET BENT!
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, Sept. 20, 2007
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Tampa Bay Newspapers
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Seminole, FL 33772
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