Tampa Bay Fishing Report By: Capt. Woody Gore

Snook (Closed) – You can still catch snook, however if the water temperatures are lower than normal you might want to fish areas like creeks, canals and rivers, especially those with muddy bottoms and deep water docks. On cool or cold days snook also like hanging out around sunny sandy bottoms along a shallow shoreline because the sun tends to quickly warm the water.

Redfish – You can usually find redfish during the winter. Cut bait, shrimp and artificial lures are your best bet. Many times they’re not going to be large fish, but many rats can make a good fishing trip, especially for the kids. Don’t forget canals, creeks, deep oyster bars and docks.

Spotted Sea Trout – Tampa Bay seems to be full of nice trout, especially around broken bottom grass flats with sandy pot holes. Plenty of trout should show up through the winter months. Most grass flats with moving water seem to produce the best bite using shrimp free-lined or under a popping cork and artificial lures. However, some deeper river channels, canals and creeks will also hold nice fish and often plenty of silver trout as well.

Mackerel, cobia and sharks – When trout fishing the flats it’s not unusual to get a decent mackerel bite going. Macks like hanging around chasing schools of glass minnows that may be on the flats. Additionally, many times we’ve landed some really nice pompano off the same trout flats, so when running the flats looking for your favorite spot watch the wake behind your boat for pompano skipping the wake. As temperatures drop and waters cool, the power plants are the place to look for cobia and sharks. But be alert, as other species also frequent the warm water discharges during the winter.

Sheepshead – Sheepshead should start moving in for their spawn, we should begin to see some nice sized fish on the rock piles throughout the bay. Also look for quality fish around bridges, pilings, docks, oyster bars and artificial reefs. Lots of folks don’t like to keep sheepshead because they don’t like to clean them. I actually can’t think of anyone who really does, however if you’ve got yourself a mess of larger fish, go ahead and bite the bullet and clean them, because the fish dinner is well worth the effort.

Give Me a Call & Let’s Go Fishing – 813-477-3814  Captain Woody Gore is the area’s top outdoor fishing guide, Capt. Gore has guided and fished the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Bradenton and Sarasota areas for over fifty years; his charters offer world class fishing adventures and a lifetime of memories.

Single or Multi-boat Group Charters are all the same. With years of organizational experience and access to the areas most experienced professional guides and captains, I can arrange and coordinate any outing or tournament. Just tell me what you need and it’s done. For more information please visit my website at: www.captainwoodygore.com, or email me at fishing@captainwoodygore.com or give him a call at 813-477-3814.