Grouper fishing is hot inside Tampa Bay. Rock edges near the Skyway shipping channel are productive, as are hard-bottom patches, wrecks and rock piles throughout the bay.
The only problem is finding a spot that hasn't been fished out. The best way to find a productive hole is to troll a deep-diving plug.
After you find the grouper, use a floating jug with a weight to mark the location and fish the area with cutbait for more. A Spanish sardine topped with a smelly chunk of squid is irresistible to keeper gags.
Offshore grouper fishing should remain good as long as the weather doesn't muddy the situation. Gags and reds are being caught as close as 50 feet of water and all the way out to 80 feet.
When the water is cold, as it is now, cutbaits outperform live baits, so load up on frozen shad, sardines and squid. If the water remains clear, lighten up the tackle to get more bites.
Mangrove snapper can also be caught at the grouper hangouts. Downsize tackle for these wary fish, and take a few dozen live shrimp. Mangroves can't pass up a shrimp swimming in front of them.
Sheepshead are also a primary target. Most bridges near the beaches, piers, docks and sea walls with rip-rap in deep residential canals support a good number of these. Asian green mussels are the choice bait these days, and fiddler crabs, brown rock crabs and barnacles also work well.
Speckled trout shouldn't be overlooked. Huge trout, known as gators, are in many deep residential canals and will inhale artificials. Slow jigs and lipless crankbaits will be noticed, and natural color patterns or the old standby, a red head with white body, are always productive.
Redfish also show up in canals. They love to hang around deep docks and are suckers for a tail-hooked shrimp or a jig dragged across the bottom. Just be sure to move it as slow as possible, and adding a squirt of crab or shrimp scent to a bait won't hurt.
Pier anglers should have a good shot at sheepshead and silver trout. Fish for sheepshead on the downcurrent side of the pilings or at slack tide. Use as little weight as possible. For the silvers, use tandem-jig rigs. Vary the colors of each jig and see which color works best. Hot pink and fluorescent green are top choices for starters. No. 12 Sabiki rigs are also good for silvers.
If you want to go out on a party boat, select a trip longer than half a day. You'll have a better opportunity to catch legal-size grouper and snapper instead of just catching Key West grunts and black sea bass.
- Rick Frazier runs Lucky Dawg Charters out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at 727 510-4376 or by e-mail at captainrick@luckydawg.com
