We have seen lots of hungry snook around the area this past week, especially just before sunrise on the outgoing tide they have been stacked around the structures in the passes. I have caught a snook every morning I dropped a line this past week nearly as quickly as I started fishing. Here’s an example of the action, a live video we filmed yesterday morning: https://www.facebook.com/hubbardsmarina/videos/1023941597997710/ this has been a common sight from Clearwater to south of Tampa bay in the passes where the water is flowing and the bait is present! We are catching them using live pass crabs, shrimp, and greenbacks for live bait. Artificial baits that have been working well are the live target mullet, flair hawk style jigs and the heavier artificial shrimp. The trick with the artificials is ensuring you are presenting your bait naturally with the current. You can’t work your lure against the current because a bait fish couldn’t naturally swim against the current like that. Also, make sure to get your lure in the strike zone of where the fish are feeding so they can ambush your lure just like how they are feeding on the natural bait.
Tarpon are still around the area as well, it maybe later in the summer and nearly fall but we still have some Tarpon in the area. Typically around Mid-September, but definitely by the end of September a majority if not all the tarpon vacate the area and head south for the cooler weather months until their late spring early summer return the following year. However, this year they seem to be hanging around and feeding very aggressively around the bridges of the passes where water is deeper and the bait is flowing. They love sitting on the light lines of the local bridges when the water is pouring out flushing all the bait and crabs into their feeding frenzies. We have had lots of local anglers fishing the jetties and bridge seawalls targeting these big fish using flair hawk style jigs. In Johns pass, the anglers have had lots of action this past week hooking and landing some nice tarpon nearly every day of the week with the largest a little over 6ft long! Fish so large they are spooling high end 6000 series reels with drags locked down!
Redfish are still biting well as well, mostly in the bays the past week around the mangrove shore lines and oyster bars but were still finding a few in the passes as well. Live pinfish still seem to be the best live bait for those redfish, but keep in mind they like to feed on the bottom so getting that pinfish to bottom when fishing deeper waters is super important to target these redfish. We have been seeing lots of good action on the redfish using artificial lures too like the paddle tail soft plastic lures with small jig heads to keep them weighted to the bottom as you retrieve them slowly with brief pauses on the retrieve to let them return to bottom.
We are still catching lots of the mangrove snapper around the area’s structures just inside the bay and in the passes too. Around the skyway and Howard Franklin are great target areas for these fun to catch and great eating fish. Also, the mitigation sites around the bay hold lots of these mangrove snapper. They love rock piles, seawalls, bridges, and jetties to call home and they can get frenzied up easily with just a little bit of chum. However, they are very quick biting and smart to it helps to use lighter tackle with hardly any weight or no weight at all. This means targeting them on the start or end of the tide is important so that you can feel the bite and get a natural presentation easily. Around Johns pass, we catch them most often on the deeper south side of the pass where there’s plenty of rocks like the west end of the gator’s dock to under the bridge area or around east end of that same seawall in that little municipal park area where the old bridge ruble is stacked up.
Lots of mackerel on the beaches and at the mouth of the passes like Clearwater pass, Johns Pass, pass a grill and also around the skyway to Egmont key. They love fast retrieved spoons or plugs. I love using a 7/8ths ounce gotcha plug or up to 1oz if I need more weight to stay under the water’s surface. Also, another great method is a casting spoon behind a 4oz lead so the lead will keep the light spoon under the surface of the water. Many expert pier anglers catch tons of mackerel by using a trolling lead or egg sinker with swivels on either side of it to keep the lure under the water. The recommended technique is tying on the lead and then keeping around 8-10ft of line behind it to the spoon. If needed you may want to add some 4-6 inches of lighter wire in front of the spoon to keep it from getting bitten off. However, I always start with just 20-30lb floro or mono and if they are biting well once I lose the first spoon I switch to the spoon with a bit of wire and if the bites stop and actions slows down I lose the wire and go back to straight mono and just risk losing a few spoons to keep them chewing!
