August can bring some of the hottest water temperatures to Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is ranked the 6th largest estuary in the world and Florida’s largest open water estuary.
For the most part, Tampa Bay is a shallow body of water with an average depth of approximately 12 feet. This is not to say we do not have deeper water in the Bay like the 80 miles of shipping channels, along with the 90-foot hole at Egmont Island, or the 35 feet at St. Petersburg Bay reef to name a few spots; but, for the most part, with the amount of flats we have, it is a shallow estuary. Due to this, in the heat of Summer our Bay gets hot. Sometimes Tampa Bay can have water temperatures reaching over 90 degrees on the flats, especially at low tides during the heat of the day. At those times, the water can be depleted of oxygen which can kill your bait in the livewell, but can also make fish move out of that area, or they can be lethargic and not want to chase a bait.
This is when you can change tactics with the same scaled sardines or pinfish and fish deep for other species that will be more active, since the water usually will be moving and cooler because it is deeper. Now, inside Tampa Bay you could be referring to anything deeper than 7 to 10 feet and that could be considered deep compared to the flats at 1 to 4 feet depths. I find many good rock piles and shell bottoms in 8 to 20 feet of water. I like the ones that are 8 to 20 feet where I can still free line baits or get away with minimal weight like a split shot or two.
The thing that is exciting about fishing this type of bottom in open water is that you never know what surprise catch you might get while catching the usual suspects. Some of the typical fish you will catch in these areas can be black sea bass, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, trout, shark and an occasional cobia, while fishing the bottom. While fishing the bottom, make sure to put out some live baits in the upper water column and you might start catching drag-screaming mackerel. Now, some of those surprise catches can be King mackerel, red grouper, black grouper, permit, lane snapper and more.
So, don’t be afraid to fish deeper water!
Good luck,
Capt. George Hastick