The hogfish bite has been HOT lately around Tampa’s nearshore waters from around 40-70ft of water. They are doing very well on our 5 hour half-days, 10 hour all-days and the nearshore private fishing charters in that depth range for hogfish. Live shrimp are the best option for the hogfish for plenty of action and hogfish bites. Some really do well with those Nekid ball jigz around 1-2oz putting a live shrimp on them while targeting the hogfish.
Christina Fernandez, from Orlando, went out on a 5 hour half-day and caught a full day’s limit of 5 hogfish during that 5 hour half day using the 1oz green Nekid ball jig tipped with double shrimp. I like using a knocker rig style set up for the hogfish with a 1oz egg sinker and a 3-4ot hook with a live shrimp for bait. Others enjoy using a jig head set up for the hogfish with live shrimp too. Any of these three methods will give you a shot at a nice hogfish near shore this time of year.
Grouper fishing has been going pretty well near shore as of late. Around near shore waters the red grouper seem to be pretty active from around 50-100ft of water to our west and south west. While to our north and around the mouth of Tampa bay the gag grouper seem to be biting and cooperating best. Either species really are going after the friskier live baits right now but as waters continue to cool those smellier and oily dead baits become more and more effective.
Mackerel and kingfish are still around right now but its definitely starting to cool down nearshore. They love the clearer waters and areas that are holding live baits like bigger rock piles or artificial reefs. The best way to target them in bulk is by trolling around with some planners and spoons with 12-18ft of 60lb test between the planner and spoons or the bigger Rapala Xraps to specifically target those kingfish while trolling.
