With a big front approaching the west coast of Florida on Sunday, Alex and I made plans to meet up early Saturday morning to fish the back country of the upper Tampa Bay in hopes to catch Snook and Redfish on fly and artificial baits. When I picked my skiff up, and checked today’s forecast, I decided to leave the fly rods at home due to the wind picking up to 20 knots by late morning. After a quick stop to Gandy Bait and Tackle to pick up a few bags of DOA jerk shads and a couple packs of Mission Fishin’ 1/8 oz jig heads, I made my way to Largo Florida to pick up Alex and drop the skiff in. With an unknown amount of fuel and my East Cape Fury loaded with every color of DOA soft plastic you could imagine, we made our way through the back country of the upper Tampa Bay, periodically stopping to cast at current rips, creek drains and scattered mangrove shoreline. We came to a narrow channel where the wind put us into a perfect drift to fish mangroves on both sides. We witnessed juvenile Tarpon being very active on this stretch but we had no luck, we even changed colors and patterns of the soft plastics numerous times and made 4-5 long drifts. After fishing for a couple of hours and only having a couple of short strikes and landing a few lady fish, we pushed back further into a small basin that looked fishy to us. I staked the skiff in position with my push pole in casting reach of some exposed structure and mangroves 360 degrees around us. Alex was about 5-6 casts in and he hooked into a nice 30 inch Snook while using a red and gold flake DOA jerk shad. There was not much tide or water movement, so presentation was everything. When fishing near stagnant water, I like to present my baits very slow with little pops here and there. While figuring out how the fish wanted their baits to be presented, we landed a few more bigger Snook and a couple Black Drum exceeding the 20 pound mark. With the wind picking up, we decided to call it a day and head back to the ramp and wash the skiff. It is nice to be about wrapped up with the cold weather in the Tampa Bay. As the weather warms up and the cold fronts become less frequent, the inshore fishing in the Tampa Bay is only going to get better. In the next couple of months, you can expect to catch Snook, Redfish, Permit, Trout, Triple Tail and even Cobia when fishing with Ken at Fin & Feather. Whether you are a fly fisherman looking to site cast Redfish or a beginner angler looking to have a good time on the water while catching a few fish on the way, I will make sure you have a great story to go home with. Book your Tampa Bay fishing charter and come catch some great fish! 843-360-8313
