If you are looking for a fight, late-season tarpon will oblige. Several have been caught and released along St. Pete Beach lately and the flow at Anna Maria also has been steady.

Those looking for something better to eat may take advantage of the grouper and mangrove snapper bite along the edges of the ships channel. Weeding through juvenile baits until we got bigger ones paid off for the two dozen mangos we caught. Though many of the grouper were undersized, the half-dozen we kept preferred full-grown greenbacks and whitebait.

Many of the flats in our area are alive with bait, but most are too small. Deeper water is holding the bigger stuff. The Bayway bridge, Pass-a-Grille sea buoy and the yet-to-be completed Gulf Pier at Mullet Key are where we got the biggest ones. Working the channel at the mouth of the bay, between the Sunshine Skyway and Egmont Key, was the most productive.

Spending vacation time in the Florida Keys this week, we decided to get in the water. With underwater visibility good, 10 of us managed our limit of lobster on Sunday. We were diving inside the reef line on the Atlantic side in Marathon, but some working the gulf side reported doing well.

-- Jay Mastry charters Jaybird out of St. Petersburg. Call (727) 321-2142.

Back to Sports

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times sports desk

Baseball
Players pass on strike date

Hall of Famer Slaughter, beloved for hustle, dies

Cansecos mull plea bargain in club fight

Preps
Dunedin takes two, sitting pretty in Ky.

No two-a-days this year

Storm
Storm: at least $700,000 lost

Motorsports
CART race progress continues

College football
Helmetmakers aim for better safety

Outdoors

Daily fishing report

Rays
Homer won't tempt rookie to slug away

Up next for the Rays: Cleveland

Bucs
Start of something good

Coleman's injury poses an immediate test

Murphy starts with something pretty special

Bucs running backs provide some extra punch

Gary Shelton

Okay, now it's looking like a competition

From the wire

From the state sports wire Jacksonville's Spicer placed on IR after leg surgery
FIU-Western Kentucky game postponed because of Jeanne
Brown anxious to face old team for first time
Dolphins' desperate defense readies for Roethlisberger
Former Sarasota lineman sheds tough-guy image with Michigan
Rothstein rejoins Heat as assistant
No. 16 Florida has history on its side against Kentucky
FSU and Clemson QBs both off to slow starts