Charter Fishing Tampa Bay Florida

Summertime fishing is in full swing and here’s some things we’ve been seeing lately while fishing Tampa Bay. I’ve been leaving out of my favorite area in lower St. Petersburg every day lately and heading south to start fishing Tampa Bay area grass flats and bridge structures. The bait has been about as easy as it gets out on the flats lately. I’ve chosen to stick with bait on the flats because of the good mixture of small to large bait in the same areas. I’ve been checking the contents of all the fish I’m cleaning lately and every fish has had this years fry bait in it’s stomach. So with that being said, out on my fishing charters in Tampa Bay we’ve been using smaller bait for the most part under a cork in shallow water in the mornings and then progressing to deeper as the sun comes up and the water starts to warm. Most of my charter fishing customers have been sticking with 4 hour charters due to the summer heat and the fact that by around noon the bite can slow much of the time due to the fish getting a little lethargic. We’ve seen catches of speckled trout, silver trout, spanish mackerel, redfish, mangrove snapper, cobia, bluefish, snook, jack crevalle, many different kinds of shark,  and more. Speaking of sharks, I’ve fished them almost every trip this summer and this year has proven to be one of the better years for consistency while shark fishing Tampa Bay. More than once have I set up on a fishing spot and put a bait out and while feeding line out into the current to get the bait away from the boat I’ve had a shark eat the bait and start ripping line off the reel! That just goes to show how many are down current of the boat before I’m even putting the bait in the water… It’ s going to stay like this throughout summer and into fall so book your fishing adventure today or if you’ve got your own boat go out there and be safe and catch em’ up!

Capt. Chris